As we plan to celebrate a golden jubilee, it is impractical to think of our country Nigeria, without having a concoction of feelings. Depending on who and what you are, such feelings are expected to be wide ranging and go from satisfaction to contentment. It could also be a feeling of hope or optimism. However, for the majority, the mood is that of disappointment and sadness, exasperation and defeat.
As we plan to celebrate a golden jubilee, it is impractical to think of our country Nigeria, without having a concoction of feelings. Depending on who and what you are, such feelings are expected to be wide ranging and go from satisfaction to contentment. It could also be a feeling of hope or optimism. However, for the majority, the mood is that of disappointment and sadness, exasperation and defeat.
It is very easy to see why we have so far been not as triumphant as a country. The answers lie in the way we are as a people. The answer lies in the image we see when we look into the mirror. Nothing speaks of our lack of hub and focus, indeed our patchiness as a people like the issue of zoning. To be sure, Nigeria exhibits all the features of a buckled society. With epileptic power supply in vast parts, a shortage of clean, potable water for many, shocking insecurity in cosmic proportions, the reality is beginning to simmer down not only to the so called hoi polloi of the society but even to the bourgeois and the elite. Indeed, it is only in a country where hope has turned into hopelessness, distress to despair that the issue in the land, few months to general elections is not how to tackle these problems but on which zone of the country should produce the president. This is not just distressing, it is outrageous and shocking.
Nevertheless, when you look at the issue of zoning critically, you will understand why it is so important to many a politician, many a Nigerian. The reason is this; in 50 years of nationhood, there is very little we can boast of having done right. All the things that have been taken for granted in developed and even some developing countries like quality education, healthcare, housing, extreme poverty, even respectable and decent elections to mention a few are either substandard, alien or totally inexistent to us. Perhaps the only thing that could be termed an achievement is the fact that against all odds and despite permutations to the contrary, we have managed to remain one country. For those who believe in a united, indivisible Nigeria (I happen to be one), this is a flattering achievement which can only be augmented by giving every part of the country a sense of belonging. This I think is the spirit that berthed the idea of zoning.
First all, it needs to be said that zoning of the presidency is, as it were, unconstitutional. Indeed the constitution gives the liberty to contest all elections to all willing and qualified. However the call to zone the presidency to the north is not a constitutional one. Indeed I believe those making the issue a constitutional one are only being clever by half. It is a political issue and like all issues political can only be resolved by a political solution.
I disagree completely that the issue of zoning is a PDP affair and therefore should be discussed and debated only by members of the PDP. As a matter of fact, every of their business is a national one as it is capable of affecting (as it is already doing) our national life. The affairs, deeds and misdeeds of the ruling party are not a family affair but a national one. This is what obtains in other democracies around the world where even the private lives of party leaders are scrutinized. This is because the responsibility of leading a country is a huge one. Therefore they must not only live above board, they must be seen to do so. The concept of ‘family affair’ is unknown to democratic norms in any serious democracy.
The exercise to deny the spirit and the letter of zoning as an agreed upon principle in the ruling party is a futile one. Anyone who has taken even a passive interest in the politics of Nigeria especially pre-1999 will know that the zoning arrangement was agreed upon pre-1999. It was followed by the ceding arrangement where power was ceded to the southern zone to commence the arrangement.
The only way of sustaining as one a multi-plural, multicultural, multi-social country as ours is to allow power rotate between two zones north and south. (I think rotating by six will be taking it too far). I think it will be very wrong to jettison it midway. Since the south has had its turn based on the zoning principle, it will only be fair and equitable for the north to be granted the same privilege. While zoning may be retrogressive and backward, it is the only way to go if we are to sustain trust and eliminate suspicion on both sides and on the grounds of morality and honour, credibility, integrity and egalitarianism.
While the question of zoning has brought to the fore the delicate imbalance between power structures in the country, it gives the impression that the various zones and the personalities therein want power for the sake of zoning and not for what it ought to be for: service to the people. It also brings to the forefront the scrawny and prostrate state of opposition parties in the country. I find it preposterous that in a multi party democracy, one party is so dominant over the others. It is my opinion that for democracy to survive in Nigeria, the next president must be one who shall be statesman as to willingly, pragmatically and intentionally build the opposition and make them viable if not virile. In other climes, the disarray in the PDP amongst other moral dampening conflicts is enough to force a power change in the next elections. While the opposition parties are weak, their survival, to my mind, has not been helped by a dubiously conniving electoral body.
It is interesting to see how our supposed leaders speak from both sides of the mouth on the zoning debate. Equally interesting is how the North has been abandoned to her own struggle. It is disheartening the way stakeholders from the south particularly the southwest have either been mute or unhelpfully and deviously manipulative. This is more so because not too long ago, the whole country rallied around them which culminated in the presidency being ceded to the south. They forget it could be their turn someday.
There is the need for the zoning debate to be done in an atmosphere of peace and civility. Indeed, it should help us nurture the expression of differing opinions, which is good for democracy. We should also keep in mind the need to transform from being not just compatriots but patriots. In fact we ought to be patriotic compatriots.
For those who find it expedient to sit back and ‘Siddon look’ or entirely deny the existence of the zoning agreement; for those who think it convenient to jettison the zoning principle for temporary benefit; those who think it is not really their business to speak up in support of what is just and right in zoning, they should understand that friendship and political interests should take a back seat to principles, integrity and honouring agreements. They should remember the immortal words of Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who opposed the Nazis: ‘’in Germany they came first for the communists but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the social democrats and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a social democrat. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up’’
Dr. Wole Ameyan Jr is a post graduate degree student of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Liverpool L3 5QA, UK.
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