ACT 61 Scene 2 of equity, power sharing and 2015 presidency
Chairman: Thank you, Sir. All those that have spoken are proponents of zoning and hail from the North. However, despite its so-called monolithic posture, the North has always accommodated “dissidents” politically amongst its ranks from the First Republic 1960 to date 2010. Again the South has always been fractured politically and has laboured differing and […]
Chairman: Thank you, Sir. All those that have spoken are proponents of zoning and hail from the North. However, despite its so-called monolithic posture, the North has always accommodated “dissidents” politically amongst its ranks from the First Republic 1960 to date 2010. Again the South has always been fractured politically and has laboured differing and diverse views on almost all national topical issues. I think it is in order to listen to all view points on zoning and rotation of offices before they conclude and take a decision on the matter. With the permission of the house may I call upon Baron Dan Taroh. Co-chairman of the Northern Summit Group to brief us on the Group’s position on zoning. After him we will invite Baron Nawerri and other Barons from the South to speak.
All Barons – Agreed, Sir.
Baron Dan Taroh: I co-chaired the meeting convened in Kaduna by the Northern Political Summit which endorsed President Jonathan’s candidacy in 2011. We believe that President Yar’adua and Jonathan were elected in 2007 on a joint ticket. Their term does not expire until 2015. The demise of one, Yar’adua should not adversely affect the fortune of the other, zoning or no-zoning. Hence our stand.
The so-called monolithic North had always accommodated differing shades of political opinion. In the first republic we had Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). United Middle-Belt Congress (UMBC), Bornu Youth Movement, etc., in addition to the dominant party in the Region, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC). But we all ascribed to the idea of one North, one people one Destiny, espoused by the Late Sardauna of Sokoto of blessed memory. We share the same position with the Northern Governors who recognize the right of Jonathan to contest the 2011 election. This position tallies with my position in a paper I presented at the Northern political summit held in Kaduna on July 15, 2010. It is clear in the PDP that whenever it has sitting president who wants to contest, all members should support him. This should apply to Jonathan if he decides to run.
Chairman: It is our view, in the Northern Leaders Political Forum, that the zoning principle must be allowed to run its full course, such that a Northerner should emerge as President in 2011. In the interest of the mutual respect among sections of the country, we are not out to prevent President Goodluck Jonathan from presenting himself as a candidate in the 2011 elections. Our meetings and consultations are about the moral sanctity of respecting political agreements and arrangements which if not respected will erode trust. They are about power sharing at all levels of our society and the stability of the country. Name calling for those insisting on zoning and specious constitutional arguments will not solve what is obviously a political problem. In any case, there is no section of our constitution that outlaws zoning as there is also no section that prevents political leaders from going into special arrangements to share power, ensure equality and stability.
Narrator: At a special meeting of the Northern held in Kaduna on Tuesday July 27, 2010 collating the report from all the 19 Northern exhaustive deliberations recognized the following:
a. The supremacy of the 1999 Constitution as encapsulated in section one;
b. The provision of section 131 of 1999 constitution of election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Arising from the above, therefore, the forum knowledge’s the right of President Goodluck Jonathan, and indeed any other Nigerian to legitimately and constitutionally contest for the office of the president.
On zoning, the Forum recognizes the fact that the issue of zoning is a PDP affair as contained in section 7 (2c) of the party constitution. Therefore, in acknowledging the circumstances of Force Majure from the demise of Late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua and the subsequent ascendancy of President Goodluck Ebele Jonahan to the presidency. The Forum resolves that wider consultations should continue at all party levels within the PDP with all stakeholders across the nation to address the concerns of all in the interest of peaceful co-existence and advancement of democracy in our dear country Nigeria.
This sums up the Northern position regarding zoning and rotation of political offices. The South too, which is more fractured than the North, also holds divergent views on the vexed issue of zoning.
ACT 61 SCENES 2
Chairman: Now that we have heard from various northern groups on zoning, we have invited our Southern brothers and sisters to air their views on the matter. I have, on your behalf, invited Baron Nadeltako alias Mai Mai, from the South South geopolitical zone to address us on the position of his region on zoning. Over to you, Chief.
Baron Nadeltako: (Delta Elder) alias Mai Mai (possessor of Oil). Thank you Lord Chairman and through you all my Northern friends gathered here. All the older Barons know my pedigree but for the benefit of the younger ones – those below the age of 70 years, I hail from the Southern region of Nigeria – the goose that lays Nigeria’s golden egg. I was an assistant to late chief Dappa Biriye of blessed memory who first forged an alliance between the party, the Niger Delta Congress (NDC) and the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and gave this great party a toe – hold in the South – the only seats it claimed by virtue of the alliance. Our friendship is unshakeable with apology to U.S President Barrak Obama, referring to US/Israel relationship. Our position on zoning is this. The North has been ruling this country from 1958 or 1957 for 38 years and eight months, both military and civilians. The South-West has ruled this country for 12 years and the South-East for only six months when General Aguiyi Ironsi was Head of State. But the South South people, the minorities of the South, have never produced a president for this country. Therefore, if by God’s wish He decided that these people who produce the wealth of this country have not been fairly treated I will give them President who are those people to challenge the will of God? So zoning is meant to correct the injustice that is marginalization, discrimination. So people who have not been getting that position, God is saying it is now your turn to be there.
Let me correct one thing here and that is majority of the Northerners do not believe in these few people who want to retain power. If you belong to one country, everybody in that country must be on equal basis and capable of ruling the country otherwise we will have a country of first class and second class citizens.
If two people are in a plane and in the process one of them by God’s doing, dies, the co-pilot takes over. Have you ever heard that the co-pilot comes down for another pilot to fly the plane? All we are saying is that there is a president in this country, unless the president does not want to contest, the PDP should be decent and honest – enough to say that after your period, nobody is asking Jonathan to contest for eight years. It is a four year business. When it finishes, you go. That is the tune hold of them could have ruled.
Baron Nawerri: When I heard of the non-intention to vie for the Presidency in 2011, 1 wept. I can’t believe any South East Governor not will be so un-Igbo to utter that kind of rubbish. They spoke for themselves, the five of them. They did not speak for Ndigbo, neither for the leaders nor the people. They must be made to retract such insult to the collective integrity and stature of Ndigbo. If it is possible to attain the presidency in 2011, the Ndigbo will go for it. If it is possible to achieve it in 2015 the Igbo will go for it. Ndigbo know who their leaders are. They cannot be deceived or distracted from the historic mission of producing a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in as short a time as possible. How I wished that the traditional Igbo masquerades could speak for the Igbo on zoning. The true Igbo masquerade would tell you that rotation of political offices is as old as Nigeria – it is older than Nigeria, at least in the Igbo area. It was not started by the NPN of the Second republic, as many have stated. Right from the earliest times, monarchies were not permitted in Igbo communities. There can be no better explanation for Ndigbo’s republicanism than their love for rotation of leadership positions. Even if all other parts of Nigeria are against rotation, Ndigbo should not be. All the politicians that have been speaking against rotation are not sincere – they are only trying to please the president, and dishonestly so. Yes, Jonathan has the right to contest. He did not kill Yar’adua to become president. But it is not yet the turn of the South-East to produce the presidential candidate of the PDP. And, in 2015. the party’s candidate should come from the South – East including Igbo land. Zoning is not democratic, but Nigeria has not grown above it.