Consociationalism; South East Today, North Central Tomorrow

As Nigeria approaches its 6th general election in its fourth republic, a lot is at stake one of which is the unity and stability of the country. We are at a precipice and as a people we must put selfish agenda aside to foster a path of unity and cohesion for the future. In the last 6 years we have seen an increasing and even more violent agitations for secession across several regions of this country and to a general bewilderment, these agitations are from ethnic majorities which if not looked at and properly handled could lead to a catastrophic end to the pseudo peaceful coexistence we have in this country.
In advanced democracies like the United States that we have patterned our democracy to, the major criteria of selecting a leader are based on competence, popularity, policies and even moral character. However, in fragile democracy like ours, other factors are given strong consideration some of which are religion, ethnicity and regionalism.
As a serious minded people we must not shy away from this reality no matter how ugly they may look, rather we should try to understand it better and look for the best way to handle it going forward. We are not United States neither are we Great Britain, we are Nigeria, a country of over 500 languages, multiple cultures and religions, we are unique people and must forge the kind of democracy that suits us best at this moment and in the nearest foreseeable future.
In my opinion, Nigeria is blessed with enormous human capacity. We have smart and intelligent minds all over the 774 local governments in this country. Every village has a man or woman capable of providing the kind of leadership Nigeria needs but in selecting that leadership, we must be careful not to further deepening the mistrust, marginalization and polarization that has plagued us for almost a decade now. The main objective should be our stability and peaceful co-existence without which the best leadership cannot thrive.

Political parties are the vehicle and platform that gives people the opportunity to vie for leadership position in every tier of government. Political party leaders, religious leaders, traditional rulers, socio-political and socio-cultural organizations are very important stakeholders in our polity and if they are able to agree that social justice and equity is the way to stabilize our country and move forward as a people then we have the chance of building the Nigeria of our dreams.
To achieve this, CONSOCIATIONALISM is the best way to go in achieving social justice and stability. We are a unique people and adopting democratic consociotionalism will set us on the trajectory of peaceful co-existence and stability. Consociotionalism is a form of democratic power sharing in a state which has major internal division along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines but which remains stable due to consultation among the elites of these groups, present good example is Switzerland. Formally Belgium and Cyprus between 1960-1963, Isreal and Czechoslovakia between 1917-1967.
The good of consociationalism are stability, the survival of the power sharing arrangement, the survival of democracy and avoidance of violent secessionist agitation. It is a democratic tool for reconciling societal fragmentation along ethnic and religious lines.
After all being said, the primary responsibility is on the major political parties to look inwards, be courageous enough to put Nigeria ahead of individual interests and jettison that desperation of getting into the Aso Villa come 2023. Political parties should look at competent, credible and popular candidates from the south eastern region of the country which I believe are in abundance in the two major parties and any third force. The narrative of always fielding the richest and most influential candidate is not always best. In my opinion, a united party with a competent and less popular candidate can beat a divided party with a more popular candidate in the polls. Political parties just have to put their house in order and go to the polls as a united force and a well-received ideology to be able to win elections.
Political leaders across the major parties must consult, compromises must be made and a common sense decision must be reached to field candidates from the south eastern region of the country. Any zoning arrangement that doesn’t produce a candidate from this region will further increase the feeling of alienation and marginalization being felt by the people of the south east and could lead to instability and more violent secessionist agitation for decades to come that is if the country has not fragmented. Political parties should not allow themselves to be seen as being unfavorably biased against the south eastern region of the country. Any party that zones or present candidate not from the south east will be remembered in history as a party that fostered MAJORITARIANISM or worse case “tyranny of the majority”.
If zoning and power rotation doesn’t work now it will never work again and
Nigeria may continue to suffer from the consequences of not getting it right in 2023. Political parties will continue to have perpetual internal crises, ethnic and religious group may begin to perceive political parties as being biased against them thereby defeating the objective of modern day political parties as one of the most important vehicle of nationalism and unity, therefore taking us back to the first republic politics where political parties were only a representation of ethnic groups and do not cut across board to incorporate all Nigerians from all region, ethnic or religious application.
As a nation, we all agree that our major problem is leadership. Despite having enormous leadership capacity across the length and breathe of his country, we have somehow not able to have the best leaders since independence. Albeit, we must not be fooled, there is at least one person in every local government of this country that could provide the leadership we all desire which is summarily a progressive, visionary, focused, courageous leadership. Giving every region a sense of belonging and participation by allowing them through consensus and compromise to provide that leadership for a given a period of time as allowed by the constitution will not only be common sense but it will promote equity, fairness and justice which are important recipe for a stable democracy.

As I summarize my argument I want to call on the APC, the PDP and the third force to give preference and special consideration to candidates of competence and track record from the south east region of Nigeria. Popular aspirants like Chief Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should take their seats as elder statesmen and Kingmakers which they are and help point to us good candidates in whom they see the kind of leadership quality they themselves would have provided.
Nigeria will never forget them and their names will definitely be in the good history book of this country for sacrificing their long term aspirations for the common good of the nation. No doubt both of them and many others I did not mention have the political prowess of winning elections but truth be told, Nigeria will not die and they will also not die if they don’t become president come 2023. I call on them to crown their legacy now by taking a bow out of this race and use their structure to support a younger, progressive and more vibrant candidate from the south east.
As a nation, we look forward to seeing Nigerians from all over the country and all walks of life regardless of ethnic and religious affiliation, supporting, campaigning and voting for south eastern candidates in all political parties competing in the 2023 presidential election.
Thank you and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Written by Ebesekaye Rukevwe.