an equitable formula (subject to the approval of the president) for the distribution of all cadres of posts in the civil and public services of the federation of states, the armed forces, the Nigerian police force and other security agencies, bodies owned by the federal or state governments, and extraministerial departments and parastatals of the federation and states; promote, monitor and enforce compliance with the principle of the proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government; and ensure the provision of socioeconomic services, amenities and infrastructural facilities, etc. BEST PRACTICE 3.3: THE FEDERAL CHARACTER PRINCIPLE This constitutional principle is aimed at promoting national unity and ethnic equality, and at commanding national loyalty, thereby safeguarding the multiethnic and federal character of the nation and ensuring that there is no predominance of states or ethnic or other sectional groups in the government or any of its agencies. The federal House of Representatives is in the process of establishing a special tribunal that will provide oversight for the implementation of this constitutional provision. This will undoubtedly play a critical role in ensuring the stability of Nigeria’s federal democratic culture. Source: Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 108 290. Ensuring that there are accountable, efficient and effective public office holders and civil servants is indeed a priority commitment of the government, as is demonstrated by the plethora of public service reforms, legislative acts and regulatory frameworks that have been put in place since 1999. Nevertheless, applying the numerous reform packages and creating a professionalised, efficient and effective civil service in the context of time and the federal structure of Nigeria – a country that comprises the federal government, 36 state governments and 774 local governments – cannot be easy. This delineation of spheres of administration inhibits the dynamic use of scarce, specialised skills, as each level of government tends to protect its own terrain. The crunch in capacity and the service delivery challenges are partly due to such constitutional/institutional arrangements. 291. Another issue directly linked to inadequate human resources and skills levels in the civil service is the lack of harmonisation and professional mobility among the three levels of government. While the civil service at the national level falls under the FCSC, the civil service at state and local government levels falls under the authority of state and local government civil service commissions. As such, most of the development planning frameworks aimed at upgrading the skills levels of civil servants in all spheres appear to lack proper cohesion and coordination. This accounts for disparities in the quality of service delivery in Nigeria. 292. The CRM also learnt that innovative participatory mechanisms that would have contributed to making public officials – from the president to ministers to governors on and downwards – accountable to the people at grass-roots levels do not exist in Nigeria. There are no institutional mechanisms that could provide public forums for discussing government