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Costly distraction
The Nation 03/08/2010 00:00:00

NO thanks to lack of leadership by President Goodluck Jonathan and his advisers, the sterile argument on zoning has become a prime national distraction. The controversy has assumed a dangerous dimension, and it is really time to change the debate.

Since the president said a lot of things without saying anything about putting himself forward for election in 2011, it has been virtually "all systems go" between pro and anti-zoning schools. The two camps, we fear, are two parallel lines that will never meet. Yet, a consensus must be reached as regards the all-important election next year and indeed, on the future of democracy in the country.

This newspaper has taken a stand on zoning – and just as well that it restated the point that zoning was undemocratic and all that. But if the issue had been zoning per se, perhaps that should have settled the argument – at least for the logical, if not for the emotive-minded. As it is turning out, however, zoning would appear only the symptom of how to ingrain the principle of fairness and equity in the sharing of political offices, in a contentious polity like Nigeria.

If a section of the country has benefited from a certain principle, why should the rule be changed midway, when it is the turn of the other section to benefit? That is the main stand of the pro-zoning lobby, even if it is posturing to press home a logical advantage. But the anti-zoning camp has weighed in with the citizenship argument – arguing that whatever arrangement entered into, whatever power convention it is that is emerging, ought to give way to the right of citizenship: that is a citizen’s right under the law to vote and be voted for.

But if these arguments had started and ended on hot but reasoned exchanges, perhaps there would have been no cause for alarm. The real alarm is that they are entering the realm of mutual threats, the territory of those who have lost out on reasoned arguments. The other day, somebody was quoted to have threatened that President Jonathan could well be the last president of united Nigeria, if he was not allowed to contest – and win? What if he contests and loses? In the game of threats and counter-threats, there is always in the political sub-conscious, the proverbial Northern "street", where the short-fused masses are like tinder, waiting to explode.

To boot, both sides appear getting arrayed along religious lines. The 10 Northern states that voted for zoning are predominantly Muslim states: Jigawa, Kebbi, Gombe, Katsina, Sokoto, Niger, Kwara, Kano, Borno and Zamfara. The ones that repudiated zoning are Northern minorities, with a fair Christian representation, if not clear Christian majority: Kaduna, Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa and Kogi. Bauchi was absent, while Yobe abstained.

Queuing in religious colours to sort out a political, nay democratic problem is a dangerous signal indeed. It shows that blind emotion is tramping clinical reason, and the result can only be catastrophic. No person should acutely recognise that danger more than the president himself.

The sterile argument would have been needless, if people had put country before self. But be that as it may, perhaps the whole zoning question should be put to vote – the 2011 general election being its referendum. If the election is free and fair as the president has promised, then maybe whichever camp is victorious should carry the day.

But whatever happens, the president has a moral duty to rally everyone to change the debate. Instead of which zone should produce the president, maybe we should concentrate on qualities a good president must have. At least, that would guarantee some value-added, in the run-up to that all-important election.