By Professor Echefuna’ R. G. Onyebeadi.
The recent sponsored video publicity of Dr. Pedro Obaseki captioned: “PDP 2023: The Arithmetics Of Zoning” refers.
The said video seems quite interesting and captivating particularly for the undescerning.
The analysis therein looks more like a mere academic exercise that is skilfully crafted, arranged, packaged to suit the predestinated purpose of the sponsors and geared to hoodwink the gullible and the uninformed.
Let me start by drawing attention to the fact that, Nigeria’s fragile democratic experiments didn’t start from 1999.
We had a pre-independence democracy that birthed the Regional Governments in Nigeria up to the eve of Nigeria’s Independence in 1960.
There was democracy from Nigeria’s Independence in 1960 to 1966 before the military adventurers thwarted it.
We also had democracy between 1979 to 1983 and between 1991 to 1993 prior to this dispensation of 1999 to date.
So, why single out only the democracy of 1999 to date out of whole lot for a sponsored adjunct analysis?
Outside democratic governance, there were “maximum rulership” of politicians in khaki uniforms mainly from the Northern parts of Nigeria for a walloping period of 310 months out of the entire 360 months of skewed military rule between 1966 to 1999 as listed below:
- General Thomas J. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi – South East (6 months) by accident.
- General Yakubu Gowon – North Central (108 months)
- General Murtala Ramat Mohammed – North West (7 months)
- General Olusegun Obasanjo – South West (44 months) by accident.
- Major-General Muhammadu Buhari Rtd – North West (20 months)
- General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida – North Central (96 months)
- General Sani Abacha – North West (68 months)
- General Abdulsalami Abubakar – North Central (11 months)
Total period of military interregnum = 360 months (ie 30 years out of 63 years of Nigeria’s independence by 2023)
From the foregoing, within the period of the military interregnum, the military of Northern Nigeria extraction alone had produced 6 (six) Heads of Government /Presidents out of 8 (eight) and ruled Nigeria for a walloping 310 months out of 360 months!
The entire Southern Nigeria extraction had produced just 2 military Heads of Government/Presidents by accident and ruled for only 50 months out of the total 360 months of the military interregnum by providence!
Checking from independence in 1960 to date under democracy, the various Heads of Government of the Federation were:
- Alhaji Tafawa Balewa (North East) – 1960 to 1966 (63 months)
- Alhaji Shehu Shagari (North West) – 1979 to 1983 (51 months)
- General Olusegun Obasanjo (South West) – 1999 to 2007 (96 months)
- Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (North West) – 2007 to 2010 (36 months )
- Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (South South) 2010 to 2015 (60 months)
- Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari Rtd (North West) 2015 to date (96 months by 2023)
From the foregoing, the total period of democratic ‘rulership’ since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 is 402 months (ie approximately 33 years) by 2023.
The North alone had produced elected Head of Government/Presidents for 246 months out of the 402 months of democratic governance while the entire South has ruled for just 156 months.
So far, we have had 6 (six) democratically elected Heads of Government/Presidents from independence in 1960 to date out of which 4 were from the North and just 2 from the entire South by accident. None yet from South East in the South and North Central in the North!
From Nigeria’s independence in 1960 to date, Nigeria has produced 14 Heads of Government of the Federation (or 15 Heads of Government if we add the short period of 3 months of late Chief Ernest Shonekan’s imposition by Northern military).
The North alone has produced 10(ten) out of the 14(fourteen) Heads of Government of the Federation from independence in 1960 to date while the entire South has produced just 4(four)!
So, going by the aforementioned, where should the pendulum of leadership rightly swing to come 2023 if not the South more so, if fairness, equity and justice is considered?
By the way, should we jettison or throw over board and blind our eyes to the pre-independence democracy within which period, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa from the present day North East held sway as the Head of Government Business which was a defacto position of Prime Minister up to the eve of Nigeria’s Independence in 1960?
What of the period of about 6 (six) years between 1960 to 1966 that Alhaji Tafawa Balewa from the present North East was the Head of Government/Prime Minister of Nigeria to which the present operating 1999 constitution as amended has redesignated as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces?
Going by all the aforementioned, will it be correct to state that North East has never produced any Head of Government/ President as posited in the sponsored pseudo analysis under reference?
All the above put together, by 2023, the North alone would have ruled Nigeria for a walloping 45 years out of 63 years of Nigeria’s independence while the entire South would have ruled Nigeria for just about 18 years out of 63 years since Nigeria’s independence in 1960.
What does Nigeria and Nigerians have to show for these long northern “domination” and “rulership” safe for catalogues of woes?!
By 2023, a Northerner in the person of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari Rtd., would have had 8 (eight) straight uninterrupted years as President. Yet, some people are canvassing for/with their sponsors that another Northerner should take over from Major-General Muhammadu Buhari Rtd. back to back come 2023. Is this rational, equitable, fair, just and inclusive given the principle of inclusion enshrined in the present operating constitution of Nigeria?
Isn’t this sponsored “Arithmetics Of Zoninig” an affront to the psyche, sensibilities and sensitivities of the other ethnic nationalities and geopolitical zones that make up Nigeria?
Isn’t it morally reprehensible and legally jaundiced that, in clear contradiction of the constitutional provision of 1999 constitution as amended and replicated in the constitutions of the various political parties that stipulates a rotation of power between North and South, some people are still scheming with their sponsors that another Northerner should take over as President come 2023 presumably for another 8 (eight) years, after the straight uninterrupted 8 (eight) years tenure of the incumbent Northerner?!
So, Wherein lies the logic of the said “Arithmetics Of Zoninig” on the tripod of Equity, Fairness and Justice in the sponsored half-baked analysis?
Meanwhile, the entire North contributes NOTHING in terms of income to our Federation Account to which it has been a parasitic member garnering the lions share under various manipulations of State crafts of ‘land mass’, skewed LGAs, imaginary population and so on!
Meanwhile, the country and particularly the North continues to live on the resources and wealth of the South while the South is not considered good enough to occupy leadership position of the country! Is that fair, just and equitable?Haba! Shouldn’t he that plays the piper dictate the tone? For how long more should ‘monkeys’ continue to work for the ‘baboons’ to ‘chop’ even with errant impunity and without any iota of gratitude?
In the midst of untold hunger, highest level of poverty, unprecedented numerous killings of indigenous Nigerian citizens in their ancestral lands and homes for no just cause at a supposedly peace time, unfathomable economic woes, massive unemployment, multiple work-to-rule actions across Nigeria, infrastructural decay, accumulated external borrowings with unprecedented debts profiles, unimaginable imported terrorism and banditry, unthinkable bad roads that have become death traps and kidnappers rendezvous, highest level of insecurity, excruciating bad governance with NO petrol, NO kerosene, NO gas, NO diesel, NO light, NO water, NO food and indeed NO life and unprecedented crude oil thieft that the ‘Northern rulership’ has subjected and continues to subject Nigerians to, what on earth can further justify the rulership of the North beyond 2023 after their long misrule of 45 years out of 63 years of Nigeria’s independence, that had always put Nigeria in the news for wrong reasons globally?!
They turned the giant of Africa into a local sleeping ant!
They turned the fastest growing economy in Africa into the poverty capital of the world!
They turned a peaceful coexistence and a prosperous country into a land flowing with human blood!
They turned our proud heritage, prosperous ancestral lands, homes and forests into the dens of terrorist!
They rape, maim, massacre indigenous citizens and forcefully occupy their lands!
They “killed” our Nigeria Airways, shipping lines, railways, civil and public service among others.
Schools are presently shut down, Hospitals are dysfunctional, Government establishments have since collapsed and indeed NOTHING seems to be working in the present day Nigeria!
Right now, nowhere is safe anymore in Nigeria! – NOT the ancestral homes, NOT the roads, NOT the railways, NOT the water ways, NOT the Airports and indeed NOT ANYWHERE!
Yet some people who are profiting on our collective misery still have the temerity to canvass that these long bad rulership of Nigeria should continue! Has Nigeria not moved in the reverse gear enough?
Haven’t the standard of living of Nigerians declined enough?
Haven’t Nigerians died harrowing untimely death enough?
Haven’t Nigeria been treated with scorn as a pariah country internationally enough?
Doesn’t Nigeria have competent, capable, healthy and visionary leaders in the South?
Yet, some minority from an emasculated, impoverished and grossly marginalised “Mid-West Region” of all places and others accepts to be their mouth piece, campaigner and defender?! What a shame?!
