As the inauguration of the next Nigerian legislature, termed the 10th National Assembly, draws near, different people and groups have started plotting to emerge leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Arguments based on zonal and religious balancing have been pushed forward by different individuals and groups to favour them. One of such is that the Senate presidency should be zoned to the South-East for the sake of equity and justice.
However, the call for the South-East to produce the Senate president actually runs against equity and justice. When the Peoples Democratic Party was led by people who put justice, balancing and inclusiveness above their personal interest, the Senate presidency was zoned to the South-East between 1999 and 2007. What that meant was that no other zone could produce the Senate president during those eight years. Similarly, other prime positions were zoned to other parts. The presidency was held by the South-West; the vice presidency was zoned to the North-East; the chairmanship of the party and the deputy Senate presidency were zoned to the North-Central; the speakership was zoned to the North-West; while the deputy speakership was zoned to the South-South. That way, all the zones were represented in the leadership of the country and felt a sense of belonging.
As the presidency moved from zone to zone, all the top positions also rotated among the six zones. The only time that rotation was breached was in 2011 when the South-West, led by Senator Bola Tinubu, rejected the position of the speakership zoned to it by the PDP and handed it over to the North-West, making the current governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, to become the speaker. The Action Congress of Nigeria, which controlled the politics of the South-West, was said to have taken that action then because it did not want a top-ranking PDP officer in the zone.
However, since 2015 when the All Progressives Congress took over power at the centre, that zoning arrangement has been discarded. APC has not even bothered to hide the fact that it does not care about inclusiveness. That style of governance has made the country more divided than it has ever been. The APC has pushed forward the argument of “competence” over “equity,” but the argument has fallen flat on its face, as there has been no evidence to prove that competence was the overriding factor in its exclusive method of rulership. The so-called competent officers running Nigerian affairs since 2015 have not produced any result that can be compared with the inclusive team that ran the affairs during the tenures of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua or Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
In this Fourth Republic, in addition to producing the Senate president for eight years, the South-East has also produced the deputy Senate president (Senator Ike Ekweremadu) for 12 years (within a period of 24 years) and also produced the deputy speaker (Emeka Ihedioha) for four years. Before the Fourth Republic, the South-East had dominated the leadership of the Nigerian legislature. The first Nigerian Senate president was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. He handed over to Chief Dennis Osadebay, who was from the South-South but of Igbo ethnicity. Osadebay handed over to Dr. Nwafor Orizu in 1963 and he continued in office until 1966 when the military truncated democratic rule. In that same First Republic, Chief Jaja Wachukwu was the first speaker of the House of Representatives from 1959 to 1960.
In the Second Republic, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was the speaker of the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983. When the military returned to partial democratic rule in 1992, Chief Agunwa Anaekwe became the speaker until it was truncated in 1993 again by the military.
Therefore, it will be unjust and unfair for the South-East to produce the Senate president when the National Assembly is convened in June. The big challenge working against Nigeria’s greatness is the rapacious disregard for justice and equity among most Nigerians on issues of power and sharing of resources. Most Nigerians have a tendency to capture power and retain it to the exclusion of others. This might-is-right ideology permeates the Nigerian psyche. Ironically, those who complain of injustice or exclusion at one level dispense injustice to others at another level. The only time most Nigerians see anything as unjust is when they are the direct victims. But if they are beneficiaries, they find justifications for such acts of injustice.
A friend of mine, Eric Chimara, captured it vividly in a Facebook post last week. He wrote: “Benue State was created in 1976. In every democratic dispensation since its creation till date, no Idoma or Igede has ever ruled the state. The Tivs, with their numerical strength, have monopolised the seat that allowing the other groups closer isn’t something to be deliberated upon let alone considered.
“Kogi State was created in 1991. The first elected governor of the state was Prince Abubakar Audu, an Igala man. The Igalas had gone on to rule the state uninterrupted for about 18 years and were on the verge of continuing their dominance (100 percent) until the unfortunate demise of the governor-elect, Audu, which created a miraculous opportunity for an Ebira man, Yahaya Bello, to become governor for the first time in the history of the state. After Bello’s eight years, one would have expected him to uphold equity and fairness, considering how, by dint of luck, he had become governor, by zoning the seat to Kogi West (Yorubas) who haven’t been elected governor in the state. However, like most of his fellow unsympathetic politicians, he’s doing everything possible for another Ebira man, like himself, to succeed him.
“In Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai has made sure that the Muslim/Christian tickets hitherto enjoyed in the state are buried in the past forever. This seems like a ploy to forestall any emergence of a Christian governor by any means like it happened when Patrick Yakowa emerged governor after Sambo was nominated to the post of vice president by Jonathan.
“There are many cases of this blatant disregard for equity, fairness and justice in a pluralistic country like ours all over the place. People’s sense of self worth, sense of belonging isn’t being considered by the bullish majority. The weirdest thing about the whole situation is that the usurpers, intimidators, dominators still expect the downtrodden to hold hands together with them and sing ‘Oh happy day’ while living peacefully … with them.”
This scenario is found at the federal level, state level, local government, town level and village level. There is a fixation by the majority to appropriate power and exclude those they don’t like. If the power were used for profitable ventures in the public interest, it could be overlooked. But it is usually used wrongly to the detriment and regress of the community.
Even though some people in Nigeria did not agree that the 2023 election should be zoned to the South-East, whose turn it was to produce the president, it should not make any person of conscience to support the attempt to zone the Senate presidency or speakership to the South-East. The results of the legislative elections show that APC won the majority seats in both houses. APC has also made it clear since it came into power in 2015 that it is not primarily concerned about balancing political positions along zonal or religious lines. Therefore, there is no need for it to start using that logic now.
•Written by Azuka Onwuka
Twitter: @BrandAzuka
