Federal Character Principle and Productivity: A Survey of Federal Civil Service in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effects of federal character principle on labour productivity in Nigeria's federal civil service. The foundation of Nigeria's quest for socioeconomic growth is the federal civil service. The target population consists of 217 civil servants purposively selected from federal ministries, parastatals and agencies in FCT. Structured questionnaire was designed and administered to the 217 respondents. The data was presented in simple percentages, frequency tables, pie charts, and the hypothesis was tested using chi-square statistics. From the analysis, it was revealed that the application of federal character principle on recruitment has a negative effect on productivity, most especially in federal ministries. The study further recommends that Nigerian civil service should imbibe the prescripts of Max Weber bureaucratic theory as regarding recruitment and global best practices that place preference on recruitment based on merit, technical competency and qualification in order to enhance productivity.