In Nigeria today, the issue that remains in the front burner of political discourse is zoning. It has remained so controversial to the point that certain elements within the country fear if care is not taking about how the issue is being handled by different stakeholders, the country may end up fragmented. The controversies virtually took the shine off the country’s 50th independence anniversary celebration which was marked on the 1st of this month.How did Nigeria get to this state of affairs in the first place? The answer could best be appreciated if we put the pre-1999 era before the return of democratic rule to Nigeria in proper perspective. There had been serious power tussle between the North and south, with the north having ruled the country for over three decades since independence. The only brief stint the south had in power was during the short-lived regime of General Aguiyi Ironsi in 1966 before the civil war and general Olusegun Obasanjo, who took over after the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed in an attempted coup.
Ever since, the south had never tasted power until 1993 when Earnest Shonekan was installed as an interim president by general Babangida, who was forced out after eight years in the saddle. General Sani Abacha sacked the interim government of Shonekan in less than four months and ruled till 1998 when he died in power. General Abdus Salami Abubakar eventually handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.
Prior to this, there had been serious clamour for power shift by the south who felt short-changed in the power game in the country. The result was political instability in the polity, which always made it a good opportunity for the military to strike at will.
Apparently to restore stability and importantly, preserve the unity of the entity called Nigeria, a gentleman agreement was said to have been reached by the stakeholders in the two divides to rotate the presidency among the geopolitical zones of the country. The south was handed the leadership of the country.
As an offshoot of this agreement, though not written, the ruling PDP set out in 1998 to create socio-political conditions conducive to national peace and unity by ensuring fair and equitable distribution of resources and opportunities, to conform with the principles of power shift and power sharing by rotating key political offices among the diverse peoples of the country and evolving powers equitably between the Federal, State and Local Governments in the spirit of Federalism.
General Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner, ruled from 1999 to 2007 based on this zoning agreement.
Even the opposition parties adopted this arrangement. The All People’s Party, APP, (now All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP) and the Alliance for Democracy, AD, teamed up to field Chief Olu Falae, a southerner, as its presidential candidate.
When Obasanjo’s tenure ended in 2007, a northerner, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua succeeded him based on the zoning principle in the party. The opposition parties followed suit by fielding northern candidates in the election. Ordinarily, Yar’Adua would have ruled for another eight years, provided he won a second term but his death midway into the first term in June this year created an opportunity for the south to assume the country’s presidency by virtue of the fact that the Vice president came from the region and by constitutional provision he should take over.
It is expected that President Goodluck Jonathan, a beneficiary of the opportunity, would step down after completing the four year tenure of his late boss in 2011 so that another northerner could complete the remaining four years of the north’s slot. Rather, he has decided to re-contest saying that the party never zoned the presidency to the north. To him, the president can come from any part of Nigeria provided he is ready to lead the country to the Promised Land.
Pro-zoning advocates maintain that the president’s action is unacceptable and amounts to “usurping” the right of the north. In the words of the former Vice president Atiku Abubakar, Jonathan’s insistence on contesting in 2011 despite the zoning arrangement will “polarize the country.”
Adamu Ciroma, a PDP, stalwart and another pro-zoning advocate warned that failure of the party to stop Mr. Jonathan might ignite a series of events, the scope and magnitude of which he said the country can neither “proximate or contain”.
But one must at this juncture, ask this question. What have been the contributions of the past leaders to the Nigerian nation in the past 50 years? Both leaders from the north and the south! Under the northern leadership the oil boom turned to doom for the country. Under them, the country became perpetual debtors to the shylock western donor agencies. Between 1979 and 1993 corruption became firmly entrenched in the Nigerian system. Between 1985 and 1993 the country’s economy nose-dived further with the Structural Adjustment Programme of that regime.
Between 1983 and 1998 participatory democracy and human rights became a taboo in the land. Between 2007 and 2010, nothing changed except the khaki. Corruption remained endemic.Infrastructure continued deteriorating. More strikes in the educational system.
The eight years of southern leadership epitomised by General Olusegun Obasanjo fared no better. It was a continuation of the rot left by the northerners. The gulf between the rich and the poor became wider. The pump price of petrol skyrocketed. Even at a point, in what demonstrated how completely detached the leadership is from the people, the then, President Olusegun Obasanjo claimed he did not know that the price of kerosene, a household fuel of the masses, was higher than that of petrol!
The management of the economy was handed to a World Bank technocrat, who turned blind eye to the atrocities being committed by bank CEOs. The result was the near collapse of the banking system.
Under the leadership of the southerner, almost all the country’s national assets were sold out to foreigners and colleagues. Billions of dollars was invested in the power sector with nothing but more darkness as result.
Under the leadership of the southerner, almost all the country’s national assets were sold out to foreigners and colleagues. Billions of dollars was invested in the power sector with nothing but more darkness as result.
Now, Jonathan, another southerner, has not made any significant changes. Rather, he is continuing in the line of his predecessors. Spending on frivolities, piling more foreign debts for the future generations and making more speeches than actions.
If we claim zoning is what will keep the country together, what kind of leaders are we going to get from the arrangement? Is it the same old hands that had contributed to the current state of affairs in the country? What Nigeria needs at this crucial point is generational shift from the recycled leaders who continue to hang on to power for selfish reasons.
Go to the north, you see poverty, disease and hopelessness roaming the streets, wining and dining with the poor while the elite revel in opulence. In the south, there is high insecurity of lives and property. Political gansterism and social malaise reign supreme.
Nigeria needs a leader that will restore its past glories. A leader that will put the country back to the world stage as the producer of almost half the world's palm oil. A leader that will restore the Northern groundnut pyramids, southern palm oil industry, rubber plantations as well as develop the educational system across board.
Nigeria needs a leader that will restore its past glories. A leader that will put the country back to the world stage as the producer of almost half the world's palm oil. A leader that will restore the Northern groundnut pyramids, southern palm oil industry, rubber plantations as well as develop the educational system across board.
If zoning can provide us such a leader, let it stay if not...!
