ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY: NOT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF NIGERIA: Written by Lawrence O. Obibuaku Email: [email protected] Recently, National Conference members announced their recommendation of Rotational Presidency to the nation. The recommendation did not come as a surprise to many who frowned at the predominance of old - timers in the composition of the Membership of the Conference. The old-timers were the Originators, and supporters of two unprogressive policies, Federal character and zoning. These two polices subjugated merit and excellence and promoted mediocrity. The result is that all the institutions in the country including the civil service, the universities, the entire educational system, the public health delivery system and public works have become totally sub-standard. The old-timers are people who put selfish and ethnic or sectional interests ahead of national one. Such people mistake public service as an arena in which to serve selfish and sectional interests, hence pre-eminence of the idea that everybody must get his own cut, which produced the idea or birth of Federal Character, zoning and now Rotational Presidency. Rotational Presidency which the Conference recommend is a bad idea because its adoption will set the country several steps backward. Its implementation will mean that if in an election year, the zone whose turn it is to produce a candidate does not have one of the right caliber, while some others do, then nation will be compelled to elect the poor quality candidate. The nation will as a consequence grow apathy leading to low voter turn-out during elections. Nigeria borrowed the Presidential system of Government from the United States of America. She should have studied what principles, ideas, usages and practices enabled her to grow, mature and bloom. If we did, the members of our National Conference would have noticed and recommended the emergence of two or three strong national political parties that would field the best candidates each election year to contest election. This approach would have been seen to be superior to and preferable to that of zoning. The highlight of the American Presidential election is the Presidential debate which enables the Americans to assess each candidate. The American Presidential debate which is watched the world over like the world cup football match is the beauty of the American system. It should also be remembered that during the over two hundred years of American existence many of her states have not produced a single president while one family has produced two. Proponents of the rotational system will cite the peculiar circumstances of Nigeria as the reason for its adoption. But the circumstances of Nigeria such as the presence of different Nationalities with different languages customs and world views are not more peculiar than those of the United States. The American population is composed principally of immigrants from various European countries which at one time or another were at war with one another. These people arrived in America and with good sense and mutual accommodation have been able to forge a nation that is currently inferior to none in the whole world. Like the United States, Nigeria is inhabited by a large number of assorted nationalities with different languages, customs and world views. But unlike the Americans, Nigerians seem increasingly unable to realize and therefore maximize the benefits inherent in our diversity, and instead emphasize and perpetuate divisive tendencies such as zoning and Federal Character. The forerunner of zoning and Rotational Presidency is Federal character which came into existence when government was the sole employer of labour in the Country. This was also the time when the North scored very low in educational attainment. The problem then arose that if employment continued to be based strictly on merit, the North would, for the most part, be excluded. The result was the adoption of Federal character with consequent introduction of square pegs in round holes. The idea was extended to university admission which was saddled with such tags as disadvantage areas, catchments areas etc. what all these meant was that merit was thrown overboard with consequent lowering of standards across the board. What was upper-most in peoples mind was what benefited ones self, ones tribe and ones region, with little or no thought about the plight of Nigeria. The consequence of all these was that the Civil Service, universities, and all the social and economic institutions in the country became substandard. Therefore, stagnation took over and replaced progress. If we were wise, we would have continued on the path of merit which is the route followed by all progressive countries. For example, India, like Nigeria was heavily loaded with indigent and poverty ridden states in the fifties. She aggressively and wisely pursued the course of merit and excellence which enabled her to reach the top level in development. It is on record that India has in the pursuit of excellence been able to raise the status of her education to the level that she now ranks next to china and the United States and has reduced poverty from third to less than a quarter of her population. There is no doubt that if Nigeria had given common sense a chance, she would also have rivaled or even surpassed India and South-East Asian tigers both in educational attainment and in general development. The saddest part of the whole thing is that today, Nigerians do not seem to have learned anything over the last fifty years. They have not understood the simple fact that Nigeria is bigger ands more important that the region, the state the tribe and the self. Progress will start in Nigeria only when we are able to think that what is best for Nigeria is more important than what is best for my region, zone, state and self. It is most painful to note that in the 21st century some Nigerians are still making pronouncements and behaving as if Nigeria has not changed from Lugardian time. Such Nigerians need to be reminded that the notion of the North, East and West as functional entities now belongs to waste-basket of history. At the same time, politicians are talking of zones which currently have no constitutional basis. What, for example, is the capital of South East or North-East Zones? More disturbing are statements and threats credited to officials of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), an apex pan-northern organization. First, John Ubah (Rtd.) its Secretary-General was reported as saying that ACF was established to protect the whole North and its people and that anything that happened to any Northerner anywhere was always a serious issue. This is a very serious and loaded statement and raises some questions. Is it no longer the function of the Federal Government to protect our people or has ACF usurped the power? Are our girls from Chibok Secondary School not part of the people from the North or are we to assume that ACF is in support of their captors? Another worrying statement credited to the Deputy secretary General of ACF, Engineer Abubakar Umar, was that Statistics available to the Forum indicated that Igbo investments in Kaduna, Kano and Jos alone amounted to N45 Trillion. He added, If the table turns round, it could be disastrous (for Ndigbo) as these investments may suffer for it… added to this was a report in the Leader of July 27, 2014 that a palpable panic has gripped non-Northerners resident in Kano State following a threat by Arewa Youth Development Foundation insisting that Southerners must obtain settlers permit to remain in the North and that non-Northerners residing in any part of the North should relocate to their various regions of origin within two weeks. A while ago, a similar threat was issued by leaders of Boko Harm set ordering all Southerners resident the North to relocate to the South within six months. It is amazing and regretable that in this time and age, Nigerian of the caliber of Col. Ubah and Engineer Umar have the time and luxury of heading an organization whose stated purpose is to protect Northerners and to organize youth who are poised to foment trouble. In addition to the threats on the investments of Ndigbo in the North, Umah reminded Southerners of the losses they suffered during past election violence in 2011. According to him, records showed that the Yorubas and Ndigbo lost N480 Billion and N410 Billion respectively and that South - South lost N970 Billion in the same crisis. He should have added that in the mid-sixties Northerners massacred Southerners in their Thousands and destroyed and looted their property worth Hundreds of Trillion of Naira. What the threats to investments and the order periodically given to Southerners residing in the North to relocate to the South is achieving is to throw cold water on the effort currently being made by the present Federal Government to woo Southerners in Diaspora to repatriate their investments and expertise in foreign countries back to their own country. Indeed these investments which are estimated to be worth Hundreds of Trillion of Naira plus the massive foreign investment mobilization by our people in Diaspora can help boost the Countrys economy and provide employment for our currently idle youth. All of them are now threatened. During the recently concluded National Conference, the members wisely did not recommend the break-up of the country into North and South. Rather, they endorsed the oneness of the country. They did this in recognition of the fact that we have everything to gain by remaining together as one country. The principle of togetherness is supported by the immense benefits derivable from unity. Among other things there is no tribal group in this country that doesnt have something to contribute in terms of ideas, values and world views and it is the pool of these that makes us distinctly Nigerians. This is why all those who sow divisive seeds and beat drums of war are advised to desist from doing so. Equally, it is an undeniable fact that we all stand to gain by sticking together. The tremendous development in infrastructure, in education, in health services etc, for example, currently going all over the North is made possible principally by resources from the South. Northern leaders should draw the attention of the youth to this undeniable fact. Please say yes to one indivisible Nigeria! visit@nigeriaworld/articles/2014/sep/192.html
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 19:41:48 +0000
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