REF: SGMJJ/HSCU/PR/3371 15th Oct, 2014 Rotational Presidency Not A Good Idea! (Part 1) The wisdom behind the idea of rotational presidency for Nigeria is like the ridiculous gumption that pillars the ‘Born-To-Rule’ delusion of the Sokoto Caliphate. Nigeria deserves a National Conference but certainly not a proposition that keeps merit and competition out of its political house. No nation makes progress by isolating merit and genuine competition from its development recipe. I am actually not surprised that rotational presidency scaled the debate-huddles at the National Conference project set-up with patriotic intentions by the Jonathan administration. Infested with and harassed by political desperados seeking to smuggle questionable political privileges out of the cemetery where post-military political change in Nigeria has dumped them to rot, the National Conference has been able to prove that Nigeria’s present crop of leaders are averse to changing their dubious and selfish ways for the better. The logic of equity is said to support the rotational presidency recommendation of the Conference. On the surface, this wisdom comes across as sound. Interestingly however, a few yards beneath its smooth periphery lie tons of illogic that simply qualify the political prescription to be thrown off the presently rickety ship of the Nigerian nation-state as absolute garbage. We need ideas that can help us reduce our domestic burden in our aspiration to soar among the world’s richest and most powerful countries. Rotational presidency is a quota system of denying Nigeria the leadership talent of its bright stars spread across its blessed landscape. Rotational presidency favours the reign of feudalist mediocres and other species of incompetent political elites over our golden destiny. The challenge of nation-building in a highly competitive world demands the development, encouragement and use of the aspiring nation’s rich talents to design, construct and maintain the national project. The world is not waiting for Nigeria to put its house in order. It is moving very fast ahead, leaving this enormously gifted country of ours increasingly behind in the awful mess of its protracted ghettorization by British colonial engineering and by indigenous neo-colonial foolishness. Nigerian politicians routinely chant ‘One Nation, One Destiny’ in almost any and every public forum and consistently turn-around to act against the spirit of the chant! They say they are committed to making Nigeria remain a united and indivisible corporate entity but are always seen and heard taking positions that threaten the existence of the country! The jelly of hypocrisy which members of Nigeria’s ‘epicurean’ political class relish has been cleverly blended by delegates to the National Conference with the shrinking paste of hope on which Nigerian masses subsist to produce the rotational presidency nostrum that well-informed and patriotic members of Nigeria’s general public out-rightly reject. I am opposed to rotational presidency on several grounds. First, it runs against the spirit of meritocracy and competition. Rotational presidency will not change Nigeria’s dysfunctional and stagnating colonial system. It stands to allocate political opportunity to elite never-do-wells and their scatterings of parasitic minions the same way our Federal Government has been spoon-feeding the constituent States of Nigeria to the encouragement of such irrationalities as the political culture of demanding the creation of States without regard for productive economic considerations. The retrogressive contemporary Nigerian lifestyle of availing hoodlums and charlatans access to occupying high political offices meant for fecund and patriotic intellects also stems from the infestation of Nigeria’s body of existence with the viruses of disregard for incompetence along with their associate bacteria of quotarization. Nigeria’s presidency belongs to all Nigerians. This means that any constitutionally qualified Nigerian from any part of Nigeria is free to vie for the position of President of The Federal Republic at any electoral season set for the purpose. Except those delegates who initiated and supported the rotational presidency idea are indirectly saying that the dream of having Nigeria become a harmonious, efficient, prosperous and strong country is not worth achieving, otherwise their recommendation does not make sense within the context of genuine development consciousness and patriotic commonsense. Aside from being engineered to give big attention to domestic issues and realities, contemporary nation-building processes aimed at achieving greatness are made compulsorily conscious of prevailing and altering patterns in the global environment. The vital question of striking a nationalistic balance between the need for Nigeria to establish an equitable system at home and the imperative of having the country well-led to assert itself on the global field of intense competition at all times can never be answered by the parochial and myopic rotational presidency recommendation of the ‘leopards’ that gave birth to it at the National Conference. Simply put, rotational presidency is quota system. Such a system does not bring the best out of a country! We have put this notorious system to use too many times in the past to no meaningful avail. Nigeria, the destined principal dynamo for the global resurgence of the black race, has no business adopting a system that isolates its great talents from leadership opportunities meant for the fulfilment of its great destiny! Secondly, I oppose the idea of rotational presidency on the ground that it is a recipe for keeping Nigerians divided to the benefit of a criminally self-centred few who use the avoidable spectra of hate and violence among the respective segments of Nigerian masses that they manipulate as raw material for generating political and financial power for themselves. There is no way Nigeria is going to be able to make genuine and sustainable progress by establishing a political system that does not connect with the imperative of harmonizing members of the diverse ethnic constituents of the country to dream, aspire, work and succeed as one big family! The idea of rotational presidency actually emanates from the failure of most delegates to the National Conference to rise above the pettiness of ethnic and religious sentiments that has rendered Nigeria’s political house divided. I am encouraged to emphasize that most delegates to the Conference were more of cultivators of these troublesome sentiments than actual lovers of Nigeria! The business of maintaining these liability-sentiments is a highly lucrative commerce which its operators (predominantly of Northern feudalist extraction) do not want to lose. It as such pays them to create illusionary scenarios that stalemate patriotic logic and drive fear into the weak spirit of their Southern counterparts in order for them to have their unprogressive ways born and established as law and norm on our blessed national ground. The situational currents and the general power dynamics of the world are ever changing. At every twist and turn of these constants, specific types of talents are needed as leaders for pro-active nations to make progress. If our national situation viz-a-viz the dominant international scenario happens to demand from us the reign of the skill and sagacity of a particular type of leadership-talent in Aso Rock as President of Nigeria, and the highly needed talent happens not to be an indigene of the region to which rotation has narrowed our electoral right to produce our Mr President, what will happen to our collective responsibility to achieve real success as a country at all domestic times under any international condition? When our national right to produce our President is zoned by rotation to a particular region, the people who benefit are those who feast and insist on limiting our freedom and arresting our national progress! Did protagonists of rotational presidency at the National Conference run any research to ascertain its viability? Not long ago, members of House of Representatives sitting in Abuja unveiled the report of its Peoples Public Sessions on the review of the 1999 Constitution. These Sessions commenced in November 2012 and had a total of 360 Federal Constituencies under coverage. Out of this number (according to the report), 275 voted against the zoning of the office of the President between the North and South! The report also told that 210 Constituencies rejected the idea of rotating the office of the President among the six geo-political zones of the country. The document revealed that Nigerians preferred the idea of basing the election of their Mr President purely on merit! Judging from the political patterns of the Nigerian nation-state since 1960, I say unequivocally that the National Conference belched the idea of rotational presidency largely on the basis of the squeeze and threats of agents of the moribund and desperate ‘Born-To-Rule’ merchants of Nigeria’s political space by the transient grace of British colonial architecture. Southern delegates who supported the psychosis, in My opinion, acted like spineless hustlers who survive by mortgaging their conscience, moral courage and mental freedom for crumbs that roll off the party-table of the North’s political cabal! Advocates of rotational presidency at the Conference simply amplified the British colonial grand norm of divide-and-rule! The social creed and the politico-economic philosophy of these unreliable elements are totally inconsistent with the spirit, hopes and aspirations of long-suffering Nigerian masses. It does not accommodate the idea of terminating the trans-generational destitution of members of Northern Nigeria’s under-classes! It has always denied Nigeria its place in the hall of greatness. Their rotational presidency recommendation simply aims to re-invent the culture of putting generations of competent Nigerians at political disadvantage! To Be Continued! My Blessing! SATGURU MAHARAJ JI Living Perfect Master
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 02:42:53 +0000
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