Who Rules Nigeria

*Dr 'Wole Akinwumi and Mr Omusa Baba Ohyoma, FCCA

Even the most casual observer of the Nigerian press and political terrain would know that the most topical issue in Nigerian politic today is the issue of which geo-political zone of the country should produce the next President of our dear country.

The collapse of the third term bid has exacerbated the unholy debate about which direction the Presidential pendulum should swing – North or South.

Constitutionally, we are less than a year away from the swearing in of a new President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but surprisingly Nigeria’s political scene is still blatantly blank. Given other democracies, we should by now be intoxicated with manifestos and party programmes upon which the elections are to be fought and promises made on how to utilise our abundant economic and human resources to improve the lives of the ordinary people. To the contrary, our political leaders have been demanding that the next President of Nigeria should be either a Northerner or a Southerner, depending on the part of the country they hail from, in the interests (they say), of office rotation. Some have asked for a rotation based on the six geo-political zones formula, in other words, the North-Central, North-East, North- West, South-East, South-South and the South-West. Other groups argue that the rotation should be based on the 1914 British concept of the Eastern, Northern and Western Regions.

The provision of our constitution is very simple. It guarantees that every Nigerian that satisfies the criteria set out in it could aspire to any elective post in the land. There was no mention of zoning in any of these criteria.

The zoning system is democratically retrogressive. If followed for instance, no one from the South West would be entitled to contest the presidency of Nigeria for the next 40 years. This is granting that the five remaining zones have 2 terms each after OBJ. The zoning system is fairness go crazy and make a mockery of true democracy.

The question is simple. Should we as a progressive and civilised nation base our leadership choice on zone of birth or emulate countries with long standing pedigree of democracy and elect our leaders based on policies, demonstrable track record, vision to take Nigeria to great heights, suitability for the office and above all, a detribalised individual with genuine interests of indivisible Nigeria?

We believe that the choice of who Nigerians should entrust the privilege of managing the affairs of the nation to should at all times be based on the competency and credibility of the individual, regardless of which zone they hail from and whether or not they reside in their zone of origin. This approach would ensure compliance with provision in the current constitution, which grants equal rights to citizens of Nigeria irrespective of their place of birth and choice of residence within the Nigerian territory.

We admit that Nigeria's democracy is still evolving but lament the failure of our political leaders to favour a democratic system based on selection (zoning) rather than one based on grassroots’ support through a detribalised primaries and subsequent election.

TNP UK is a group dedicated to good governance in Nigeria and was in the forefront in the campaign both in Nigeria and abroad against changing the Nigerian constitution to allow additional term of office.

*Dr Wole Akinwumi (from Ekiti State) is a Senior Lecturer in International Economics, Finance & Statistics in East Anglia UK and Mr Omusa Baba Ohyoma, FCCA (from Nasarawa State) is a Chartered Certified Accountant and a Financial Controller/Budget Co-ordinator & Development for a large London Government Authority. Both are Policy Advisors to The Nigerian Project, UK.