Ethnicity differentiated societies are often regarded as dysfunctional with poor violent civil conflict. This is because, Nigeria’s multi ethnicity suggests a tendency to show favoritisms to individual because of ethnicity. This paper examines the implications of ethnic diversity in the Nigerian civil service to undermine the consideration of merit principles in the recruitment process. The paper relies on the Weberian bureaucratic model prescription to guide the Nigerian civil service commission out of the recruitment process bedeviled by the factors sentiments. Among other things, the paper recommends strict measure on the prevailing principles that promotes mediocrity as against old philosophy of excellence, competence and qualification that facilitate improved implementation of government policies and programmes in the Nigeria civil service commission.
Keywords: Civil service, Ethnic Diversity, federal capital principle
