If the rotation of power was meant to solve certain presumed injustices and to enhance inclusion and unity, why is it difficult for political gladiators to concentrate on asking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be a one-term president? After all, his section of the country by 2027 would have ruled Nigeria for 15 years, whereas the Southeast has been in the saddle for only 6 months, and the South-South for 5 years and a few weeks. Why aren’t the gladiators truly concerned about justice, equity, fairness, inclusivity, and genuine brotherhood? Has power in the Southwest given the Southeast and the South-South a true and genuine sense of belonging? Make una dey lie to unaself.
If you argue that it is the constitutional right of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to seek reelection, why do you seek to deny another HIS/HER constitutional right to seek election? The hypocrisy of the political class is indeed Olympic. If we all agree that the rotation of power is to engender justice, equity, fairness, and inclusion, then we must congregate at the parlor where the perilous denial of power to other zones and regions is torpedoed. Come along, folks, let’s THINK.
I have heard the nunciating tommyrot that ‘…instead of Power going back to the North, make the South finish him 8 years.’ Tell me how Tinubu’s presidency has benefited the South (in the last local government elections in Lagos, several persons of Southern extraction couldn’t vote because they are seen as opposed to the ruling party; Nnamdi Kanu is still in jail; and Rivers State is still under unconstitutional rule). I beg, how has Tinubu’s presidency benefitted Nigeria and Nigerians? Abi poverty and penury don reduce? Hunger and anger don reduce? Are Nigerians safer today? I beg second bass jare!!!
Tell me how a Muslim/Muslim ticket works for unity and inclusion. Tell me when, where, and how the North/South rotation of power was agreed upon. Why have we refused to think? Why do we rather swallow the poisoned chalice of Politricktians?
It doesn’t matter how you define this TRUTH; truth will be truth. In 1999, when we returned to civil rule—yes, I’m reluctant to call what we have a democracy—we had two leading Southwest candidates: former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the candidate of the PDP, and Chief, now Oba Olu Falae was the candidate of the coalition between the then AD and the APP. The regions agreed to have two Southwest candidates to assuage the pain and the injustices of the June 12, 1993, episodic annulment, incarceration, and death of Chief MKO Abiola of Blessed Memory. If the other regions were genuinely understanding and sacrificed Chief Alex Ekwueme’s ambition at the altar of justice and fairness, why isn’t the call now FOR President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be a one-term president to allow someone from the Southeast to become president, or at least for President Goodluck Jonathan to finish his 4 years? We too LIE to ourselves, and we too LIKE to deceive ourselves!!
Between 2007, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo finished his 8 years of two terms, and today, there has been no presidential contest without candidates from the North and the South; some have had candidates from almost all the 6 geopolitical zones, all calling for justice, equity, fairness, and inclusion, so we should stop the present hypocrisy and debauchery made rife by Politricktians. In 2007, 2011, 2015 (when, along with the North, Tinubu fought to stop the South, ditto President Jonathan from having 8 years), 2019, and the last time I checked, even in 2023, we had candidates from across the nation. Why was the now very loud North/South rotation debate not so resounding? Was it because Wike lost the PDP primaries to an aspirant from the North in 2022, or is it about some Politricktians wanting to make the path to 2027 easier for Tinubu and/ortheir preferred presidential candidates? Unfortunately, because we have refused to THINK, we swallow hook, line, and sinker the deceit of the intending beneficiaries of the debate. We no dey try at all! Oh that we may THINK!
If this uneventful, underwhelming, and underperforming government of President Tinubu is given another 4 years from 2027, that means that by 2031, when he leaves, the SOUTH WEST would have been in power for 16 years within a space of 32 years (1999-2031), that is 50% of the time; the North West for 11 years; and the South South for 5 years. Where are the South East, the North East, and the North Central in the equation? And by the way, how has this calculation benefitted the nation and the masses of the people? Shouldn’t genuine progressives be asking questions??
How can sane adults obfuscate the space, gaslight, and befuddle the political space with deceitful demagoguery about the plausibility and so-called importance of zoning or rotation of Power, whereas na just to favor themselves? Why can’t we dare to think out of the box? If the political class cannot agree to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do one term and micro-zone power to the South East in 2027, we must all ask them to please SHUT UP. After all, who the many lies about zoning or the South/North rotation of power help?
Nigeria has progressively regressed and gone backwards in almost all parameters of governance and leadership, and our people have refused to THINK. But must the discerning keep shut and allow the age of unreason? God forbid.
If you are not bold about heeding the call of truth, at least keep quiet. Do not, for political correctness, give vent to falsehoods and diatribes. There is nothing and no truth in the so-called North/South Rotation of Power to excite any THINKER; it is simply a weapon of control and debauchery. The debate should be about RESTRUCTURING; it should be about a Constitution that must allow for RESOURCE CONTROL, TRUE FISCAL FEDERALISM, DEVOLUTION OF POWERS, and GENUINE INCLUSION. And if zoning and rotation of power must be discussed in the short run, it should be about asking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do ONE TERM for the good of the nation and allow power to go to the South East, the North East, or the North Central, which hasn’t produced a president since 1999, or, in the worst case, let the South South finish its 4 years. This is the logic that MUST defeat the deceit, the debauchery, and the delusive propaganda of today’s power-mongers.
I’m completely committed to the call for justice, equity, fairness, and inclusion, and I shall not sacrifice that at the altar of politics and politrickcal correctness. there has never truly been a North/South rotation of power across political parties; old men should stop lying. North/South candidates have always jostled every four years for the presidential ticket of their political parties, and that should and must continue because we cannot abridge the constitutional rights of citizens.
But if we truly want the justice, equity, and fairness that zoning and/or rotation of power foster, then we MUST in unison ask President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sacrificially do only 4 years and let the Southeast, the Northeast, and the North Central do 4 years each in whatever order they consider trite; and afterwards we must jettison the rotation normative for a truly federal structure that engenders true fiscal federalism, resource control, devolution of powers, and responsible and responsive governance that flows from the subregional governments to the top like every truly democratic federalism.
This nation must rise from the ashes of pervasive falsehood and bandwagonism, and we must breed philosophers ready, willing, and able to confront the raging debauchery of Politricktians, for only the TRUTH can set Nigeria free. *No one Rotation of Power ep, na whine politicians dey use am whine all of us.
Prof. Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr. is the convener of the COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.
This discourse was culled from RealNews and the original can be read here.
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