The introduction of the zoning system into Nigeria political arena was to aid the smooth rotation of key political positions across the country. And to some larger extent the policy is to achieve fairness, peace and equitable distribution of resource.

Zoning was first introduced into Nigerian political lexicon by the National Party of Nigeria in the Second Republic (NPN), and without iota of doubt it was the first political party that was accepted nationwide in Nigeria as everybody’s party. No individual or a group of Nigerians ever allocated to themselves the ownership of NPN.

Everybody was joint owners of National Party of Nigeria. It is because of that, that NPN thought of developing the concept and to assure every member and every segment of Nigeria that the exotic office of the president would one day come to their area or zone.

And this is the reason all political conferences that took place after NPN, the idea of zoning kept coming up in such conferences and have been adopted by some conferences as a provision in the Nigerian Constitution.

Under (Gen.) Sani Abacha’s constitutional conference, 1994/1995, it was recommended and the military accepted that zoning should be incorporated into the constitution of Nigeria. Since then, the majority of Nigerians have accepted zoning as a very good strategy that will give everybody in Nigeria a sense of belonging.

Those who are able to get the position to their side will be satisfied and acknowledged and those who have yet to get it, were assured that they will get it when the time comes.

According to professor J.T Nwabueze, zoning and rotation principle or policy is part of a democratic culture used for fair play.

He went further to say that it counters the negative impulse and tendency of a group of people to remain in office as long as possible and use the resources of the nation to service its narrow and practical interest.

It also offers itself as an antidote to a practice that engenders nepotism, promotes corruption, and breed inefficiency, which in turn stultifies growth abs sustainable development.

The zoning arrangement however in the fourth Republic has a unique historical antecedent. Its genesis can be traced to the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential elections.

The annulment not only led to a major political upheaval but also created a deep sense of injustice on the part of the geo-political zone section from whence the winner came.

Going by the above, the zoning policy has really caused a lot of political instability in the country as a result of disagreement among politicians but in spite of that it still brings about development of democracy.

Whilst zoning may have emerged as a product of necessity; it represents in its expediency, a pragmatic response to nation-building. There is growing evidence that countries that have made much progress in nation-building achieve greater strides in economic development.

This is mainly because such countries would have achieved consensus on, and developed institutional and political arrangements for, creatively managing their diversity and the outbreak and persistence of multiple security challenges in Nigeria in the past few years is proof if any was needed, of Nigeria’s dismal record in national building.

For many decades, presidential politics in Nigeria has been saddled with ethnicity or tribal politics, religious intolerance and more recently electoral malpractices, well meaning and patriotic elements in the polity had wrestled with the idea of the best formula that will guarantee peace and stability in the country.

Historically the highest political office in the land has been dominated by the countries citizen’s of northern extradition.

This was made possible by subsequent military regimes whose brands of leadership has no space for democratic contraception. The zoning formula was therefore envisage to enable the northern and southern Nigeria to have an equal chance of producing the president during an eight year presidential cycle.

The zoning formula was first adopted
by the second civilian administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Dr. Alex Ekwueme in 1979, during the first quarter of president Shagari’s second term, the military led by general Buhari truncated regime, thereby making it impossible for southern Nigerian to experience the plan.

During the consecutive 15 years of northern dominated military governance, the zoning formula was forgotten for the past ten years, beginning with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s civilian regime 1999-2007, and the administration of Shehu Musa Yar’dua and president Goodluck Jonathan 2007 to president, the (PDP) Peoples Democratic Party had started dangling the carrot of the presidential zoning between the southern and the northern sections of the country.

Advocates of presidential zoning often cite peace and stability in the policy as the main reason, but Nigerians must seriously ask themselves how zoning both presidential down to even gubernitorial elections have been able to bring peace and stability (development) and its implication on the country democracy.

It is worth recalling that the 1994 draft Constitutional Conference report which was signed by Sani Abacha in 1995 proposed an arrangement under which each of the six zones would have had the presidency for five years, with a review of the arrangement after 30 years. That arrangement faltered due to the sudden leadership changes towards the end of the political transition.

But in essence, it reflected a profound commitment to nation-building. This shows that just over a quarter of a century ago, there was an elite consensus on this issue that has become controversial. Nigeria has now reached the fork in the road on its political journey.

Nation-building is one of the most important tasks of political leaders, especially the president in a country such as Nigeria. Nation-building requires striking a balance between efficiency and equity.

Unfortunately, Nigeria’s political processes lack both and the principle of zoning is designed to ensure that no part of the country is ever permanently excluded from power and that no national party is perceived as representing one section of the country. Despite its many advantages, in particular, as regards nation-building, zoning remains a contested arrangement in Nigeria and its implication on internal democracy is quite obvious.

Zoning and rotation principle or policy is part of a democratic culture used for fair play, as it counters the negative impulse and tendency of a group of people to remain in office as long as possible and use the resources of the nation to service its narrow and practical interest, as well as antidote to a practice that engenders nepotism, promotes corruption, and breed inefficiency, which in turn stultifies growth and sustainable development.

How good it might sound, the zoning system of democracy had been marred with inefficiency and corruption among the politicians, and this is because the political system of Nigeria is challenged by factor such as ethnicity, as the fear of domination of one ethnic group or section of the country has been one of the major factors inhibiting political stability in the country.

Ethnicity appears to have played a more dominant role than political ideology in the choice of political leaders, and this had dire consequences on her economic development (Terna, 2014).

Seemingly, the disruption of the zoning system due to the death of Umar Yar’Adua from North-west which led to Goodluck Jonathan (a southerner) becoming the president, and the lopsided political appointment under the present North-West led administration had generate serious crises, riots, vandalisation and terrorism in regions of the country thus crippling the nation’s economy (Ezeibe, et al, 2016).

Source: StreetReporters.ng

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