Gender Equity in Public Employment: Legislative Pathways for Reforming the Federal Character Commission Establishment Act, 2004

Abstract

The Federal Character Principle remains one of the most contentious and debated constitutional innovations introduced to manage and curtail horizontal inequalities in the political-administrative sphere within Nigeria. With cognizance that the most effective ways of correcting certain imbalances are through direct policies, the Federal Character Commission (FCC) was established to work out a formula to ensure equitable and fair representation of Nigeria’s diverse groupings in public service, monitor public service recruitment exercises, and prosecute violations of the federal character principle. Notwithstanding, there continue to be existential gender gap in the Nigerian civil service. This is partly because the Federal Character Commission Act did not provide for gender consideration in the employment and appointment processes. As a result, the Nigerian civil service is overwhelmingly dominated by men while women, in their numbers, are left with the option of either becoming self-employed, work in the informal sector or remain unemployed. Thus, the Federal Character Commission (FCC) Act has proven to be inadequate by promoting only the equitable representation of states and ethnic groups while ignoring critical aspect of gender inclusion. This policy brief therefore, proposes legal reform to amend the Federal Character Commission Act, 2019 ensuring that while states and zones are considered in public employments and appointments, gender composition should also be given priority thereby, making the Act more encompassing. The brief concluded by recommending as follows: i. The National Assembly may wish to amend Section 6 of the Guiding Principles of the Federal Character Commission Act to reflect gender consideration in the distribution of employment opportunities in order to encourage the full participation of women in the workforce; ii. ii. The National Assembly may also amend section 14 of the Act to mete out stricter penalties on violators of the provisions of the Act; and iii. iii. With the ongoing constitutional review process, the National Assembly may borrow a model from Rwanda band Kenya's constitutions, and amend section 8(1) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution mandating the Federal Character Commission to ensure that women constitute, at least, 35% in civil service employment.