2023 presidency zoning: Much ado about nothing

BY ADEBAYO ABUBAKAR

The issue of where the President of the Federal of Republic of Nigeria should come from, come 2023, has dominated public discourse in the recent months; and unnecessarily so.

The idea of “rotational presidency”, as espoused by the two major political parties; the ruling – All Progressives Congress, APC; and the opposition, People’s Democratic Party, PDP, although, not unconstitutional, is something that is alien to the 1999 constitution that serves as the major code by which the country is being run. Yet, the political elites keep using the concept, which is their own individual survivalist strategy to obliterate the need to be developmental agenda-driven in our quest to rework Nigeria in such a way that an average Nigerian would have no reason to want to travel out of the country, except for the purposes of holidaying and tourism. It is so unfortunate that, the majority of the masses, in what could be likened to “Stockholm Syndrome”, have thrown their hats into the ring in arguing, who (and which of the geopolitical zones) should produce the next President.

Do not get me wrong, this piece is not to argue for or against the propriety of “Zoning”. Rather, it is to highlight the unnecessary national time its discourse is consuming, at the expense of more important and more pressing issues affecting the country, as far as the core business of governance is concerned.

In the 21st century, it is appaling to note that, Nigeria is still preoccupied with leadership recruitment, using place of origin as a major criterion. But that is the way we are wired to reason. That is the way we’re configured to function. That is the way we’re programmed to view things.

But let us take a dive into the anal of history; President Shehu Shagari was president for four years, and 3 months, but Shagari village where he hailed from did not turn into Paris. Obasanjo ruled for 11 years plus, Ibogun, his country home, near Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital, is still the way a typical 19th century African village is. As a matter of fact, Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta expressway is among 3 worst Federal roads in Nigeria.

Goodluck Jonathan ruled for more than five years, but the road connecting Otuoke – his home town to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital remained ridges of mud. It also took the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari to complete the Otuoke Water Works.

The case of President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired General in the Nigerian army is as poetic, as it is dramatic. He has been in the saddle, first as a military head of State for 20 months-between 1984 and 1985, before he was elected in 2015 and re-elected for another four-year tenure in 2019, out of which he has spent over two years now; yet Daura has not become a Dubai. Rather, Daura and indeed, the entire State of Katsina is helplessly under the vise-like grip of the terroristic acts of the so-called “bandits”, who maim, kill and rob “Katsinawá” on a daily basis.

Let us even go micro. What have the State Governors who turn themselves into ethnic champions calling for power shift or stay, done with the homonguous amount of money they receive as monthly allocation from the federation account? If a 2-term governor did nothing of note to better the lots of the people of his State, what is the guarantee that, if elected as a president, he would turn the country into an Eldorado?

The most unfortunate aspect of the debate is the involvement of the victims of the political jobbers, whose interests the rotation is meant to serve.

Incidents of masses who are supposed to be united against their mutual oppressors, but are busy, holding each other by the jugular, doing “Gbasgbos” in the name of defending their political idols, is rife on social media.

I do not see anything wrong in rotating the presidency among the six geopolitical zones, in as much as it is meant to foster National Unity, and give everybody a sense of belonging; but it becomes uninteresting to me, once the issue of place of origin is the most emphasised, at the expense of other criteria, like capacity, level patriotism and vision.

It is high time, Nigerians realised that this issue of zoning is a memorandum of understanding, among the thieving-elites, to ensure that, there is order in the way and manner in which they loot our common patrimony. That is what Chief Bode George who incidentally is member of this class, calls “Turn-by-Turn Nigeria Limited”.

If not that it is a group-survivalist thing, with the plethora of problems bedevilling the nation at the moment, how on earth would the political leadership abandon the ship of State that is about to collapse, and start talking about 2023 presidential race that is?

Any surprise that, the 19 northern Governors met, earlier this week, without talking about recent killings and kidnappings in southern Kaduna? That is one area where killing has become a kind of sport that people seem to use for recreation. They only used a vague and generic term of, “Insecurity in the North”, to paper over the crack that terrorism had inflicted on the walls of the region. But top of their agenda, as indicated in their automated communique, read by Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State was where the presidency goes, come 2023. Their Southern counterparts do not fare any better,insisting that they must, by hook or crook, produce the next president, the last time they gathered.

Meanwhile, with the way things are going at the moment, who is sure that there will still be a Nigeria to govern in 2023?

With the downward spiralling value of the Naira (₦) against the dollars ($) and other major currencies in the world; Youths unemployment; hyper inflation; issue of insecurity; and the agitation for secession; no sane leader should be more concerned about anything, other than to fix the problems itemised above.

But oh, no….., this is Nigeria. Grabbing power at all cost is the issue at the moment, funnily, by those who do not know what to do with it.

Meanwhile, while everybody is fixated on who becomes the president; where he/she comes from, and not who he/she is, or what he can do; which religion he practices, others who are in charge at subnational levels are wrecking havoc of unimaginable magnitude. People bother less about, who their councillors, Local Government chairmen; States House of Assembly members, House of Representatives members, Senators and State Governors are. All they feel concerned about is; the Presidency. What a misplacement of priority!

Out of over 50 States that make up the United States of America, there are some that have never produced the president but are not bothered. Only 21 of them have produced, while the remaining 32 have not, as-matter-of-factly. While some States might have produced twice or more, those who have not yet produced are not bothered about the need to have one of theirs occupy the “White House”. All they care about is who would do it in such a way that would positively impact their socio-economic lives.

If only Nigerians know how much resources is committed into the hands of their State Governors and Local Government Chairmen; if only they realise how strategic their Senators and Reps are, as cogs in the wheel of socio-economic development, they will bother less about who becomes the president; where he comes from and all that.

If they realise how backward the places of origin of those who have occupied the Number-one seat in the past are, they would realise that all the hullabaloo about where the president comes from in 2023, is nothing, but; “Much Ado about Nothing”, because it has never translated into anything meaningfully enduring for those who have had the privilege of producing the President’s, even at village level, let alone, State or regional level.

In doing the rotational presidency, if we must; he or she must be a Nigerian. He must not be a Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani, Igbó, Ijaw, Igala, Nupe, Efik, Birom or Tiv. Our president, come 2023, must not be a Muslim, Christian or adherent of African Traditional Religion. He, simply, must be a Nigerian, within the context of global citizenship.

Such a person must not emerge from the clamour of ethnic chauvinists, who masquerade as Nigerians; he must not emerge as a result of clamour by those who pose as patriotic political leaders whose only interest is feathering their personal socio-economic nests. Somebody who would be ready to lay down his/her life, if need be, for Nigeria to survive and succeed.

Adebayo Abubakar writes from Ilorin.
You can reach him via 08051388285 or [email protected]