In every family there must be a head. In every village or community, the eldest of elders automatically assumes leadership as the head. In every public function or occasion, there must be a chairman. There is practically no association, organization, or society that exists in this present age which does not have a leader or head. This clearly indicates the importance of a leader in a group. It therefore means that, the people in a country can not co-exist successfully without a leader or president. Neither can the resources of a nation be managed and effectively distributed when there is no leader to see to running of government affairs. Therefore, leadership is central to every human group.
However, the manner in which humans compete for leadership positions some times left much to be desired and in order to ensure fairness in assuming leadership, there exist processes of choosing leaders in different groups. Such processes are generally accepted and written down in documents guiding the running/operations of that group or society. While in situations leaders chosen based on seniority, other societies or groups make use of election in choosing their leaders.
In politically developed societies, the ethics and conducts as well as the regulations guiding elections are well enhanced to avoid complications after elections. This helps in reducing the untold hardships which sometimes befall members of a given society when elections end in crisis. In Nigeria however, considering the fact that it is a multi-ethnic country, most elections are always threatened by divisive tendencies which sometimes come outside the main frame of plan or purpose of the electoral body. Given this understanding, most political parties zone their key positions on the major ethnics/regions (called geo-political zones) to ensure a fair representation of the nature of the country. This has being the nature of Nigerian politics since independence. Even when military took over and run the affairs of the country for over thirty years, although leadership at the apex level was held firmly by northerners, most key positions were somehow being shared politically among the ethnic groups/regions.
This sharing of positions was being done as way to encourage the unity and peace of the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria as ‘one nation’. The coming of democracy in Nigeria in 1999 led to the formation of new political groups/parties. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as a political party ushered Nigeria a leader in the person of President Olusegun Aremu Obansajo who picked Atiku Abubakar as his vice. After eight years, Musa Yar’adua came in president while Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was taken as vice. Fate redesigned that political arrangement by taken away the president through death and eventually Goodluck E. Jonathan became the president and hand picked Arch. Namadi Sambo (a former governor of Kaduna state) as his vice amidst top politicians eyeing the position.
All these while, there have being a silent tradition of power shift between the north and the south which has been criticized but carried out in some ways. On the death of the president who happens to be a northerner, it was expected that the country’s leadership arrow points to the north, following constitution of the ruling party which recognizes zoning of leadership given a number of terms. In order to make that section of the PDP’s constitution inactively numb, the nation’s constitution was used against it, given Jonathan more ground to run the presidency in 2011 elections.
This by implication means that the bond of zoning in Nigerian politics especially in the PDP has been broken and history has registered it inevitably. It also means that from now hence forth, leadership of the nation (Nigeria) can come from one state, ethnic group or region for five consecutive times. If so Nigeria will experience hitches in the progress of her democracy. This is because Nigeria as a heterogeneous nation can only tolerate this system of leadership in military regimes not a democratic political system.
Almost all ethnic groups in Nigeria had a rotational way of choosing leadership against all other advantages present in therein. In Tiv land, for example, the Tiv people coined a special name for zoning in politics as “Ya na agbian” which means ‘eat and give a brother’. From the stand point of Nigeria politics today, no one can actually predict the future of this nation given the trend of democracy being practiced. If we (Nigerians) agree that it is game of the majority, then we are saying that the minorities have no part to play in the leadership game of a particular state or the nation. It was pure act of zoning that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as vice which by fate becomes the president of this nation.
Above all, the consistent change of government means that there is progress in Nigeria’s democracy. However, Nigeria really needs to assess her political systems and the type of her democratic game and make possible adjustments for the future to avoid dangers ahead.
*** Art in Disguise ***
