Former Secretary to the Federal Government and one time Minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae, has condemned calls by many Nigerians for the 2023 presidency to be zoned to particular regions of the country, insisting that there was no provision for zoning in the Nigerian Constitution.

The former National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who disclosed this on Friday when he played host to executives of the Ondo State chapter of the party in Akure, faulted calls for zoning, saying it was no guarantee that such would produce a competent president.

“Politicians should stop deceiving the people by putting zoning in the party constitution, where it is not valid. Nigerian Constitution supersedes the party’s constitution,” Falae said.

“There is no provision for zoning in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Zoning is not part of the conditions for Nigeria’s presidency.

“If all aspirants accept it and they did not challenge it, it stands, but if a single aspirant challenges it, the Nigerian Constitution will override what is in the party constitution,” the elder statesman added.

fergie001:
The elder Statesman is correct.

I know your line of argument… that zoning is not a Democratic Principle.

But let me ask you, are Democratic Principles cast in stone?

A little summary of the evolution of democracy would tell you how it first started as a direct participation of every member of the state in the running of government. But when population growth made that impossible, representational democracy was birthed. Overtime people saw that concentrating legislative, executive and adjudicatory powers on one man was becoming too dangerous, the idea of Separation of Powers came to be.

I’m not here to lecture you, just to point out to you that the Democracy you are defending have consistently taken form in conformity to existential social realities of any given society.

But no, you want it as it is. Your extent of education did not allow you know that the concept of democracy can be deconstructed and redefined to suit the existential realities of the present Nigerian, nay Ebonyi, society where tribe and clan is now a major consideration in power discourse.

Men with brains like you, defined what democracy is today and what constitutes its principles. But those principles are not dogmatic. Why can’t we deconstruct democracy and redefine it to include zoning as to engender peace and mutual harmony of different peoples of our political constituencies?

And if you say zoning impedes merit, I have asked you to tell me which zone of Nigeria that is in dearth supply of capable men and women.

Insisting on the politics of survival of the fittest or the most powerful or the richest or the most connected would only lead to degeneration to the Hobbesian state of nature and a drift away from civilization. And guess what happens when a section of the society is continually shortchanged through your kind of argument… a time comes when they can’t take it anymore and they resort to restiveness and civil disobedience. IPOB in southeast is an example.

richiemcgold:
but in this Nigeria's situation where issues of zoning have always constituted serious problems for our major parties, why can't we make it a law and settle this raging matter once and for all?

heterogeneous country like Nigeria can't do away with zoning, that's the fact. I was actually expecting this to be considered in the recent electoral amendment act.

fergie001:
The elder Statesman is correct.

PHIPEX:
Says same man that benefitted from zoning.