In every nation, policies are meant to heal wounds, mend cracks, and strengthen unity. However, in Nigeria, policies often act as a means of creating division and causing destruction. None illustrates this tragedy more than the quota system—a policy conceived under the guise of fairness, but which in reality has become a dagger thrust into the very heart of merit, justice, and national progress.
To grasp what a quota system entails, envision a scenario in which three candidates sit for an identical exam. Here, the individual with the lowest score gets celebrated and promoted, whereas the highest achiever endures mockery and contempt based on their background, culture, language, and faith. It represents a clear assault on the meritocratic values!
It’s time we became sharper, more biting, and deliberately provocative to expose the schemes, plots, and evil of the quota system – a system of marginalization and exclusion.
What is presented as “federal character” is nothing but a grand deception, a scheme designed to enthrone mediocrity, to punish excellence, and to divide citizens along artificial lines of state and ethnicity. Beneath the facade of equity, this political maneuver reveals its true nature of exclusion, partiality, and entrenched injustice.
During the chaotic aftermath of civil war in the 1970s, the rulers introduced the quota system due to fears of one region’s potential supremacy over others. They prioritized appeasement strategies over the construction of developmental pathways. Instead of empowering the underprivileged with significant investments in education and opportunities, they opted for an easier path—removing the strong foundation of merit to accommodate the fragile growth of favoritism.
The scheme sounded noble: ensure “equal representation” in schools, jobs, and public service. However, it turned into a scam in reality. University admissions? Bright candidates are denied places because they happen to come from the “wrong” state, while less qualified candidates are ushered in because they tick the right box of geography. Government employment opportunities? Positions are distributed like tribal trophies, not as rewards for competence. Leadership? Instead of searching for visionaries, Nigeria is shackled by the crude logic of “it is my turn – yes, it is our turn.”
This is not equity. This represents trickery wrapped in the fabric of fairness – a scheme donning the attire of impartiality.
Three unscrupulous tactics support the quota system:
The Plot Against Merit – It tells the hardworking student that no matter how brilliant he is, his fate has already been decided by his state of origin. It tells the visionary leader that his ideas do not matter, because power must rotate on tribal arithmetic. It is a plot to strangle excellence before it can breathe.
The Plot of Division – Far from uniting Nigerians, the system deepens suspicion. It whispers constantly: you are Igbo, you are Hausa, you are Yoruba, you are “minority”. It makes citizens see one another as competitors in a tribal lottery, not as partners in nation-building.
The Plot of Mediocrity – When universities, ministries, and even the military are filled not by the best but by the “favored,” what do we expect? Mediocrity becomes law. Incompetence is celebrated. Institutions collapse under the weight of inefficiency. The nation bleeds, yet the system insists: mediocrity must stay.
Let us speak plainly: the quota system is evil. It is evil because it kills dreams, wastes talent, and mocks hard work. It is evil because it cheats one citizen to pamper another. It is evil because it tells young people that who they are matters less than where they are from.
It is evil because it robs Nigeria of her best minds. The engineer who could have built bridges is denied admission. The doctor who could have saved lives is turned away. The civil servant who could have reformed the system is pushed aside. In their place, less capable hands are enthroned, and the nation suffers the consequences.
This is not fairness. This is a crime against the future.
What has Nigeria reaped from this policy of exclusion? Weak institutions. Corrupt civil service. Universities that churn out half-baked graduates. Leaders who stumble into office not by merit but by quota. A country that cannot compete globally because it has caged its best and brightest.
The harvest is disillusionment. Millions of Nigerian youths now know that hard work alone cannot open doors in their own land. They flee abroad, where merit is valued. Those who stay behind nurse bitterness, frustration, or even turn to crime. A nation cannot plant mediocrity and expect to harvest greatness.
Nigeria must tear down this policy of exclusion if it truly desires progress. Let us stop deceiving ourselves: the quota system has not united us—it has divided us. It has not uplifted the weak—it has weakened the strong. It has not healed wounds—it has salted them.
If equity is the goal, then let us invest in disadvantaged regions, equip their schools, and empower their youths so that they can compete fairly. But let the competition be genuine, and let merit prevail. Federal character should mean federal competence. Admissions and recruitments should be based on ability, not ancestry. Leadership should be about vision, not tribal arithmetic.
Until we bury this quota mentality, Nigeria will remain trapped in the quicksand of mediocrity. The time has come to rise above petty politics of exclusion and build a nation where merit is king. Anything less is a betrayal of the future.
However one looks at it, the quota system functions as a political fraud, striking at merit and aggressively violating the culture of meritocracy, which constitutes a national calamity particularly directed at the Igbo.
