Zoning: Primitive Political Posturing

M. O. ENÉ

egbedaa@aol.com

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Zoning? Does anyone think with the head these days? Who are these people who pollute Nigeria’s political environment with primitive political posturing? What has “zoning” got to do with the fourth general elections of the Fourth Republic? It has become obvious that Nigeria’s major problem is not leadership; the trouble with Nigeria is simpler: noncompliance with the rule of law; it feeds the crude corruption cells embedded in Nigeria’s DNA.

If Nigerians believe in the country as constituted, then there is nothing wrong with its political establishments that cannot be resolved with due respect to the supreme book of laws: the Constitution. Of course, the colonial contraption called country could do with some more tinkering, a lot of which has happened in the past 50 years, including twice-losing parts to Cameroon and condoning continued geopolitical gerrymandering called “creation of states.”

“Zoning” is not in any books governing the union of often-troublesome ethnic groups that make up the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The word “zone” appears only once in the current Constitution of 1999 under “Fundamental Rights”:

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the entire property in and control of all minerals, mineral oils and natural gas in under or upon any land in Nigeria or in, under or upon the territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Nigeria shall vest in the Government of the Federation and shall be managed in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly. [Chapter 4:44(3)]

So what is the fuss all about “zoning”; what zones? Who created these phantom zones? In case you just returned from Planet Lost, the dominant political party in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), holds the country captive with its internal dastardly distractions and heats up the polity in the process.

Truth be told, there is something like “zoning” in the make-up of PDP. What is zoning? If you live in USA, you will recognize the word: It is a decree device used by town and county governments to plan physical developments, how lands are used, and where to site certain buildings and establishment. For example, the New York City Council can “zone” all religious establishments away from Ground Zero.

In Nigeria, “zoning” is a special device of the ruling PDP by which the federal-character provision of the Constitution is implemented:

The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies. [Chapter 2:14 (3)]

“Zoning” means discreet distribution of dividends of democracy. Yes, even in a severely flawed democracy, where votes are stolen brazenly and money politics is prevalent, there can be honor among thieves. PDP has done well in managing stolen power, but its luck may be running out and fast.

No one should be troubled about “zoning”; it is actually a good thing. However, there is no law anywhere in Nigeria that stipulates that the highest office of the land, the presidency, should be “zoned” to anyone or to any yet-to-be-defined zone. What we have is an internal arrangement of a partisan political party. The arrangement has worked fairly well after elections are won. Alas, it is now being skewed and elevated as a pseudo-constitutional, pre-primary election provision just because, by divine intervention, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua passed before completing his tenure.

There was never any zoning of the topmost elected political position in Nigeria, not in PDP and not in any other party. What we have always had is a balancing act across the north-south and Christian-Muslim divide. With the obvious exception of Muhammadu Buhari-Tunde Idiagbon regime, when two northern military Muslim men of Fulani extraction ruled Nigeria for a few months and the aborted MKO Abiola-Baba Gana Kingibe ticket, where two Muslim politicians attempted to rule, Nigeria has kept the spirit of north-south, Christina-Muslim, unwritten “balance” at the top. There has never been a national turn-by-turn “zoning” of the top ticket; 2011 should not be different.

The principle of zoning political positions is not restricted to Nigeria. Often in USA, the north-south divide drives president-vice president tickets, but it never stipulates who gets to the top. In Nigeria, the Christian-Muslim divide further complicates matters, a situation that obviously works against minority northern Christians and minority southern Muslims. We will one day get gender divide in the mix.

Nigerians should not stew in PDP’s internal distractions. They need a strong mega political party to counter PDP. Eventually, the ambition of Ibrahim Babangida, IBB, will midwife that party—as I had forecast in 2007. There is no way IBB will beat President Goodluck Jonathan in a PDP primary. No, it does not work that way in African politics! In addition, that Jonathan will agree to a term is preposterous.

Why? The Igbo has a good saying: Onye kpu igu ka ewu na-eso. (The goat follows the person dragging fresh palm frond). Dr. Jonathan is dragging juicy palm fronds; he is bound to be followed by political goats. He will win the PDP primary. If IBB wants to go out in style, he will scramble a strong opposition party. In essence, he will set his legacy: Achieving via political persuasion the two-party system he could not institute by military federal fiat. This is one legacy that will mask the June 12 Annulment.

The question in the minds of many Igbo people is how to navigate the present political brouhaha when the Yoruba are adopting another “siddon look” position they took when Sani Abacha became extremely vicious. The various “press releases” from all-comer Igbo groups amount to little in terms of Igbo nationalism; they are mere personal positioning using the Igbo umbrella to shade personal political ambitions.

If I were a non-Igbo, I would fight to make an Igbo the president! We can take a headcount from recent political appointees: From the strong, mostly Igbo economic team that President Olusegun Obasanjo assembled to the current powerful persons in Dr. Jonathan’s government, what have these Igbo people done for Ndiigbo? Nothing! As an account has it, an Igbo man saw Obasanjo last before bed and first before breakfast, yet he brought only bedlam and brigandage to his native Igboland!

Those who say to forget old stories must make sure new things don’t happen. Let us take one: Charles Soludo allowed African Continental Bank to expire even when, as his Hausa-Fulani successor confessed, it didn’t need the mandated 25-billion-naira capitalization base to survive. A Yoruba man would not do that to Oodua Bank; a Hausa man would not do that to Arewa Bank. We are our own worst enemies; we marginalize ourselves. We don’t think much about our base because the average Igbo politician acts more Nigerian, as if to punish his own ethnic group!

Take two: The first Igbo Inspector General of Police (since Mike Okiro never made up his mind about his ethnicity) has almost ceded Igboland to kidnappers. No Hausa man would allow such indignity. Take three: The minister of aviation is an Igbo woman, a tapioca-feed and ọkpa-snacked Waawa women; yet, for no decent reason, Enugu airport remains closed and will remain closed until she leaves the office. Should we take four? The highest Igbo elected politician, Ike Ekweremadu, has done zilch for his Enugu West constituency in eight years; Oji River is in his constituency!

The Igbo should forget perpetual peripatetic politicians positioning themselves for 2011. They work for themselves, not for Ndiigbo. Ex-Senate President Ken Nnamani wants to be vice president to IBB; of course, he will want to drag the Igbo along. That is PDP zoning in action. Hakuna matata! However, that IBB will step aside in 2015 and allow Nnamani to step in is balderdash. We saw how that played out with President Shehu Shagari and Vice President Alex Ekwueme in 1983. I don’t want an Igbo president; I want a good president who may be Igbo, Ijaw (Izon), Ibibio, Idoma, Igala, Isoko, Itsekiri, and any of the other A-Z alphabets

I like PDP. I like that Nigeria has one strong party. I like its tenacity. I like its ability to absorb and reabsorb the “timbers and calibers” of Nigeria’s political tribe. Though I hate its honor-among-thieves habits, its backstabbing bent, and the gust of Ghana-must-go, I still want the party to exist. I want it to exist in all its malfeasance because that’s the only way the other disparate 50 political parties will come together and show Nigerians a viable alternative to PDP.

I have heard so many meanings made out of “PDP.” PDP should not take Nigerians for granted with the “Perpetually Destructive Perspective” of zoning Nigeria’s presidency. This latest “Permanently Deaf President” it produced must stop the party from “Permanently Delivering Poverty” in alliance with “Particularly Dubious People” that surround him. Just as we got used to getting rid of the 1999-2007 “Progressively Despotic President,” the current product is busy “Playing Dangerous Pranks” with the few months the good God granted him. By “Permitting Dangerous Practices,” the “Plainly Demented People” of the party are “Poisonously Decimating Policies.” If the "People Destroying Party" does not wake up to its responsibilities as just one of the 50 partisan political parties in Nigeria—not “Poorly Defined Proprietors” of a one-party state—then its “Present Deceitful Potheads” will make PDP stand for “Perpetually Destructive Pestilence.”

The governors of Igboland have handed the crown to President Jonathan, an Ijaw man, without anyone asking them for it—probably hoping that “zoning” will favor them in 2015. It is understandable: Onye kpu igu ka ewu na-eso. The governors fund Ohanaeze, and its current leader, Ralph Uwechue, is from the south-south zone with Ijaw godfather, Edwin Clark. The six-zone argument should grow louder, but all public utterances on what party produces the president, from what zone, and when are wrong and hollow-headed. Igbo politicians do well in level playing fields where set rules apply. Let them go out and duke it out in their respective parties, but they must learn to deliver to the people whose power they exercise.

Bottom line, “zoning of the presidency” is unconstitutional, undemocratic, and unsustainable; the key solution to the illogicality is credible elections.

Everything else is embellishment.