Federal Character Principle and Political Participation in Nigeria: Interrogating the Relevance of the Policy

The introduction of Federal Character Principle as an affirmative action in the late 1970s created more imbalance structure in the country. This has been intensified by unclear policy intent on how this should be achieved. Effective monitoring process of the policy by the commission is required towards achieving this, but some relevant laws in the country have been tactically tampered. Extant literatures have examined federal character principle in relation to national integration. This study interrogates the relevance of the policy with reference to citizens' participation in Nigerian politics. With the adoption of qualitative descriptive method which was complemented with Key Informant Interviews with some officials of the commission, the study argue that implementation of the policy has not led to active involvement of citizens in politics rather, manifested on the high level of discrimination, parochial sentiment and primordial politics in the country. As a result, mediocrity has been enthroned over and above merit which invariably undermines patriotism and commitment among citizens towards politics. Based on this, one would want to find out the need for a policy that its implementation could not resuscitate/revitalize the inherent problems/challenges that led to its introduction. We therefore, recommend that the policy should have a timeline and the commission given discretionary authority supported by proper statutory mandates with transparency on its process.