Following the unfavourable outcome of the concluded presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), in which the South East aspirants did not clinch the tickets as anticipated by Igbo leadership and other stakeholders from the South West, South South and the Middle Belt, the Elders Council of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called for the inclusion of rotation of the presidency on the basis of the six geo-political zones in the country’s constitution.
Throwing the contest open as opposed to strident calls by many concerned Nigerians to micro-zone the presidency to the South East region in keeping with the power rotation arrangement between the North and South which started in 1999, has again frustrated some politicians from the zone who thought it was the turn of the South East zone to produce the next president of Nigeria at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight-year tenure.
Both Ken Nnamani and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu rightly queried our own concept of justice and fairness in a contest that would ordinarily be for only the South East contestants as was the case of the South West in 1999. Did the powers that be listen to them? Whether Nigeria listens to them or not, the world, the global community, have heard them and their views documented for posterity. While Nnamani and Onu blamed the Nigerian political establishment for denying Ndigbo the opportunity to realize their aspiration of producing the next Nigerian president, one of the aspirants and APC governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, blamed the South East’s poor outing on what he described as sabotage and betrayal of the 2023 South East presidency project by delegates and leaders of the zone. Umahi particularly tongue-lashed the President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, for abandoning the Igbo presidency project when it mattered most. However, the embittered governor was full of praises for Ebonyi delegates for massively voting for him.
After a meeting in Abuja, the Elders Council of Ohanaeze Ndigbo led by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu called for a constitutional backing of the power rotation arrangement between the North and South. They observed that the current arrangement is vague and lacks the force of law. That is why some individuals have behaved and are still behaving as if it does not matter.
While commending the Elders Council of Ohanaeze for their bold intervention, the South East lawmakers and other interests groups should take it up from there and initiate a bill to institute zoning or power rotation of the presidency in the constitution. It can be done. If Nigeria can have the federal character principle inscribed in the constitution, there is nothing wrong with having power rotation of the presidency inside the same constitution. Our Constitution should not be seen or regarded as a holy book, in which nothing should be added or subtracted.
A country that has federal character in its constitution should not frown when a group calls for inclusion of power rotation of the presidency among the six geo-political zones in the constitution. It will amount to hypocrisy written large to do so. According to online dictionary, Wikipedia, “power sharing is a practice in conflict resolution where multiple groups distribute political, military, or economic power among themselves according to agreed rules.” It goes on to say that power sharing “can refer to any formal framework or informal pact that regulates the distribution of power between divided communities.” Examples of countries reported to be practicing some form of power sharing include Netherlands, Belgium, Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Indonesia, among others. Also, power rotation, which is another form of power sharing, is practised in Israel, Ireland, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Romania and Turkey.
Having the power rotation clause in the constitution will prevent the present practice where we are at the mercy of some powerful individuals who have monetized Nigerian politics and democracy and dictate the tunes of the political orchestra and point to it where the pendulum will swing. A situation where a few political godfathers have bought off political power and dispenses it and democracy dividends the way they like can only breed violence and anarchy and even terrorism. Our democracy should not be practiced like a relay race between the South West and the North West since 1999 at the detriment of the four other zones. The emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan was accidental and cannot be factored into this narrative.
Making the presidency to seemingly rotate between the South West and the North West either by choice or design since 1999 is a recipe for utter disaster. It will not guarantee peace and harmony in the country. The lamentations of leaders from the South East must not be ignored. The lamentations of politicians from the South East must not be waved aside as none issues. The frustrations of Ndigbo in the Nigerian political configuration must not be dismissed. They demand urgent attention from the government at the centre before it is too late. They demand cogent attention from the powers that be before things fall apart. Nigeria’s problems are not insurmountable. Our leaders still have time to salvage the situation. We cannot continue to postpone the doom’s day. As we move towards the 2023 elections, let us continue to interrogate our mode of political existence and learn and love to accommodate others who have been structurally schemed out of the nation’s political equation since independence and more overtly since 1999 and tacitly given bolder expression since 2015. Nigeria must come to realize that the continued political marginalization of Ndigbo will definitely haunt the nation one way or the other because power abhors a vacuum and injustice to one is injustice to all. Let’s not pretend that all is well with Nigeria. If the truth be told, Nigeria is steadily dying with growing terrorism, religious-inspired attacks and killings of innocent Nigerians, the ongoing dirty fight at the apex court over welfare matters and others among the priests of the highest temple of justice in the country. Nigeria is one country where violence and insecurity can be seen as the new normal. The wretchedness of the masses is no longer anything to worry about. Poverty is nothing to worry about. After all, the poor will always be with us till the end of the earth, according to the Christian holy book.
When people troop out to register for next year’s election, don’t stop them. All Nigerians who have attained the age of 18 before the election must be registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The large turnout of youths in the ongoing voter registration across the country is not for dramatic effect. It is for real. The angry youths want to show that they are not lazy. They want to show that they are responsible and law-abiding citizens who deserve better treatment by the political elites. They want to participate in the politics of the country and be part of the current political and democratic movement. They want to speak with their votes. It is their rights and nobody should deny them such rights, not even INEC nor other extraneous forces.
My humble advice to INEC is that they should put more men to the job. A situation where INEC registration officers complain of lack of network, forms and personnel to attend to the surging crowds at each registration centre does not show that the electoral agency is fully prepared for the exercise and even the 2023 polls. Having only two machines in a centre with hundreds of people to attend is not good enough. I plead with INEC not to disenfranchise any Nigerian who is eligible to vote. All of them must be registered before the poll. There should be no excuses.