Federal Character Principle and Recruitment Policy in the Federal Civil Service

Background to the Study

The act establishing the federal character commission empowers the body empowered by law to “promote” monitor and enforce compliance with the principles of the proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media, and political posts of all levels of government (ACT 34, 1996). In clear terms, the essence of the commission is first to promote proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media, and political posts of all levels of government. The federal character principle as enshrined in section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigerian states that the composition of the government or any agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no pre dominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in the government or in any of its agencies.

The provision in the constitution of Nigeria is to ensure equitable distributions of bureaucratic and political roles in the public service at federal, states and local government levels. One major objective of the policy is to foster national unity and give every Nigerian a sense of belonging in the country. In support of this view Usman (2017) observed that it was an effort to readdress the unbalanced structure and ethnic domination in government so that national integration could be achieved. The federal character principle which is implemented under the federal character commission is therefore designed and initiated to correct adverse impact resulting from opportunities and resources provided by the federal government to the citizens of the country that appears neutral but have a discriminatory effect on a protected group.

The basic idea of the principle is to have an even representation of all states, ethnic and other sectional groups in the federal service. It has a lot of political support, especially from those in the disadvantaged areas- mainly the northern states of Nigeria (Olowu et al., 1997). In order to implement this concept effectively, a commission called the Federal Character Commission was created in 1995. However, promotion in the federal civil service is determined by factors such as number of years in a grade level, performance in promotion examination and interviews (FRN, 1998), and availability of vacancies or jobs at a higher level. The federal character principle is therefore structured to ensure strong and indivisible nation based on justice and fairness, while also ensuring that a sense of belonging of all Nigerians is still maintained.

As laudable as the federal character policy maybe, and the empowerment of the concept in the nation’s constitution, its application has remain a debatable topic to which some critics have claimed that the policy comprise the merit system which will create an enabling environment for those that are only qualified to be employed into the Nigerian civil service, thereby fostering quality service rendering for the development of the country. According To Ekeh (1989) Federal character principle has become a problem instead of solution to problems it was expected to tackle. Bodunrin (2003) also in assessing the Federal Character from the merit perspective, asserted that the federal character principle is counter- productive. Therefore it is important to note that, efficient manpower utilization is determined through effective credible recruitment. Therefore, the crux of this study is to examine the linkage between federal character principle and recruitment policy in the federal civil service with special focus on Federal Character Commission.