Zoning: NPLF, NGF and their body language (I)

Friday, July 09, 2010

As the issue of zoning continues to generate different shades of opinions and heat in the country and following the meeting of Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and briefing by various political groups; for and against, our Kaduna Government House Correspondent ABDULL-AZEEZ AHMED KADIR brings to you the different shades of opinion and the questions on especially as some of the actors seem to be speaking from both sides of their mouths.
“I’d rather keep my promises to other politicians than to God. God, at least, has a degree of forgiveness.” Author unknown
Politicians are known to do anything to get to power; head or tail, hence the saying that there is no permanent friend but permanent interest. Speaking from both sides of the mouth is more identified with politics and politicians such that when a politician says good morning, you have to look at the sky to ensure it is really dawn. For Nigerians, failed campaign promises have become the norm than exception, so nothing is new to them as far as politics and politicians are concern. But for the agreed rotation and zoning of the presidency between the North and South, Nigerians never thought politicians would be true to colour.
Event since the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua shows that Nigerian politicians are more concerned about self preservation than about the security, peace, growth and development of the country. First was the issue of pronouncing the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the Acting President. To the consternation of most Nigerians, the governors met in Abuja and in less than forty eight hours, the National Assembly pronounced Jonathan Acting President even while late President Yar’adua was still breathing.
The governors are about the most influential pressure group in the country today. And for self preservation, they care less about political ideologies; they are, for the record, thirty six in number. Twenty eight of them belongs to the same political party; the self acclaimed largest in Africa; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Three others belong to All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), two in All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA), two others in Action Congress (AC) and one in Labour Party (LP). That makes for five political parties. But when it comes to self preservation, they all have no boundary; ye are all same.
The governors are at it again. As it stands today, it seems head or tail; they may ‘win’. How they become so influential a pressure group is what is about to rear its heads again as the nation prepares for another round of general elections.
When General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangiga and his cohorts on June 12, 1993 cancelled the elections involving his long time friend Chief Moshood Kolawole Olaloku Abiola, little did he knew he was handing the people of the South, specifically South West the tool to be used to black mail other part of Nigeria especially the North to wilfully hand power on a platter of gold to them. It was then called ‘power shift’.
Though meant to compensate the South West for losing out in 1993, today it has become a national hydra-headed monster that is threatening the political entity of Nigeria. No doubt, the arrangement was within and among the PDP; today it is very difficult to differentiate between the PDP and other parties. Except for the AC in Lagos and Edo States, the APGA in Anambra and Abia and the ANPP in Kano and Yobe State, you could be right to call anyone else PDP.
The North has the bulk of these governors; nineteen in total. Three are of the ANPP leaving the remaining seventeen for the PDP. Even at that, the PDP has seventeen of the nineteen making it even larger than the total of their colleagues in the opposition irrespective of geographical location which leaves them the mere eight figures; Abia, Anambra, Borno, Edo, Kano, Lagos, Ondo and Yobe. Still in the opposition party, the North has the bulk of three; Borno, Kano and Yobe. The South West and South East have two each; Lagos, Ondo, Abia and Anambra respectively while the South South have only one; Edo State.
Here the reality of the above quote from an unknown author comes to be. Politicians find it difficult to let go of promises made to them but would rather observe in the breach, the promises they made to others. The Northern Governors Forum (NGF) meets regularly with the sole aim of addressing common interest with regards to the regions’ one destiny policy. Often, the legacies of the great sage and late Premier of the region Sir Ahmadu Bello and how to improve on them always take the front burner. On July 1st, 2010 the NGF met and on the programme of the meeting was the never ending issue of NNN, NNDC, Sardauna Foundation. The issue of zoning or rotational presidency was not listed except for a passing mentioning of briefing by the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) and the Northern Political Summit Conference (NPCS). But as it turned out, the briefing by these two groups dominated the meeting; forcing it to stretch into the early hours of the evening.
The NPFL was led by former Inspector General of Police Alhaji Muhammed Dikko (MD) Yusuf while the NPSC was led by Senator Isaiah Balat. The NGF of cause was presided by its outspoken chairman and the Niger State Governor Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu. The three groups have taken their position on the burning zoning issue. While the NPFL and the NPSC were at the opposite of the same coin, the NGF was more of an arbiter but that was before the meeting and immediately after. Today the story is all the same.
The M. D. Yusuf group stood by the PDP gentle man agreement on the zoning formula urging all and sundry to obey the arrangement and in a clear language, they told the NGF that. But the Balat group opposed it urging all to jettison the arrangement.
Speaking through a member of the group; Iyiochia Ayu, the M. D. Yusuf group said they saw no reason why the zoning should be jettisoned now after the arrangement had produced an Obasanjo presidency for eight years. Ayu went emotional asking a rhetorical question ‘is it because our son Yar’adua is dead?’ The former Senate President said they intimated the governors on the argument and reasons why they felt the presidency should remain in the North for the next four years from 2011.
According to him “it was only fair after President Olusegun Obasanjos’ presidency facilitated by the North for eight years that the Northern part of the country should not be truncated because our son Umaru Musa Yar’adua died. The North should produce the next president after which it should go back to the south. It is for the stability of this country, and if that is truncated, it may affect zoning arrangements even in the states where such exist”
Ayu said they are not against the emergence of any southerner to the presidency. According to him, the zoning arrangement places any one from the South in a better position to aspire and occupies the office of the president. “Any key person from the Southern part of the country who is interested in running for the presidency should please wait till 2015 and we will give them our support” he asserted.
He said Nigeria is in a democracy and they could not compel anybody to abide by their position and they made it clear to the governors and they stand by the arrangement of the zoning which is the best “for unity and stability of Nigeria”.
This may not be in the best interest of the nation as claimed by Ayu but the question on many lips is; with the calibre of the people clamouring for the jettisoning of the zoning formula, the bulk of whom are from the South, if and when that happened, would they not be at disadvantage? The proponents of zoning are making it sound like the North is being short-changed by those who have benefitted from the zoning arrangement. And if the majority of the people with the bulk of the country’s population eventually buy that argument, what becomes of any southerner who may, in future, vie for the position of the president? Would such an individual have the backing of the majority? Or as it wont to happen, the country would be threaten with fire and brimstone?
Also speaking in an interview after the meeting with NGF, former governor of old Kaduna State Alhaji Lawal Kaita asserted the same position saying the group would not accept the jettisoning of the zoning arrangement. The NGF he said listened to their position and promised to deliberate on it and call them back again.
“No true and sincere Northerner would accept to jettison the zoning arrangement. Is it after the South had spent eight years in the presidency that they want to do away with the arrangement? It is betrayal of trust” Kaita asserted. The old politician who initially went on holiday with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to Action Congress (AC) before returning to the fold of the PDP even used swore languages to describe the behaviour of those campaigning for the jettisoning of the zoning formula.
Other members of the group included include Professor Ango Abdullahi, Air Vice Marshal Hamza Abdullahi, Sani Zangon-Daura, among others.
The other group in support of jettisoning the zoning arrangement led by Balat though refused to speak to the press, included Chief Solomon Lar, Prince Abubakar and Professor Jerry Gana among others.