As political parties are gearing up to pick their presidential candidates, the issues that have been on the front burner are, first, power shift and, second, the zone that will produce the next president. With President Muhammadu Buhari, from the North, completing his second term by next year, the sentiment is that the next president should come from the South. Another point is also that when power rotates to the South, the South East should take the slot.
Some elder statesmen have not minced words in saying this truth. Prominent among them are Ijaw National Leader, Edwin Clark; elder statesman, Tanko Yakassai; the leader of Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo; and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.Obasanjo, in a recent comment, noted that “federal character, rotation of power and such other measures are meant to help our nation-building process and more sure-footedly, move Nigeria forward.” He stated categorically that the next president must come from the South East to ensure peace, justice, fairness and sustainable national development.
On his part, Adebanjo has noted several times that power should go South East. According to him, if it is the question of merit, as recently propounded by some people, “till thy kingdom come, the South alone will produce the president.” The position of these elder statesmen remains the best option for the political parties, especially the two dominant ones, if equity, truth and fairness mean anything to them. We had argued here before that rotational clause as enshrined in the constitution of the parties should be respected.
In 1999 when this democratic dispensation started, the presidency was zoned to the South West. It was to assuage the region for the scuttling of the 1993 presidential election which its son, the late Chief MKO Abiola, presumably won. When the South West was done with its two terms, power shifted to the North. The late Umaru Yar’Adua took the position of the North.
Unfortunately, he died in 2010 prompting his deputy then, Goodluck Jonathan, to replace him. Jonathan, who is from the South South zone, completed Yar’Adua’s tenure. He went ahead to do another term of four years. He did not succeed in his second term bid largely because of the clamour for power to shift to the North then. Some northern politicians, who are now angling that power should be retained in the North in 2023, were vehement in their demand then for power shift in 2015. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is one of them. He had warned in 2010 that the PDP should not jettison the existing zoning arrangement of the party and had even led northern PDP leaders to stage a public walkout at the PDP National Convention in 2015 because former President Jonathan wanted to contest presidential election which they consider to be against the principle of zoning.
It is, therefore, surprising that some of these northerners are currently behaving as if rotation is dead. Most unfortunate is the position of the Northern Elders Forum and the Northern Governors Forum. The two bodies condemned the clamour for power to shift to the South. Some northerners who hold a similar view say in this democratic dispensation, the South has ruled more than the North. They failed to realise that Nigeria did not start today. For the past 61 years of Nigeria as an independent country, the North has ruled for over 41 years.
Now that President Muhammdu Buhari is coming to the end of his second term in office, power should go back to the South. When you come to the South, South East is the only region that is yet to produce the President. From the First Republic till date, the zone has remained on the periphery of power in Nigeria. Even when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was President, he had little or no powers as the real power resided in the then Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, a northerner.
The only way we can run a heterogeneous society like ours is by zoning or rotation of power. That is why we have Section 14(3) which deals with Federal Character principle in the 1999 Constitution. That clause recognises the diversity of our country and upholds sharing of offices and quota system to avoid marginalising any section of the country. We cannot observe this principle in some areas of our national life and ignore it politically. Hence, excluding one section politically will kill the unity and peace in the country.
The year 2023 holds a lot for the survival of Nigeria. Whatever we can do to avoid conflagration should be done. The next general election provides a good opportunity to rectify the injustice that has been meted against the South East which is partly responsible for the agitation in the region. It is a matter of eight years, power will return to the North. Democracy has no one model the world over. Every country chooses the model that suits its environment and peculiarities. Nigeria has chosen zoning which is a derivative of the federal character. We must maintain it to achieve enduring peace and unity.