‘Presidency Must Return to the South’

By Fidelis David

Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has said the resolution of the Southern Governors Forum insisting that the next President of Nigeria should come from the South of the country is not new, while calling on the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties to zone the presidency, in 2023 to the South.

The Secretary-General of Afenifere, Sola Ebiseni, who stated this in a statement made available to THISDAY said the governors only lent gubernatorial authority to a national consensus on the issue.

Ebiseni said: “Since 1999, the office of the President has been rotated between the South and North in a consistent row of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Yaradua, Goodluck Jonathan and the present President Muhammadu Buhari is not an act of accident. It is a national consensus that has ensured peaceful transition of power in the polity.

“This national political understanding has endured notwithstanding that, since Independence in 1960 up to 1999 (39 years), the North has virtually monopolised the leadership of Nigeria as Prime Minister, President or Military Head of State, except for the three and half years of accidental emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo as Military Head of State”.

He said: “It is therefore gibberish to suggest that power should return to the north after 8 years of President Buhari on the ground that President Umar Yaradua, elected on 29th May 2007, and died May 5, 2010, could not complete 8 years thereby supposedly depriving the north of some 4 years.

“The concept of power rotation seeks to fuse together and give the component Nigerian ethnic nationalities a sense of belonging for practical expression to the inevitable quest for national integration in the process of nation building”.

He noted that the constitution also envisages this imperative need for national integration when it provides that “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 promote national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies.”

Ebiseni explained that “It is contradiction in terms that those who insist on the free reign of what they call democratic processes are prepared to defend the crudest form of concessions and sacrifice of merit, in the name of federal character principle, in the admission into public educational institutions, the military and employment into the public service of the federation.

“The principal reason rotational power is imperative is the fact that Nigeria is premised on flawed demography. The only truth about Nigeria is that it is made up of several ethnic nationalities with entrenched socio-political culture. It is an amalgam of the northern and southern regions which are subdivided into three each geopolitical zones. That is where all truths and rationality end, other demographics and indices are false, untrue and unreliable for any just democratic process.

“For instance the local government system imposed by the military, and on which our fake democracy rests, is the worst fraud of the Nigerian electoral process. Party primaries are conducted and determined by delegates representing Local Governments which were arbitrarily awarded by the military and foisted on the constitution”.

The Afenifere Secretary added that “simple analysis will show that under the 1979 constitution, the military arbitrarily created and listed a total of 302 Local Governments with the North having 152 while the South was 150. Under the 1999 constitution, the number increased to 774, the breakdown of which shows a disproportional increase of the North to 413 (North East 112; North Central 114; North West 187) while the South has a total of 355 ( South East 95; South-South 123; South West I37; The FCT has six Area Councils.

“Comparatively, under the 1979 constitution, the South-east had 44 LGAs while the North-west was 53. Today, under the 1999 constitution, the South-east stands at 95 while the North-west has astronomically jumped to 187. The old Anambra was 23 while old Kano was 20 but now old Kano ( Kano 44 and Jigawa 27) is 71, a little less than the entire Southest at 95. South West in 1979 was highest at 59, but now trails North-West at 137 to 187.

“Within the South-west, Ogun State, created since 1967, with a population of 3,728,098 and a land mass of 16,762 sq km, has 20 LGAs, while Osun, created in 1991, with a lesser population of 3,423,536 and only 9,251 sqkm in size, is 30 LGAS. The same is applicable to Ondo state which, with a higher population of 3,441,024 and size of 15,500 Sqkm, is only 18”.

Ebiseni said: ” In the North-west, Katsina was only one third of old Kaduna in size and population. While larger Kaduna has 23, its Katsina baby, has 34 and the second highest in the country after Kano.

“In the South-south, Rivers with 5,185,400 population and 11,077 sqkm in size, is only 23 LGA, compared with smaller Akwa Ibom of 3,920,208 population and only 7,081sq km with 31 LGA. Delta which is also larger in terms of 4,098,391 population and 17,698 sq km, is just 25. For no just reason, Bayelsa, the only homogeneous Ijaw state is awarded only 8 LGAS. It is neither the smallest State in size nor the least populated. Space does not allow fullest analysis”, he explained.

According to him, the Nigerian official population has proved to be a political award rather than a genuine headcount.

” The ridiculous situation in which, by 1991, Lagos was higher than old Kano but now, even after the excision of Jigawa therefrom, Kano presently ranks inexplicably higher than Lagos. With the addition of Jigawa, old Kano has an official population of over 13 million to Lagos 9 million, in spite of all parameters that make Lagos more attractive and probable.

“The conclusion of these atrocious findings is that the Nigerian democracy from the primaries to the general elections is rigged ab initio by the constitution and thus the need for consensus on the basis of verifiable North/South parameter.

“It is for the above reality that the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, at its meeting on the 30th May 2021 at the Liadi Kwali Hall of Sheraton Hotels Abuja, endorsed rotational President, noting that the “northern part of the country would have fully enjoyed the Presidency for the full statutory period of eight years by 2023, hence, should yield to the South”.

“Therefore, the meeting unequivocally and in full resolve, calls on the APC and PDP and other political parties to zone the Presidency, in 2023 to the South; at the next election.

“The meeting further called on political stakeholders from the South not to be lured into the unpatriotic step of seeking such other positions as National Chairmen and Vice President of the main political parties, but join forces to demand and ensure that the Presidency moves to the South in 2023”, Ebiseni added.

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