THE FEDERAL CHARACTER PRINCIPLE IN NIGERIA: ASSESSING ITS RELEVANCE

Nigeria adopted the Federal character principle to counteract the nationality question that has been bedevilling the polity. Nigeria is a plural federalism with more than two hundred and fifty ethnicity and cultural diversities. This paper examines the application of the federal character principle in the Nigeria public service. After three decades of the introduction of the principle, this paper assesses the potentials for achieving the national integration which the Federal Character Principle was set up to accomplish. Since federalism is a system which fused diverse entities together for administration convenience, the system theory is adopted in this research work. The paper discovers that FCC is only restricted to sharing of bureacratic positions and appointments instead of engaging serious issues of health, commerce, education agmongst others. It therefore, recommends that a wholistic approach to FCC should be adopted to include the states and LGs and other areas of services.