In Nigeria, the appointment of ministers must reflect the Federal Character principle to ensure balanced representation from across the country.

The Nigerian Constitution mandates that the President must appoint at least one minister from each state of the federation to satisfy this requirement. This principle was introduced in the 1979 Constitution to prevent any single ethnic or regional group from dominating the government and to promote national unity.

The Federal Character Commission was established to monitor and enforce this fair distribution of political and bureaucratic positions.