Olisa Agbakoba

The hullabaloo about abolishing zoning is completely misconceived. The call to abolish zoning seriously underestimates and ignores the complex political character of Nigeria. Nigeria is not a federation by accident. It is a Federation because it is composed of diverse peoples from different ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds. Nigeria is a divided society. Federalism is the only known political system that accommodates divisions and diversity. This is why federalism is increasingly important in the world. Twenty eight countries in the world constituting, 40 per cent of the world's people, have adopted the federal system.



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Unity is a key challenge in many federations. It is a key challenge in Nigeria with major divisions along class, linguistic, religious and ethnic lines. In the case of Nigeria, a sense of belonging or inclusion is vital to the country's survival. This is why the Constitution prescribes the Federal Character principle at Section 14. Federal Character is about inclusion of the six geopolitical zones in the allocation of political and public sector appointments including the office of President. Strikingly, Federal Character has, however, assumed a negative connotation in recent times, as there is a strong perception that people gain offices at the sacrifice of merit. Zoning, it must be stressed, is the political name for the constitutional principle of federal character.

The call to abolish zoning, therefore, is misconceived. All public institutions in Nigeria are zoned to include the six zones. This is why Subsection (3) of Section 14 of the Constitution stipulates 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 all to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there is no pre-dominant of persons from few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies."

This shows clearly that zoning is a constitutional principle. It is important to ask why the drafters of the Constitution prescribed zoning or its constitutional name - Federal Character. The reason is quite simple. There are, broadly speaking, two types of federations: Homogeneous federations, where citizens have a strong sense of national unity, and diverse or divided federations. In homogeneous federations, unity is not a major issue and the social forces allow a strong central government. The second is the diverse or divided federation like Nigeria.

Here, citizens identify with very distinct groups; sometimes members of a particular group may see their identity as incompatible with the national identity, thus creating tension around the issue of national unity. Nigeria is a perfect illustration of a diverse or divided federation.

The Federal Character principle or zoning or inclusion is designed to manage this. So Nigeria must embrace its diversity by promoting a positive political nationality. This is the reason for Section 14 of the Constitution. We must build a constructive approach to diversity that responds to the demands of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic society. India is a very good example of how to manage diversity. Nigeria, Malaysia and Ethiopia are still grappling with this difficult issue. Thus, it will not be out of place to stress that Nigeria's survival depends on a full understanding of Section 14 of the Constitution.

Now, to the point about the misconception about zoning and power rotation. The debate about zoning the presidency either to the South-South or the North within the Peoples Democratic Party is not the concept of zoning referred to in the Constitution. The PDP is not one of the entities described in the context of the federal character principle contained in Section 14 of the Constitution. Zoning in the PDP is about the notion of power rotation between the North and the South, according to the rules of the party. The PDP abolishing zoning or power rotation should have no impact on the Federal Character principle laid out in the Constitution.

It is very important to keep this in mind as it would appear that if the PDP abolishes power rotation, it necessarily means that the Constitutional prescription of zoning is also affected. What the PDP decides to make of their principle of power rotation between north and south is an internal affair of the party. It will not affect the constitutional prescription of inclusion and participation in the affairs of government by Nigerians from all the zones as this has helped to keep the country together.

But it is also suggested that non public entities should take a bearing from the inclusion policy laid out in our Constitution. The Nigerian Bar Association is not a public institution but developed a working model to rotate the office of the President in an inclusive process. I think the challenge for the PDP is to understand that there is a world of difference between the concept of power rotation and the rules of rotation. It is possible to retain power rotation but change the rules according to circumstances.

We need therefore to clarify the debate so that we do not throw the baby out simply because the bath water is dirty.

Agbakoba SAN, a maritime lawyer based in Lagos, can be reached on charles@agbakoba-associates.com.