Assessment of Compliance to Federal Character Principle in Staff Recruitment in Ahmadu Bello University (Abu), Zaria-Nigeria

Abstract

This research work assessed the level of compliance to federal character principle on staff  recruitment in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 204 and 2019 introduced to redress the  perceived injustices, imbalances and grievances and ensure that public institutions reflect  appropriate linguistic, ethnic, religious and geographical diversity of the country .The Federal  Character also aimed at  fostering  unity, peace, equal ability  and access to state’s resources and  promote integration of the less advantage states. Theory of representative bureaucracy was adopted  as the theoretical framework to underpin the study. To achieve the objective, the study adopted and  used secondary data for analysis obtained from Ahmadu Bello University manpower statistics unit  of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Abuja-Nigeria. The data was analyzed using 2.50-3.00  percent benchmark as stipulated in the FCC guideline. The result of the analyses revealed among  others that; Ahmadu Bello University recorded spread in terms of staff distribution across the 36  states and Federal Capital Terittory in staff recruitment but not as stipulated in the FCC guideline,  meaning that the level of compliance is low inspite of the fact that all the 36 states and the FCT were represented from 2014 to 2019 as covered by the study. Based on the findings, the study recommended  that apart from mere representation of all states in the staff distribution, there should be more  equitable and fairer representation of all states across the country in Ahmadu Bello University staff  distribution by adhering strictly to the FCC guidelines in all employments