Pendant près d’un siècle, le problème récurant du Nigeria a été comment protéger et promouvoir les intérêts des communautés qui y sont représentées. Pour cela, plusieurs mécanismes ont été introduits. Cela inclut le Principe du Caractère Fédéral, qui constitue le fondement du système fédéral consociatif du Nigeria. Pourtant, son efficacité a constamment été remise en question par les inégalités régionales et les effets pervers qui découlent de son application. On constate les mêmes contraintes dans d’autres pays pratiquant d’autres variantes du traitement préférentiel. Malgré les différences culturelles, idéologiques ou institutionnelles, il semble que le renforcement de la politique éducative aux niveaux primaire et secondaire en faveur des bénéficiaires potentiels des politiques de traitement préférentiel soit la pièce maitresse pour assurer la réduction des inégalités horizontales. / For close to a century, the perennial problem that has bedeviled Nigeria has been how to ensure the protection and the promotion of the interests of its various communities. Successive governments have introduced several mechanisms to this end. They include the Federal Character Principle, which constitutes the bedrock of the Nigerian consociative federal arrangement. Nevertheless, persistent regional inequalities and the pervasive side effects of the various strategies have constantly cast a doubt on the efficacy the Federal Character Principle. A similar trend is visible in other countries that are practicing other versions of preferential treatment policies. It appears that to achieve a meaningful reduction of horizontal inequalities, irrespective of cultural, ideological or institutional settings, the most viable option remains sound educational policies at the primary and secondary school levels in favour of potential beneficiaries of preferential treatments.

In Nigeria, most citizens between the ages of 20-60 believe that ethnicity is the leading cause of discrimination. The central problem addressed in this study was how ethnic diversity influenced managerial choices in Nigeria. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the role of ethnicity in managerial choices in a Nigerian federal traffic management agency to gain an understanding of how ethnicity influenced managers' recruitment, placement, and promotion of employees. Complexity theory and a consideration of African management practices constituted the conceptual framework. Participants were 11 managers who were recruited from a Nigerian government agency using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling. Data collection occurred through interviews, observation, and government document reviews. Through use of Yin's 5-step process for data analysis, data triangulation, and member checking, 10 themes emerged regarding managers' decisions: (a) federal character principle, (b) merit, (c) ethnicity, (d) influence of godfathers, (e) favoritism, (f) promotion, (g) productivity, (h) morale, (i) frustration, and (j) health challenges. A conclusion was that ethnicity played a role in managerial choices. However, the execution of the current Nigerian law to manage ethnic diversity allowed the alleged discriminatory actions of managers in government agencies. Recommendations included a change in the implementation strategy of the federal character principle to reduce incidences of discriminatory actions in government agencies. This study may contribute to positive social change by providing public service managers the knowledge to create an enlightened and fair public service, free of ethnically induced barriers that have underpinned Nigeria's underdevelopment.