Implementation and enforcement of the federal character principle in Nigeria

Abstract

Federal character principle is one of the means devised by the Nigerian nationalists to prevent the [pre]dominance of persons from a few states or ethnic groups in the political governance of Nigeria by ensuring that the composition of the Government of the Federation reflects the federal character of Nigeria. This principle, which is one of the autochthonous features of Nigerian federation, became formally institutionalized in 1979 when the framers of the defunct 1979 Constitution introduced it into the Nigerian corpus juris. However, the utility of the federal character principle has been marred and mired by its poor implementation over the years especially in the recent time. This paper examined the implementation and enforcement of the federal character principle in the political governance of Nigeria so as to ascertain the reason why the principle is more honoured in breach than in observation. The research methodology adopted by the researcher was purely doctrinal whereas the approaches employed herein are chiefly analytical, descriptive and prescriptive. This paper found that the principle of federal character is subject to persistent abuse because it is contained in Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, as amended which is ordinarily non-justiciable. On the alternative, this paper made a case for the amendment of the Constitution so as to make the federal character principle wholly justiciable. On the other hand, this paper identified the various ways of enforcing compliance with the federal character principle notwithstanding its non-justiciable status.

Keywords: Commission, Constitution, Enforcement, Implementation, Nigeria, Principle