May 08, (THEWILL) – Heating up the polity, to inflame or excite, is a cautionary phrase many Nigerians are used to hearing from the political elite. It is reverberating across the country now. Why? Because the two major political parties, the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are failing in the cardinal principle of party politics.
As agents of mobilisation, enlightenment and reconcilers of the people’s interests at the central government, they appear to be too Machiavellian to listen to the cries for equity, justice, fairness and partnership coming from the people in the South ahead of the 2023 general election.
That is why feelers from the two leading parties suggesting that rotation and zoning of the presidential ticket to the southern states of the country will not be adopted for the 2023 election is heating up the polity with the possibility of reversing the modest gains of nationhood.
THEWILL finds this trend alarming and calls for a rethink on the basis of equity, justice, fairness and unity.
More so, this trend, in heating up the polity, is coming at a time when the very fabric of the country is bursting at its seams with agitation for self-determination, separation, secession and widespread insecurity, caused mainly by years of broken promises and unfulfilled dreams, as well as the baleful administrations ran by the PDP and APC for 16 and seven years, respectively.
Indeed, it was in response to the impact of this fearful development that the PDP, on two occasions, set up committees to look into its zoning arrangement. The first committee, led by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, was asked to find out why the party lost the 2019 presidential poll.
In its report, the committee recommended merit as the criterion for choosing presidential candidates rather than zoning, which has been a stabilising factor and what the founding fathers of the party believed would sustain the unity of the party. But the unwelcome reactions that it generated within the party led the party to set up another committee, a new one headed by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, with representatives drawn from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The PDP will make its final position known on the subject at a meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) that has now been rescheduled to hold on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.
Even so, the body language of party officials, particularly the National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, who was quoted as saying, a fortnight ago, that all its 17 presidential aspirants are free to canvass support among delegates, just as the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunaba, said, earlier, that the Constitution gives all qualified Nigerians the right to contest and not be discriminated against, alarmingly show that the party is working towards violating its own agenda by throwing the presidential contest open.
Similarly, the APC, which all along had been following the promise of key party officials that the party would shift power to the South in 2023, surprisingly threw its door open to all comers across the country, last week. That was when the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said the party was yet to decide on zoning. He added that the party would be forced to pick a candidate from the North if the rival PDP picks a northern candidate.
The promise made by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, when he visited Imo State in 2019 that power would go to the South-East in 2023 and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, that the party would zone the presidency to the South-West in 2023, went out of the window, just like that, by the National Chairman’s fiat.
Yet, it was based on these promises that Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and his Cross River State counterpart, Prof. Ben Ayade, to mention a few, defected to the APC, to give it a foothold in the South-East and South-South where PDP had maintained a firm grip since the beginning of the Third Republic in 1999.
So, Senator Adamu saying the party would be forced to pick a northern candidate if the PDP picks a candidate from that zone is, to say the least, uncharitable as it flies in the face of fairness which should be a hallmark of principled politics.
The statement by Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, an APC governor of Ondo State that the party is toying with fire by changing its stand on power shift to the South in 2023, should be a warning signal to the party of the magnitude of its volte face.
Recall that it was the party’s position on zoning that has made 30 aspirants emerge from the South until Adamu’s pronouncement led Governor Mohammed Badaru of Jigawa State and Senate President Ahmed Lawan to join the 12 others that have so far obtained expression of interest and nomination forms as at last week. As Chairman of the South-West Governor’s Forum and spokesperson of the 17 Southern Governors Forum, Akeredolu’s reaction speaks loudly of the impact awaiting the party, if it fails to uphold its promise.
We wish to remind both political parties that the ease with which their members defect from one to the other during every election cycle is because of their lack of cohesion and inability to reach a patriotic consensus on burning issues concerning the well-being of their members and by extension, the entire country.
What is a political party if its interests cannot converge with that of its members? What is the purpose of pursuing political power if not to deploy it in the service of the people? What is a party without its members?
This lack of political inclusion has often led to widespread apathy among Nigerians with the result that the idea of governance, which deals with involvement of the people in government rather than government that deals with the elected and appointed officials, has made representative democracy an elusive practice in the country.
The result of this misplacement of priorities and political alienation is all over the country today: the fragile nature of our multi-ethnic, diverse country; the stunted growth in all sectors of national life; unconcerned and mistrustful people; failed political leadership, particularly since the current republic is marked by its uncaring, misguided, greedy, unfocused, nepotistic and profligate trademark.
It is against this backdrop of insensitivity to the yearnings and plight of Nigerians that resorting to drumbeats of war is always a preferred course of action aimed at addressing salient issues.
Reacting to the situation, some stakeholders have formed a common and united front to agitate for the presidency to rotate to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari’s 8-year stay in office.
To show that they mean business, dominant social and political organisations in the South, such as Afenifere, led by Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by former Nigerian Ambassador to United States of America, Prof. George Obiozor; and the Pan- Niger Delta Federation (PANDEF), led by Chief Edwin Clark, have found common ground with the 17 Southern Governors Forum made up of APC and PDP governors on the demand for rotation of power to the south and respect of the zoning principle.
Some notable business and political leaders from the north have also called for the two leading political parties to support the rotation of presidential power to the south.
To fail to hear their demand and grant it is as good as saying the south and its political leaders do not matter in the political equation of a multi-ethnic and diverse country like Nigeria, where the fear of domination and marginalisation has reached such a level that faith and hope in a united Nigeria, going forward post-2023, could be hard to keep.
It is better to allay the fears and uncertainty surrounding the country’s future now. The two major political parties can only do this by keeping to their original plan to rotate power and zone the presidency to the South.
For the foregoing reasons, THEWILL demands that the APC and the PDP keep to their agreements and zone the presidency to the South in 2023. After all, the PDP and the APC provoked such demand by their agenda on zoning. We call on them to respect and keep to it. The interests of the people of the South have converged with that of the party. To do otherwise will only deepen apathy, fuel agitation for secession and self-determination currently gaining traction in the South.
We call on both parties to seize these auspicious moments in our beleaguered country to do the needful. It is time to heal the country of deceit, power mongering, indecision, impunity and lies. Rather than go back on their agenda on zoning with the possibility of a political backlash against them, they should focus on competence, integrity, character and capacity of aspirants as criteria for choosing their candidates from the South. Only candidates who possess such enduring qualities can see beyond their enclave and govern Nigeria with due process and infuse the country with values of merit, equity, justice and fairness.
THEWILL believes that some of the aspirants on the platform of both parties possess the right qualities that qualify them to become President of Nigeria.
We have entered the month of May when political parties are by statute obliged to conduct their presidential primaries and submit the names of their candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). So the time for these two political parties to formally announce their preference for a presidential candidate from the South is now. It is only equitable that after the North through President Buhari has served out its 8 years, power should return to the South.
Many Nigerians agree that the 2023 general election provides an opportunity to pull the country from the brink of disaster as a result of many years of impunity in government, looming disintegration, widespread insecurity, nepotism, corruption, ravaging poverty and restive youthful population battling unemployment, poor education and bad leadership.
One of the best ways to address this looming tragedy is, in our view, to heed the clarion call for zoning of the presidency to the South in 2023 and electing a new leader with proven capacity to unite the nation, create jobs and wealth for Nigerians and the country.
Heeding this call will kill the continued struggle for secession, separation and self-determination. It will pull the country away from the precipice of anarchy and restore it to the greatness that it truly deserves.
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