Leadership evolves. Change is the only thing that is constant. The G-5 which consists of Gov Samuel Ortom (North Central), Gov Wike (South-South), Gov Makinde (South-West), Gov Ugwuanyi (South-East) and Gov Ikpeazu (South-East) have proved that there are history makers and there are noise makers. Ironically, when they started this journey of perpetually moving towards rewriting the history of Nigeria, a lot of old generation politicians, like Ayu referred to them as children, as noise makers. However, through sheer tenacity of purpose, they are turning out gradually to becoming history makers while their traducers are becoming noise makers. One Spokesperson of PDP even admitted that their democracy is noisy.
The G-5 are all Christians by religion and belong to 4 out of the 6 Geo-Political Zones in Nigeria. They are all from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In recent times, before the Parties presidential primary election, the Southern Governors met at Asaba, Delta State capital and vowed that in the interest of equity, justice and fairness, every major political party must zone its presidential ticket to the South. They premised their decision on the fact that the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is a Fulfulde speaking Northern Muslim and by virtue of the PDP Constitution, Section 7(3)(c) and Article 20(e) of APC Constitution, power must rotate to the South. They remembered the great men in their Party who, in 1999, voluntarily worked together to ensure the emergence of a Southern presidential candidate of South West origin in compensation of the demise of the front line politician, MKO Abiola from the South-West, who won the 1993 presidential election under the Social Democratic Party, but was not allowed to govern. He was later to be arrested, tried for treason and died in jail. This was one of the greatest injustice of the 20th century. One can safely submit that the fourth republic, which ensured that only persons from the South-West emerged as presidential candidates for all the parties that contested the 1999 presidential election and which finally produced a President of Nigeria from South-West, thereby ensuring the compensation for the unfortunate demise of MKO Abiola, was built on the foundation of equity, justice and fairness.
It is therefore a noble cause for anybody in the fourth republic to fight for justice as a basis for the survival of the fourth republic. It appears as if the God of justice is also the one piloting the affairs of the fourth republic. The success of President Obasanjo’s regime was in its adherence to the principles of justice not much in its proficiency in the delivery of democracy dividends to the citizens. When we started the current democratic experiment in 1999, our democracy was very young, imperfect and fragile. Our elections were below international standards and were occasionally described as a sham. We went through a period of selection not election. But despite our challenges electorally, we allowed democracy to prevail because the principle of equity and justice ensured that every section of the country was represented on the national level. For instance, the federal principal political elective posts are six in number. 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. They were shared between three Christians and three Muslims. Obasanjo had political stability throughout his regime even when he didn’t deliver on power, energy, roads and other physical infrastructure.
This means that in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like ours, no matter how good you are in the delivery of democracy dividends to the people, without the element of inclusiveness, the polity will be in disarray. Part of the disarray economically and politically that we experience today in President Buhari’s government results from the perception of non-inclusiveness in his government. He had his people heading all the security apparatus but he is getting the worst security results in decades. So also in oil and economy. This is why the quest for equity and justice in Nigeria come 2023 should not just be the duty of the G-5 but the duty of all Nigerians.
However, if the G-5 must succeed, they must strictly adhere to the principle which they espouse as their reason for the struggle, not trade off the struggle on the altar of personal and self-centred political horse trading. The first cut will always be the deepest. The first vow by the G-5, as a measure of equity and justice in Nigeria, is that power must shift to the South. The current President Buhari is a Fulfulde speaking Fulani Northern Muslim whom even the APC rejected the idea of another Northerner succeeding him as President but of whom PDP unjustly and insensitively produced another Fulfulde speaking Fulani Northern Muslim to succeed his identical brother with same religion and ethnicity for an unbroken period of 16 years and by virtue of Atiku Abubakar’s disposition that the North should vote only for the North, not Yoruba or Igbo candidates, it’s obvious that even after the 16 years of his regime, if allowed by the G-5 and Nigerians, he will still support another Fulfulde speaking Fulani Northern Muslim to succeed him. Atiku has been described by Wike, a member of the G-5, as an unreliable leader who says different things to people to achieve his selfish interests. Every promise Atiku made to Wike to redistribute party executive offices to reflect the reality that the unintended consequence of producing a Northern presidential candidate instead of a Southern presidential candidate which negates the PDP Constitution meant the readjustment of existing sharing formula of party offices to reflect Federal character of Nigeria, was broken by Atiku. It then will amount to political hypocrisy for whatever reason whatsoever for the G-5 to contemplate supporting the unjustifiable ambition of Atiku to usurp the power which he, of his own, openly admitted should be for the South-East but for which he is desperately seeking to thwart.
Unfortunately, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chose a South-West Muslim presidential candidate who made an unhealthy decision to choose another Northern Muslim as his Vice President. The South-West had produced a President, a Vice President and Speaker between 1999 and 2022, which made Afenifere declare that it’s the turn of the South-East to produce the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What is justice in a political party that already has a Muslim Senate President, Muslim Speaker of the House of Representatives, Muslim Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, incumbent Muslim President, Muslim National Chairman of APC and coincidentally a Muslim Chief Justice of the Federation, fielding a Muslim presidential candidate and a Muslim vice presidential candidate. Where is the involvement, participation and inclusion of the Christians, who are more than half of the population, in the scheme of affairs in the aspirations of APC to govern Nigeria. Democracy is a representative government and every politics is local. If APC wants the support of the G-5 Governors who are all Christians, what will the G-5 members tell their people will be the reason that will make the G-5 support the APC? Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Let us face it, the two major political parties have failed. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) built the foundation of this failure and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is building a skyscraper of failure on top of the foundation. Between the two major political parties, since 1999, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for about 71 months, which is a cumulative period of about 5 years. The latest being an eight month avoidable strike under the leadership of APC, with all the University students condemned to a life of perpetual idleness, which has made them the devil’s workshop of yahoo yahoo dealings, occultic influence, banditry and armed robbery. These flurry of strikes stem from a botched agreement entered between ASUU and the incompetent PDP led government in 2009 and inherited by a more incompetent APC government in 2015 with no stability in sight till date.
The security situation is even worse, being the primary purpose of government. PDP allowed Boko Haram to take over the North East and foisted their flags on about 17 LGAs in Borno State, while APC allowed bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, insurgents, militants, separatists and unknown gunmen take over the whole country and are stealing oil, massacring and kidnapping people in mosques, churches, markets, trains and indeed everywhere. Jail breaks are frequent and the President can no longer even protect himself as his convoy comes under attack. Bandits collect taxes from the citizens even from the President’s State. They not only collect taxes, they, according to Gov Masari, now openly collect the wives and daughters of their fellow men for their sexual satisfaction. These men voluntarily submit their wives and daughters to them in order to save their lives. In APC’s government, almost every Governor is crying out loud for self-defence.
In economy, the two major political parties are disasters. Nigeria has been a mono-economy based on Oil and both PDP and APC governments have done nothing to change the situation. We are still importing refined petroleum products from 1999 till date. Naira is moving speedily to N1,000.00 to $1. This failure is replicated in all the sectors of the Nigerian economy and has not attracted any solution from both parties with the resultant effect that we don’t have power, energy, fuel, security, stability etc. Nigeria is today facing an existential threat as the present government has borrowed itself out of existence as all its revenue cannot even service its debts. The two major political parties are even in disarray as the desperation, greed, selfishness and pride of both presidential candidates have caused intractable disunity amongst their members. It will therefore be the greatest betrayal of justice for the G-5 to foist on Nigeria any incompetent Leader from any of the two major political parties to continue the disastrous performance of the parties on Nigeria. God has raised the G-5 for a time like this to restore Nigeria to its rightful position in the comity of nations by ensuring, as they declared, that the next election will not be partisan but based on competence, character and capacity within the foundation of equity, justice and fairness.