Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/273908 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2022/113
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
The federal character principle is Nigeria's primary formula for mitigating horizontal inequality and conflict in this chronically fractured society. Designed to guarantee inter-group inclusion in the conduct and composition of governmental institutions, the principle spans direct, integrative, and indirect policies for reducing horizontal inequalities, which overlap with consociational, centripetal, and power-dividing paradigms of ethnic conflict management. Celebrated by its champions as an ingenious approach to the management of ethnic diversity and disparity, the federal character principle has been denounced by its opponents for politicizing and valorizing sectional divisions, fostering dysfunctional and corrupt governance, and failing to effectively address structural ethnic imbalances and historical inter-group grievances. This paper offers a new narrative that transcends narrowly framed critiques of the problematic conceptualization, flawed implementation, and meagre impact of the federal character principle by underscoring the innovative design of the principle of federal character as a mechanism of ethnic consociation and integration, while highlighting the indirect variables-including profound institutional deficits in governmental accountability-that have undermined the principle's implementation and efficacy in practice.
Subjects: 
federal character principle
horizontal inequality
North-South conflicts
ethnic diversity
integration
consociation
power-dividing
JEL: 
D63
H11
H77
N47
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-247-8
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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