Ordinarily, it will be the turn of Southern Nigeria to produce the next Nigerian president after eight years of a president from the North. But in an atmosphere polluted with political manipulations, the question is whether the North will maintain her grip on power or loosen her grip in the interest of national security. Presently, Nigeria is at risk with the current state of affairs as dangerous as the civil war era. To retain the presidency, the North will need some willing accomplices from the South; lackeys who will be programmed to position for the post of National Chairman and Vice President respectively in other to outsmart and outmanoeuvre the South from taking a deserved turn at producing the president. Given the state of the nation, the zone that will succeed President Buhari is a matter the political class must carefully manage. The concept of regional rotational presidency and zoning was first muted during the General Sani Abacha’s empanelled National Constitutional Conference. The idea was championed by the group led by late Dr Alex Ekwueme who also urged for the creation of six geopolitical zones, namely; North West , North East , North Central , South West, South East and South – South .
The key elements of the zoning concept was that the presidency should be rotated between the North and the South, going some way to break the Northern grip on power. The Sani Abacha led administration accepted the idea because it was good for our national security. In October 1995 General Abacha also decided to support the creation of six administrative regions within the country to share and rotate the six senior government posts. Unfortunately, the sudden death of Abacha in 1998 changed the entire zoning narrative. The Armed Forces Ruling Council under General Abdulsalami who succeeded Abacha removed the provision for rotational presidency along with over 13 other items from the draft 1999 Constitution. Hence the issue of rotation remain unresolved. However, the uniqueness of the concept was adopted by the founding fathers of the People’s Democratic Party which became the ruling party in 1999. The concept became the moving spirit guiding our democratic experiment from 1999 to date. I dare say that the concept of rotational president remain the most memorable outcome of the Abacha NCC.
Nevertheless, I have heard people argue against the concept of regional rotational presidency. They said it’s a lazy political arrangement that ends up producing lousy political leaders; and that it is unconstitutional. They tout merit and point to the incompetence of past leadership to buttress their point. They also argue that if at all there will be rotation, the North will need an extra four-year term to come at par with the South which they said has ruled for 13 years as against the North’s 11 years. I find these arguments uninspiring because we cannot allow the stigma of lazy politics and production of lousy leaders to overshadow fairness and equity and our need for national security, unity, peace and stability. It’s also mind boggling how easily some of these northern politicians seem to have forgotten that the North has ruled Nigeria for nearly 43 years of her 60 years self-governance. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation; its main features include the existence of three major ethnic groups, each territorially exclusive and none dominant enough to hold the country to ransom by itself. The Nigerian state attempts to base its democracy on the models of the British Parliamentary system and the US Presidential and Congressional system but without due consideration to her peculiar cultural and ethnic background. It is the understanding of our cultural diversity that motivated the founding fathers of PDP to adopt the consociationalism approach to democracy based on rotation of the presidency and other important offices among the identifiable groupings of the Nigeria federation. Article 7(2c) of the PDP 2009 Constitution provided for zoning and rotation of the party’s elected and executive offices
Unfortunately, our current political leaders due to their inordinate ambitions are not interested in nation building and national stability. In 2015, the argument of the North against the re-election of former President Jonathan was that it was the turn of the North to produce a Nigerian president after the South had taken their fair turn. They argued vehemently that the party was founded on the principle of consociationalism; that after the South had served a full tenure of eight years, it would be the turn of the North. This principle was honoured by President Obasanjo who yielded power to the North as per President Yar’adua who unfortunately died after three years in office and was by default succeeded by his Vice President who served out the remainder of the one year and got re-elected for another four- year term.
From hindsight, Jonathan’s attempt to breach the rotational principle of the party by seeking another four-year term in office after his initial first four-year term was wrong and immoral, hence despite all the political manoeuvrings and manipulations by the administration, the people rejected him at the poll, and thus rendered justice to the North. (The fourth Alteration Nr 16) Act 2017 of the 1999 Constitution as Amended was enacted by the National Assembly and enshrined in the constitution to curb the nuisance caused by Jonathan’s ill-fated misadventure.
In electing President Buhari, Nigerians voted rotational presidency in the interest of political stability and peace, unity, progress and prosperity. It’s also worth repeating that the notion that the presidency will rotate between North and South was part of the understanding reached by the coalition of parties that formed APC to wrestle power from PDP. With President Buhari two-year shy from his eight-year assured tenure, it’s disappointing to find some political actors from the North and within the party who argued in favour of rotational presidency in 2015, now making uninspiring argument against rotation in 2023. Suddenly these elements are no longer interested in national unity and stability. The peace and progress of the country are now secondary in their political pirouette. Well, we expect politicians to lie to us. It is unconscionable for the North to position to succeed President Buhari after holding the position for two terms. I will urge the political class to put the peace, unity and stability of the country first by infusing our peculiar needs into their political arrangements. They should avoid making our already bad situation to become worse because of their inordinate ambitions. The political atmosphere is already combustive and as such must be carefully managed. The two major political parties must, as a matter of national interest, ensure that the principle of rotation whereby the North and the South take turns to produce the president is not compromised, and there should be no turning back on this. It will be fair for the two major parties – PDP and APC – to, by political harmonisation, produce Southerners as their presidential flag-bearers in 2023 in the interest of peace and stability. The benefit and loss of our peace and unity must be mutually absorbed and not at the expense of one part of the country. We must all make sacrifices if indeed we are serious about the unity of Nigeria. To permanently rest the issue of rotational presidency, it will not be out of place if we use the opportunity of the ongoing constitutional review processes to entrench rotation between North and South in the constitution. If this is achieved, rotation will not just be the moving spirit of our democracy but a sacred principle governing our democracy and the future of our republic.
In the next couple of months, both the PDP and APC shall be hosting their respective National Conventions. Some northern hawks who see politicians from the South as disposable commodities will make strenuous efforts to programme willing Southerners to vie for positions with far reaching technical implications. My considered opinion is that no southerner should position himself or herself for the position of National Chairman and non from the South shall angle for Vice President in either of APC or PDP, as doing so will deprive the South of the moral courage to demand the presidency. Anyone going against peaceful rotation of power between the North and the South must understand there will be devastating consequences.