“To refuse political equality is to rob the ostracised of all self-respect.” — Elizabeth Candy Stanton
Long before Nigeria became a bed of violence stoked by non-state actors as is the case today, Montiquant, an American author and philosopher had taken a position on how a society can liberate itself. His words: “It’s clear that the way to heal society of its violence and lack of love is to replace the pyramid of dominance with the circle of equality and respect.”
For us in Nigeria, this message is meant for no better time than now. At this time, the political scene is abuzz with horse-trading over next year’s general election amid unprecedented bloodletting.
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is even at the crossroads at the moment over the zoning of its presidential ticket for 2023. But one of the PDP aspirants and former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, appears to have provided an easy way out. The former VP said that he would drop his presidential bid if PDP decided to zone the position, particularly to the region that is yet to produce a president in this dispensation. To us, Atiku’s latest position gives the party a soft landing, despite that the stand could easily be interpreted as grandstanding and politicking. It goes straight, though, to address the well-intentioned justice of zoning.
Judging by the appearance of his visage on the ballot box, the former VP is easily the recurring decimal of this republic. He has contested all presidential elections since 1999 when he was on the ballot twice, as a gubernatorial candidate of PDP in Adamawa State. He was elected but was yet to take the oath of office when he was nominated to run with presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo. This earned him a place on the presidential polls ballot. He still holds the record as the man who migrated to the Presidency after his election as the governor of Adamawa. In 2003, he was on the ballot as the vice-presidential candidate of the ruling PDP, in 2007 he was on the ballot as the opposition candidate for president while still the VP of the Obasanjo ticket, in 2011 and 2015 was also an aspirant and in 2019 he returned to pick the ticket of PDP in an election that he was believed to have won.
Little wonder he is an issue in this forthcoming election. His name continues to be on the front burner of every political conversation. Not even the seeming age disadvantage and his name sounding like an overused product ad in the political space could slow him down. The more you think that Atiku is finished, the more his name dominates the discourse. All the gangs within PDP since last year that culminated in the abrupt disruption of the tenure of Prince Uche Secondus as the PDP National Chairman, were intended to stop Atiku. The contrived unity of the PDP governors was a front aimed at stopping Atiku. But the more they tried the stronger he waxed; within the governor’s fold, the centre still refused to hold.
The Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi Zoning Committee, by allowing the National Chair to the North, was to signal Atiku that the ticket for president was headed down South. But the so-called unity of the governors could not see through the desire for a southern presidential ticket. An indication that the plans of the governors had collapsed was when they put the cart before the horse by selling the presidential form before actually zoning the positions. Not a few pundits saw the setting up of the zoning committee after forms were being sold to all as fruitless and a mission dead on arrival. The 37-member team drawn from every state under Governor Sam Ortom of Benue State came out with the expected, throwing the Presidential position open to all which they referred to the PDP National Executive Committee, NEC, for ratification.
All the foregoing are the backgrounders to the issues for our political musing this week. After the Ortom committee technically failed to deliver and their midwiving governors could not unite to rescue the situation, the development recorded a strange fallout prompting this week’s discourse. PDP governors whose seeming unity started all this could not stay united to push a single front. Instead, they dispersed with fixed geopolitical interests intact.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State who chairs the Governors’ Forum, and his Bauchi State counterpart Bala Mohammad went their way favouring zoning to the North. Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State continued to insist on the presidency coming to the South. But Governors Darius Ishaku of Taraba State, Ahmad Finitiri of Adamawa, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, Duoye Diri of Bayelsa and Godwin Obaseki of Edo chose to sit on the fence, pretending to be neutral but clandestinely favouring an open presidential ticket or one zoned to the North.
Now the question: Why did the governors’ unity that toppled the Prince Secondus NWC collapse? The governors could not move forward as a united front due to a combination of reasons but the top of them was the insincerity of individual members and the ambitions of some of them.
Most southern governors joined the zoning initially believing it was a collective move against injustice. But as the picture got clearer, it became obvious that all the hard work in the name of the South was fake. As the silhouette gave way to light, it became evident that Governor Wike, who chiefly drove the cause from inception and was seen as a crusader for the South, was fighting for himself. The meaning of South in Wike’s consideration is himself and nobody else. He believes that he is the only one who can bankroll the pursuit for the South whether or not he meets the required standard for the presidency. To him, money is the ultimate.
If the initial spirit behind zoning was for power balancing and to give a sense of belonging to all, a sincere advocate for the South should be looking at the South-East more than any other zone in the region. The other two regions in the South, South West and South-South have occupied the Presidency, unlike the South-East. In PDP, Olusegun Obasanjo was there for eight years from 1999 to 2007; in the current ruling party, Yemi Osinbajo, also from South-West, has been Vice President since 2015. South-South also has been there for nearly nine years [three as Vice-President (2007 to 2010) and President (2010 to 2015)].
Therefore, anybody seeking justice for the South and not looking in the South-East direction is deliberately duplicitous. It was perhaps when some governors realised the double standards in their colleagues that they began to distance themselves from the governors’ union. But the boldest action aimed at giving real meaning to zoning in its true sense is the standing challenge issued by Atiku Abubakar to southern governors who had insisted on the presidency coming to the South. The governors’ position which was a dig targeted at Atiku and other northern presidential aspirants evoked a quick response from Atiku who said he is ready and willing to quit the race if it’s zoned to the area that has not had it in the South. To Atiku that is the only way to give correct meaning to the spirit and letter of the zoning formula as put forward by the PDP founding fathers.
If the people of the South-West and South-South are frowning at throwing the presidential ticket open and yet refusing to let it go even to their most deprived Southern neighbour, they are as morally challenged as the northerners in this instance. Even if Atiku’s challenge is interpreted as grandstanding and showy, the onus is on PDP leadership to dare him. If PDP is sincerely ready and willing to address the calculated sidelining of the South-East, eternal PDP loyalists over the years, PDP should stand on the strength of Atiku’s position and also on moral grounds to zone the 2023 presidency to the South-East. Not to do so is to entrench and underscore insincerity in tackling the injustice in the polity which is at the heart of Nigeria’s political instability.
Now, the ball has been played into the court of the National Executive Committee, NEC, to look at all the issues holistically to arrive at an enduring decision that will portray PDP as desiring national peace and concord. Such a decision should not be hard in coming after Atiku has laid the groundwork by leading the way for the correction of inequality in the polity. This is the time the party leaders must look past their personal narrow interests and attend to the interests of a beleaguered nation.
One huge political gain that will accrue from such a landmark decision, in addition to creating stability in our polity, will also be instituting a harmonious South which is urgently needed for political balance and to halt the discomforting dominance of the North which also breeds disrespect and hate in our polity. God, help us.
