"... 2023 Presidency must swing South is a wise arrangement that must be left sacrosanct" -Fola Ojo

Wrote Fola Ojo

IF Nigeria were a society where ethnic bigotry and tribal dogmatism do not cheaply overrun and almost eviscerate commonsensical rational thinking and open-mindedness, the discussion about what region or geopolitical zone the next president should come from in 2023 wouldn’t have attracted my flimsiest attention. If mutual distrust and bruised co-existential relationship sincerely do not exist among Nigerians positioned high or low, who becomes the presidential charge-d’affaires should have been freely weighed strictly around a candidate’s competence and savviness to govern and administer free and easy without a hamper from invisible shackles that come with governance. If top political portfolios in the country and high-ranking seats in juicy offices like the NNPC, Customs , and the likes were dished out based exclusively on pedigreed credentials, and not the village aspirers for those positions  come from, I wouldn’t have chosen to join in the debate about whether the Presidency continues to nest in the north or swing southward three years from now.

But Nigeria is a peculiar species. An intricate and flummox fusion she is. She has always been in the trenches of strangulating struggles to be the best since the 1914 amalgamation by the British of the Northern and Southern protectorates. In every fissure and crevice, she is doused by the inferno of ethnic execration and hate. The knees of the monster have been on the pliably fragile neck of the country. It is why she is in asphyxiation. A nation in laboured breathing. Vast numbers of Nigerians walk, talk, sneeze, and cough ethnic antipathy. Even in higher government offices, ethnic prejudice is spewed in your face if you don’t look or speak like ‘them’. Many government businesses are run in ethnic languages. And if you dare challenge the perpetrators, they’ll tell you to go take lessons in their language. These are some of the reasons why eyebrows flash off when one region is suspected to be attempting a ‘third term’ agenda with the Nigerian Presidency. A perpetuation push of a bloc over others does not sit well with Nigerians. They will push back hard and definitively. “Many Nigerians are tribalistic by their DNA. Nigerians have many ethnic slurs and derogatory names they brazenly call each other home and abroad.  In my opinion, Sir, racism and tribalism are twin evils, but a tribalist is worse than a racist”. A friend of mine, Chris Iweha, from the South-East submitted.

Recently, Mamman Daura, one of Nigeria’s most powerful figures and a confidante and nephew of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), opined in a BBC Hausa Service interview that the next President of Nigeria can come from anywhere in the country. Daura does not believe in rotational presidency. He believes that competence requirement should trump the region condition a candidate comes from when it comes to who becomes president. It was assumed in many quarters that Daura might have been speaking on behalf of some elements who want the presidency to nest up in the North in 2023 and beyond.

Competence as a requirement for leadership is a great idea. But in the Giant of Africa where ethnic prejudice reigns and rules, competence and rotational presidency are a progressive combo for a nation that is still fighting to keep her acts together in all areas on this ‘love-boat’ called Nigeria. No one region has a monopoly on competence. From the nook of the Northern plain to the cranny of the Southern savannah, Nigeria is blessed with competent men and women. We may never know on whose behalf Daura expressed the opinion; but given the complex nature of a country like Nigeria, and given the prevalent and protracted ethnic tension and distrust, it only makes sense to ensure that in 2023, the pendulum of the Nigerian Presidency swings South.

Over recent years, Nigeria has had her own unfair share of chaos and violence. Up till now, Nigerians are being slaughtered in Southern Kaduna and a greater part of the North-East. If you are one of those who believe that a unified Nigeria is a living reality we are striving to live with, rotational presidency too is a living reality that we cannot do without in order to keep Nigeria chaos-free.  “If as some political amateurs are suggesting, that rotation should be ignored, power will forever remain in one region, and that will not be pretty for the other regions, for our country, and our democracy”, Malam Baba, a friend and Northerner, submitted.

Blame not Daura; or his friends for whom he might have spoken. Where there are no written rules, there are no infractions and breaches. The brewing confusion about what region of the country the President should come from during every election cycle had once been settled by Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s military dictator. It was Abacha who saw what others did not see when he ensured that rotational presidency be enshrined in the 1997 constitution that never saw the light of day. Abacha understood that democracy is a game of numbers. The junta correctly foresaw a situation where one region with the population and number may hold on to power eternally at the chagrin of other regions. But suddenly, Abacha died. And when Abdulsalami Abubakar succeeded him as Head-of-State in 1998; and the conversation for a transfer of power to a democratically elected government was ongoing, Abdulsalami tossed out the rotational presidency idea from the draft. And here we are today in an unnecessary wrangling that could have been settled by a simple constitutional provision.

A reliable voice in the ruling party All Progressives Congress told me that the party leadership had an agreement that the South would be given the presidential slot for 2023. Should this not settle the issue? No. Politicians are self-serving agents of instability who change their minds based on prevalent exigencies. There is no word of a politician you can take to the bank. In politics, it then serves a nation better if all agreements are written down for easy referencing in the days of definite trouble.

I salute the advocating voices in the North who pitch their camps with fair play, and have chosen to stand on the side of what works for the peace and prosperity of Nigeria. Elements in the region who are calling for a sit-tight agenda around the Nigerian presidency must be reminded that the nation’s PEACE is fragile; and our coexistence is frail. Nigeria exists today because of some carefully managed understanding between the North and the South. That 2023 Presidency must swing South is a wise arrangement that must be left sacrosanct.