Federal Character Blessing or curse?

Federal Character Blessing or curse?
QUOTA system, federal character and educationally disadvantaged were words envisioned by the proponents of one Nigeria, having taken into consideration the multi-variety of Nigeria’s ethnic groups, religious diversities and sectional divisions. There is no doubt that these words have proved effective in resolving the dichotomy in the development and education of the different regions and have worked to forge a path of unity for the country. But when looked at from the more recent perspective of the debates about zoning, which have pervaded the polity in recent time, these words may appear not only to have lost their relevance but also put great inhibition on standards, competence and quality of human beings.

The federal character policy was entrenched in the 1979 and 1999 constitution of the country with the sole aim of guarding against the monopolisation of public service institutions and agencies by a particular ethnic group or religion, its main dictates being the promotion of national unity and command of national loyalty. Related to the quota system and federal character policy is the educationally disadvantaged states clause, which allows indigenes from certain states to be considered for admission into educational institutions at a grade that is slightly lower than others’. At a point in the life of the country, these provisions were important to ensure equal opportunities and platforms for development among the states of the federating units, since the public service and educational institutions belong to the government, they were made to follow these directives. The policy became popular in the activities of the federal civil service, the military and the federal institutions.

According to the proponents of federal character and quota system, the policy encourages unity among the federating units, as every region and states are represented in public service agencies, this they say gives them a voice in policy formulation and implementation in the country. The case for the concession in admission for certain states that have been called educationally disadvantaged was also to encourage learning and pursuit of academic endeavours by the states which have been discovered to have little passion for such.
Without doubt, quota system and federal character have served the country effectively well, as Barrister Paul Adujie, a passionate advocate of federal character wrote in an opinion, years back, “All states, but especially the educationally disadvantaged states, need special provisions and protections in the admission process in Nigeria’s educational system, especially in higher education and the professions! All Nigerians and Nigeria will be the beneficiaries of such good policy, that encourages the grooming and nurturing of opportunities for every Nigerian from every community in Nigeria, and particular effort should be made, in order that Nigeria does not live anyone behind, economically, socially, educationally and developmentally, this is in our national interest.” He compared federal character to the American’s policy of affirmative action which aimed at encouraging Blacks who had been segregated and discriminated against, to embrace formal education. A strong case was also made for federal character by Barrister Nzeribe Egwim, a gubernatorial aspirant from Imo State.
According to him, federal character is a noble idea that should remain preponderant in the nation’s streams of policies. “The fact that Nigeria is multi-ethnic leaves us with the need for federal character, we need something to unite us, and that is what federal character seeks to do. I am in support of federal character and zoning because you will discover that if the North and the South were to contest for positions in a credible election, the North will continue to get the positions because of their population and that is why we need the federal character policy to stay united,” he averred.
The policy has enjoyed consideration in several spheres of Nigeria’s life, suffice to point out how it has been established in university admissions and federal appointments but it is left to be proven if all ethnic groups and regions have become equal in development, education and social exposure.

Given the propositions that were meant to underpin federal character and quota system, the current debate over the zoning formula of the PDP on the position of the president of the country gives rise to the need to revisit these issues, as the same principle of distributing offices to all the federating units has been cited by supporters of Jonathan presidency in 2011. People have been holding different opinions about whether it will be right to tamper with the PDP’s zoning arrangement for Jonathan to contest. The people from the Niger Delta and in fact other Nigerians have criticised the standpoint of zoning, saying that it discourages merit and shuts doors against qualification. Inasmuch as the attention here is not to make a submission on zoning, it is expedient to prove that federal character and quota system have the same toga with zoning, as they also seek equality of office and opportunity distribution rather than merit. The whole idea of federal character, though a mechanism for unity has negated the principle of merit and roundly affected the morale of the people who are qualified but cannot get access into public service agencies because the quota of their states have been filled. People with skills and abilities that can help in building the nation are annually denied the opportunity to offer their service to fatherland, while places are reserved for states that may not have people of equal skill, qualification or willingness to serve or even fill their quota. A case in point is that of university admissions where slots are reserved for candidates from educationally disadvantaged states, when these slots are not filled as they always are not, they become wasted in that academic year when in actual facts thousands of qualified candidates were denied admission for the fact that they were from ‘educationally advantaged’ states.
According to an admission officer in a federal university who spoke on a condition of anonymity, “the slots we reserve for candidates from the supposed educationally disadvantaged states are always wasted because they still won’t fill their quota. How do you expect to encourage people whose interests are not in education to go to school by leaving spaces for them in universities that are far away? I really think the educationally disadvantaged clause has outlived its usefulness, which state is not disadvantaged now with the skyrocketing increase in school fees and the fact that less people have opportunity to be admitted into federal universities yearly? And if I can talk about quota system in federal employments, there is no way you can achieve that balance because in Nigeria it is who knows who, I know of an indigene of a state who was offered appointment in a paramilitary organization from the slot of another state, in fact cases like this abound, so how can all the states be well represented?.”
The federal character policy was also criticised by Mr. Nnaji David, a political commentator, he stated that“despite its having been in operation for some time, it has not effectively taken care of the imbalance in development and appointments, can you tell me that number of people from all states who are in the military and federal civil service are equal? How many federal permanent secretaries do we have and how many are from your region or mine? See, I think we should not overheat the polity, but federal character is an aberration where there is no federalism. Our federalism is too strong at the centre and too fake to take care of the interest of ethnic minorities and in fact all the divisions. Until we redefine this misnomer system we call federalism, there can be no character in it.”

Having considered the differing opinions about quota system and federal character, the fact remains that the country needs a generally accepted arrangement for opportunity sharing and up till now, the closest to effective means of achieving unity is through the federal character.
It is however, expedient for the government to review the federal character policy and especially the educationally disadvantaged clause and ensure that talents and opportunities are not wasted on the platform of equal opportunity. Suffice to say that merit and quality of experience, records and abilities should be given due recognition in the country far above ethnic, religious or linguistics inclinations.
A nation may not necessarily progress based on how well represented its units are federal employments and ministries but how able and empowered they are in moving the country forward. This brings to the fore the need for the country to recognise the strengths of each of the federating units and explore such for positive ends rather than force quota system on places where people may be redundant.
Written by Moses Alao