It is an unwritten law in Nigeria’s corporate world that all the major regions of the country must be represented on a company’s board. It is called ‘federal character’ and there is even a parastatal organisation for its management in Abuja called the Federal Character Commission.


Federal character underlies the business dealings of such prominent figures as Ibrahim Babangida, Shehu Yar’Adua, Sani Abacha and the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, who had all been business partners at one time or the other. Habib Bank, founded by Abiola and Shehu Yar’Adua, has been absorbed into one of the country’s most successful financial institutions, Bank PHB. Inter-ethnic representation in the formal (and informal) private sector seems to help glue the otherwise fractious country together more effectively than any debates held on the floor of the National Assembly.

Sometimes seen as the most federal of all Nigerians despite their defeat in former Biafra, Igbos readily adapt to life anywhere in Nigeria and have widespread property holdings in Abuja. They bought the land from their Hausa/Fulani business partners, who are often better connected when it comes to government allocations. Such financially advantageous relationships help explain how Nigeria has avoided any return to the Biafran war.


No matter the challenges of nationhood, war is never an option. “We have intermarried and welded too much in business to engage in warfare like the one in Rwanda,” says Sam Emehelu, who publishes a golf journal. “In the course of my work, I have met the cream of Nigerian society, and ethnic considerations are the last thing on their mind when they mingle – and when they mingle, they talk deals.” 

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