No two democracies in the world are identical. The only common denominator of democracy worldwide is that power belongs to the people from whom government derives all its powers and authority. The USA, UK, France, India and Nigeria practise democracy with considerable differences in their operations. United States of America and Nigeria practise the presidential system of government, but in America the Senate is headed by the Executive Vice President of America, who has a deciding vote in case of a tie of 50-50 Senators in a 100-man Senate, but in Nigeria, the Senate is led by the Senate President, elected by his colleagues to preside over its affairs.
Our democracy is unique and our uniqueness is enshrined in our laws. The 1999 Constitution recognised that we are a diverse country and established our democracy on the principle of social justice. For the avoidance of doubt, Section 14 (1) of the Constitution states, “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice”. The concept of Social Justice teaches that the Country should be organised in a manner that is fair to all. Whereas Section 14(2) enumerates the principles of democracy and primary purpose of government, 14(3)(4) enumerates the concept of social justice. This concept recognises that in a diverse country like ours, the composition of the Government or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to promote national unity, command national loyalty and give every person or section of the country, ethnic or religious group, a sense of belonging, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies. Postulating that zoning and rotation of political offices are undemocratic because it is not practised in other countries is like saying America is not practising democracy because its Executive Vice President doubles also as the Senate President.
It is important to note that observance of the Federal Character principle enabled Nigeria to survive all the bottlenecks, challenges and shortfalls of a new democracy and sustained the government of President Obasanjo until democracy started getting entrenched in us. The elections of 2003 and 2007 were the worst since 1999 that even the main benefactor of the election, President Umaru Yar Adua, was ashamed of the process that brought him to power. But because President Obasanjo ensured the enforcement of social justice through the faithful implementation of the Federal Character principle in the highest echelon of the government, Nigerians allowed democracy to stand, despite the imperfections in our elections. For instance, the federal principal political elective posts in Nigeria are six in number. They are the posts of the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1999, efforts were made, despite the fact that they were all elective positions, to share these six posts among the six Geo-Political Zones. For instance, President Olusegun Obasanjo was from the South West, Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the North East, Senate President Evan Enwerem from the South East, Speaker Salisu Buhari from the North West, Deputy Senate President Haruna Abubakar from the North Central and Deputy Speaker Chibudum Nwuche from the South South. In 2003, during the second term of Obasanjo, the same pattern was maintained. This is called Zoning of political public offices by the political parties and it resulted in peace during that period, despite rigged elections.
In 2007, Obasanjo honoured the written and unwritten agreement between North and South in the rotation of the post of the President between North and South. He zoned the President to North-West, despite the fact that a man from South-South, Dr Peter Odili, was already making in-roads into the position of the President. This rotation of offices affected every other position. Yar Adua simply declared that all offices that were in the South should be rotated to the North, while all the offices in the North were rotated to the South. It is worthy of note that no section of the country complained of marginalization when they were equitably represented, despite the imperfections in our election. Yet people will complain bitterly and the federation threatened if, even with a free and fair election, some sections are left out in the distribution of offices at the national level. It then implies that the faithful implementation of the zoning and rotation of public elective offices is as important, if not more important, than free and fair election in the sustenance of our democracy.
However, if in the unlikely event that some selfish, greedy, power grabbers decide to deny a people what is due to them, it is the duty of the people to punish such a politician or party which encroaches or tramples on our social justice. It is hypocritical for politicians to be singing the outdated proverb that power is not given but taken because it is now the turn of the South-East to produce the President. Power was given to all the Presidents in Nigeria from 1999, none of them took it. Obasanjo was picked from prison and given the President. Yar Adua was unwell and was retiring from active politics when Obasanjo picked him overnight and gave him the President. Goodluck Jonathan was enjoying his job as Governor of Bayelsa and was planning on re-contesting when Obasanjo picked him and gave him the Vice-President before God gave him the President after the death of Yar Adua. President Muhammadu Buhari fought fiercely to take the post of the President for 3 times and couldn’t. He retired from politics in 2011. In 2019, he was called back and given the post of President. In the interest of equity, justice and fairness, the South-East should be given the post of the President in 2023.
However, the South-East must have a plan B. They must be prepared to democratically punish any party or person that fails to honour this agreement. The South-West under the Jagaban had done this very well. The Jagaban collapsed every ambition of President Buhari in the South-West until Buhari yielded to his request which was to either become his Vice President or allow him the singular honour to pick Buhari’s Vice. Even Buhari’s gesture of choosing a Yoruba Pastor Bakare, who was not part of the mainstream South-West politics, in 2011, could not persuade the Jagaban to support him. He supported Buhari in 2015 because he was allowed to pick, single-handedly, his Vice, Osinbajo. The South-West never supported the same political party twice in the presidential election from 1999 to 2015. In 1999, they supported APP. In 2003, they supported PDP. In 2007, they supported AC and PDP. In 2011, they were freelance but largely supported PDP. They didn’t go near CPC, Buhari’s party in 2011. In 2015, they supported APC. They were not enslaved to any party but were servants to their political interest, and that is how it should be. This gave them President under PDP and Vice President and Speaker under APC. Ironically, the South-East has not occupied any of these posts since 1999. Today, they are still contending to be President twice since 1999, when 3 other Geo-Political Zones in Nigeria have not produced even one President.
Contrast this with the South-East, which has voted only one party, the PDP, from 1999 till date in presidential elections. They have gained nothing from PDP. No legacy, enduring infrastructure in the South-East throughout the 16 years of PDP’s leadership. PDP couldn’t even cede the position of the President or Vice to them while they were the ruling party to reward their undying loyalty. Isn’t it shameful on both the PDP and their followers in the South-East that the party is not even considering seriously zoning the President to the South-East in 2023. It is the height of political hypocrisy that the same set of PDP Governors, Vice President and other leaders, that walked out on President Goodluck Jonathan before the 2015 presidential election at Eagle Square because they insisted that power should rotate back to North in the spirit of fairness, are the same politicians that are now insisting that power can no longer go back to South until PDP produces a President from the North, even if North produced the President for the next 100 years through other political parties. One wonders whether PDP is contesting election for the President of PDP or for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is important to state that these same politicians worked to assist the APC to defeat their own party in 2015 to drive home their point on zoning and rotation. On realising that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2019, they rushed back to their Party, PDP, because the only thing they are interested in is power even if the interest of the South and Nigeria are permanently destroyed. These same politicians that accepted the verdict of the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi Committee on zoning and rotation of party offices, which decided that posts previously held by the North should go South and vice versa, are the same that are preaching, unashamedly, that the same yardstick should not be used for public elective executive offices. What a double standard!
They are more scared of what Governor Wike will do than what the whole South-East politicians will do because they know Wike will punish them if they joke with his interests, but the South-East will do nothing, whatever they do to them. Wike dared them to shift the convention from PH and they bowed. He took out Secondus and they bowed. Can the South-East learn from their inertia and punish the PDP if the party treats their interest with disdain in 2023? If they don’t, then they should be prepared to be slaves forever in PDP and should not disturb the peace of Nigeria because equity does not aid the indolent. They should plead with APC too to zone the post of President to them because today, no party controls more States than APC in the South-East and with the control of the Federation by the APC, one can say that APC can contend to be the majority party in the South-East. Moreover, South-East is asking for the post of President in the interest of equity, justice and fairness not on the strength of its might and it will be in line with APC is avowed commitment to justice to zone the post to South-East.
Comments
0 comment