By Wilson Esate
Since the victory of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the epic
electoral battles, each section of the six geo-political zones of the
federation has been jostling for choice positions at the centre. This
is expected and permitted giving the spirit of the letter of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which gives ultimate
primacy to equity, fairness and justice.
Section (14), subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended,
ably amplified equity as the bases for mutual coexistence: “The
composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies
and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner
as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote
national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring
that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or
from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in
any of its agencies”.
The APC chant of “CHANGE” can only gain traction if all the zones in
the country get their due place in power allocation or it will remain
a flash in the pan if the party’s zoning of the plumb positions shies
away from balancing geopolitical interest. The first litmus test for
the party of “change” as had been said would be who and from where
should Senate President and the Speaker of the National Assembly come?
The APC will be making costly mistake if it allowed itself to be
misdirected into crowding a section of the country with key positions
while other parts of the country are left as merest of zones whose
contributions to the overall electoral victory means next to nothing.
For the sake of it, that the APC has been labelled as Yoruba political
party which gangly sought alliance with the north to wrestle power at
the centre. This is enough for the party leadership to seek an
embracing method and nationalistic fervour that will see it through
avoidable crises in the future.
As strange as it stands, nothing suggests that the APC will not
gleefully fall into the accustomed political traps of greed and pride
that follow electoral victory by those who seemingly contribute huge
stakes to its actualisation. But it is largely unknown to them that
political leadership in multi-ethnic or multi-democratic society is a
fragile thing and is hardly ever more than one or two periodic
elections away from extinction.
As long as parties leaders remains parochial in their sharing of
political offices against electioneering promises that all would be
treated fair and square, and to protect and defend the Constitution,
the people reserve the rights to demand for the implementation of such
promises. I am afraid that our failure to ask or the party leaders
refusal to keep their promises of equity, just and fair will not only
continue to drive Nigeria down the road toward drift and incessant
defection amongst political actors, we will be arriving at that
unwelcome destination, where we will turn around and notice that the
road has been paved with political unrest and instability.
You are wont to ask, how can nation-building or nation-being possibly
emerge from such dubiety, such despondency, despair and ashes of poor
party leadership that ascribes the ownership of a political party’s
success; the entire nation’s sovereign mandate to one powerful zone
just because it pride itself as the ultimate sponsor of the victory?
Where is the place of participatory democracy and collectivism in the
face of slow and creeping autocracy after denuding and cajoling
electorate to swindle them of their votes?
Without doubts, the people of South South and South East will see in
APC leadership the incarnate of the old Action Group, AG, who were
alleged to have had poisoned heart with abiding hatred for the two
regions. It’s obvious that exclusion or denial of the South South
geopolitical zone from the Speakership will certainly levitate old
wounds and struggles for self determination; even dangerously in the
swamping creeks of Niger Delta; right at the point of scoping petrol
dollars and soiled with human blood.
As at moment, the President-elect, and the Chief Justice of Nigeria
and the Senate President and the in-coming Senate President are coming
from the North. The only office in the South is the Vice-President
elect that is from the south. The South West and North West already
have the positions President and Vice President, respectively. It is
only fair and just and, as a matter of necessitate, if the Senate
Presidency goes to either the North East or North Central, the
Speakership should go to the South South. While the South West has the
Vice President, invariably the Speakership should come from the South
South since the South East has no ranking member.
In the spirit of give and take and in the interest of inclusive
governance, and by every standard, considering the economic importance
of the South South geopolitical zone as the Goose That Laid the Golden
Eggs has to be factored into the distribution of high political
offices. This will further suppress opportunistic agitation, part of
which led to the Niger Delta militancy.
The APC as a party can ill-afford the crisis that will arise from the
mismanagement of her victory which was the same reason the PDP roundly
lost the elections across the country, recently. Governor Kwankwaso of
Kano hits the bull’s eye when he sounded a note of warning on the
APC’s party leadership in the Vanguard Newspaper edition of April 26,
page 37. It reads: “I think what is important is to have a fair
distribution of the posts to ensure that all zones are represented and
I think it is one of the mistakes of the PDP which decided to lump
positions in certain preferred places while others had little or
nothing at the end of the day. I think that has gone a long way in
really killing the party”.
Despite such affront in impunity by the PDP in allocation of positions
and the howling mob within, the party leadership arrogantly ascribed
invisibility to itself until failure crept in. Before now, the PDP had
denuded itself that it will rule for between sixty and hundred years,
a gambit that hurts the party to this day. This is a lesson that when
you enthrone your private, or sectional Authority in opposition to the
collective, sooner or later comes along a more uncompromising private
challenger to your fragmentary authority, armed with greater
unscrupulousness and selfish manipulation against party development.
Governor Kwankwaso, yet again, echoed performance as one of the bases
for consideration in terms of posts allocation in the interest of
party solidarity: “Of course performance is an issue but even those
that didn’t perform as much as others need to be encouraged… so I
look forward to seeing people in the East and the South South joining
the APC so that by 2019, our task in terms of campaign will be
minimal”.
In the last presidential election, in spite of the blatant military
brutality against the APC leadership and the virtual arrest of the
Comrade Governor, Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, Edo State was where General
Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect scored 45% votes which is above
the mandatory 25% as required by the Constitution.
It is in this context we are calling on the leadership of our great
party to consider the person of Hon. Pally Iriase, a chattered
accountant, a former ALGON Chairman, a former Deputy Speaker, Edo
State House Of Assembly, a former Secretary to the Edo State
Government and two times member of the House of Representatives for
the Speakership of the National Assembly.
We appeal to the leadership of the APC, to be on the side of fair
play, equity and justice in the lager interest of our great party.
This is pertinent in view of the fact that election will still take
place in 2019 and every part of the country is needed to contribute
meaningfully so as to move the party forward. At the moment, caution
is necessary, without which Tambuwal’s Speakership saga will steer APC
in the face and it will be too hot for the party to handle.
Mr Wilson Asinya Esate,
3 Ekpenyong Effiom Effanga Street,
Writes in from Calabar,
Cross River State.
Tel: 081730 27645