A chieftain of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and former secretary of the defunct Action Congress, Dr Usman Bugaje, has called for collegiate system of leadership in the country to end the North-South presidential rotation debate.
Dr Bugaje, who spoke on Friday on an Arise News television programme, said he would prefer the country to get the best hands wherever they might come from to run the country than narrowing the presidential choice to a region of the country.
Bugaje said: “I would rather we do a collegiate leadership where we get the best and the brightest and there are a lot of them in this country, to come forward and salvage their country.”
He called for inclusive governance based on competence and denounced the perennial regional divisions and corrupt leadership in Nigeria.
The political and civil society activist stressed the need for a new narrative that combined popular participation with tangible developmental outcomes.
According to him, the perennial North-South debate and sometimes divisive politics is both outdated and detrimental to national progress.
He queried the wisdom of electing leaders solely on regional lines, citing past experiences as evidence of its detrimental effect on the country.
He said: “Buhari’s experience is self-sufficient evidence that this idea of putting somebody from one part of the country to become president doesn’t really work, it doesn’t make sense. Because what do you want him to do? To favour his part of the country and to abandon others…? This is very naïve to say the least. So, the point I am making is that you can achieve inclusion and not at the expense of development.
“I think the presidential ticket should not be clouded by this North and South thing. We have to prioritise competence and knowledge and character. In fact, the most important thing is character.
“We must not lose sight of the fact that this country is sinking. If we continue with that kind of North and South then we lose sight of the fact that this country cannot develop and I think we need to change the conversation.”
Speaking on 25 years of democracy in Nigeria, Bugaje noted that so much had changed that that kind of conversation (on rotational presidency) should be outdated.
“Yes, politics is about popular participation. Yes, inclusion is very important. Yes, people need to make sense or have good reasons to be able to participate. But I think what has happened in the last 25 years is the fact that we have tried these kinds of models of North and South, and this and that, and the country is only going down the drain. So, I think it is time to start a new conversation, to start rethinking, how can we have democracy with development?
“We’re having democracy with all these things of North and South and East and West and whatever you have, and the country is not developing. If anything, it’s actually de-developing. It is going down the drain, all the indices of development are taking a nosedive.
“So I would rather say while yes, it is important that we recognise every part of this story and become inclusive, but I think we will be losing out on the challenges that are facing us if we continue, with all the problems we have, to start talking about North and South. I would rather be part of a new conversation that starts thinking about what team do we require that can fix this country that is about to break down, that is about to be run aground by reckless and irresponsible politicians who have held power in the last 25 years, and they are not ashamed of the fact that they have not performed well, and they are still talking about ambitions.”
Bugaje stressed that while inclusion remained critical to governance, it should not devolve into a fixation on regional representation, saying “we have to recognise everybody, we have to include everybody, we have to consult, but this should not deteriorate to a level that we start looking at turn by turn presidency, or we start looking at, or become fixated with this formula of North and South.”
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