Professor Uzodinma Nwala is the President of Alaigbo Development Foundation, a body of the Igbo intelligentsia and one of the foremost socio-political organisations in Igboland. Nwala, who is a former President of the Nigerian Philosophical Association, alleges that insecurity in Nigeria is jihadist agenda, in this interview with RAPHAEL EDE

Governor Nasir el-Rufai recently said zoning should be discarded for competence in 2023 presidency, what do you think was responsible for that?

First, let us begin from the agitation for a quota system that was invoked in the 70s and 80s because merit, when applied meant that most of the positions were taken by Igbo people and other southerners who were more educated, more competent in the system and so on. So you had very few northerners in the system. Have you seen the video being circulated where Sir Ahmadu Bello was saying that they were not going to engage Igbo people in the public service in the North and that he preferred taking foreigners to allowing Igbo people to dominate their public service?

He was scared of the education and competence of the Igbo people, even in those early days. It was paranoia that led to the northernisation policy which excluded Igbo people. Rather, such positions were reserved exclusively for northerners whether they were qualified or not. Even in education sector, regarding admissions, they created their own admissions standards whereby they had Mature Student Programme in which people with very low level Islamic certificates were given admissions into institutions of higher learning, at times for shorter periods and they received the same certificates as those who had spent years and earned higher level certificates.

By the time the debate was ongoing over the 1979 Constitution, the North had succeeded in getting the South to agree on the principle of quota in employment, admissions and other areas. Incidentally, the quota principle was applied mainly to the senior cadre level selection but not at the junior level.

What this development meant was that a constitutional backing had been given to elevate mediocrity over merit and education. In effect, what this development meant was that there was no more competence, no more merit. Higher level positions were to be shared pro rata among the various zones. This is the philosophy and rationale behind the famous quota system in the federation.

And yet the quota system was on paper. As far as the North was concerned, power and resources were increasingly dominated by the North. By the time we came to the 1994-95 National Constitutional Conference, the issue of equity and justice was raised by the South and the Middle Belt (North Central) delegates, and we settled it finally with the provision of Federal Character as the basis for power and resource sharing in the federation. When we agreed on six geo-political zones as the basis for power and resources sharing, we firmed up the principle of Federal Character. So we then said ‘okay, positions should be shared or assigned to the six zones on equal bases’.

We didn’t even emphasise on merit at the time because it was obvious that no one was interested in merit or competence, not the northern leadership. In the end, the principle of Federal Character was affirmed in the sharing of positions that were multiple. But in the case of the Presidency and governorship, we agreed on the principle of rotation. The Presidency was to rotate among the six geopolitical zones in a South-North alternation. In the case of the governors, it should be rotated among the three senatorial zones in each state. At that time, there was grim determination among some of the statesmen at that conference, whose numbers came from different parts of the federation to try and save the federation from disintegration. The Federal Character principle was to be applied to the armed forces, in the areas of recruitment, promotion and even in the citing of military installations, etc.

Although the northern political hawks used General Abdusalami Abubakar to torpedo the patriotic decisions of the 1994-95 Constitutional Conference, when we formed the Peoples Democratic Party, many of us who were leaders of the G-34 and who had worked hard to see if there could be a genuine post-military political dispensation, were still determined to uphold those key elements we had agreed on, and in fact, voted for. One of such decisions was the implementation of the principle of rotation, zoning and Federal Character. You can see what is happening today; the principle of quota is gone, the principle of rotation is gone, the principle of zoning is gone and the principle of Federal Character has been thrown into the dustbin. Thus, all the basic democratic ingredients that could hold the polity together have been completely eroded. And Nigeria has truly become the estate of the children of Usmanu dan Fodio. Nigeria has fully and truly become colonised. But can we blame the children of Usman dan Fodio alone? I doubt if we can. When in 2016, (Asiwaju) Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared that zoning and rotation were the affair of the PDP and had nothing to do with the All Progressives Congress, I knew we were in for a very cold winter.

When people say that basic principles that should keep a multi-national state together no longer matter and should no longer be operational, then it means that you have dissolved the federation. Thus, those that have seized the federation are telling us how they want to run the state.


That is what Governor el-Rufai is telling us. What else do you want me to say? The Fulani have permanently taken over power. Fulani settlements have been established all over the place. (There are plans to have) RUGA, cattle grazing colonies and (there are) moves to take over all waterways, etc. They have taken over the executive, legislature, judiciary, security agencies and armed forces, bureaucracy, economy, foreign affairs, etc. El-Rufai is daring you to do your worst.

So you think the northerners might want to hold on to power beyond 2023?

What do you think el-Rufai is telling you? He is telling you that they intend to hold on to power indefinitely. And when somebody also said that they might even enact a law in the National Assembly to make Buhari President for life, do you have any doubt that it is going to be so with the way things are?

But even a southerner in this government, Rotimi Amaechi, once said the Igbo people cannot produce the President in 2023 for not voting for the APC, what do you think about that?

https://www.nairapark.com/news/1568624843/fulani-have-taken-over-nigeria-affairs-says

It's sad that some of these fulani people aren't even Nigerian nationalities and buhari got no problem with that .