On zoning, power sharing

With the confirmation of the election of President Muhammadu Buhari for the second term, it seems the door to 2023 elections campaign has been opened.

Although, there were rumours or speculations that Buhari would seek a third term, the president has denied this and assured Nigerians that he will only serve for two times as stipulated in the 1999 constitution.

However, what has continued to baffle or puzzle many Nigerians is the question of whether the ruling party has reached an agreement on the controversial zoning arrangement or not. In the buildup to the 2015 election, the ruling PDP then was enmeshed with power rotation crises with a belief that former president, Goodluck Jonathan, had breached the power zoning arrangement perfected and entrenched by his party. The inability of the party to resolve the crises contributed greatly towards its woeful performance and ultimate defeat. Now, it is history.

The 2023 election is still far away. However, those who have been watching political developments in the country may rightly or wrongly say that the alignment and re-alignment of political forces has begun in earnest. It appears the ruling party is in a state of dilemma on the issues of power rotation.

The person who fired the first salvo was the governor of Kaduna state, Nasiru El-rufai, describing zoning of political offices as barrier to political equality. He called for an expulsion of zoning and application of merit in our politics.

Recently, the acting chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum, Musa Liman Kwande, stated that Northerners would only vote for a Northern candidate in no distant time, other similar socio-cultural organisations in the country will emerge and come up with their violent political threats. The threat and counter threat will unarguably heat up the political atmosphere and further divide the country along fault lines even before the election period.

The framers of our constitution have done a wonderful job when they enacted laws that mandated each state to produce a ministerial slot.

The 1999 constitution also came up with the principle of federal character in order to give every ethnic group a sense of belonging. The constitutional provisions are aimed at addressing the problem of maginalisation and under-representation across the political zone. Each of the six geo-political zones is blessed with people of timber and calibre that have excelled in various fields of human development and could hold any position if given the opportunity.

No region has the monopoly of competent hands. It is obvious power rotation has helped tremendously towards promoting unity in diversity. It has addressed the problems of power domination by certain zones in the country. By adopting the principle of power sharing before it was discarded due to selfishness and power greed, the PDP deserves commendation.

The ruling APC should learn a lesson from PDP’s self-inflicted zoning problems that consumed it in 2015. The leadership of the party should speak up about its zoning position in order to calm frayed nerves and clear the doubt in the minds of their stakeholders, candidates and party supporters.

Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua,

Kaduna State