IBB is the write man to take Nigeria to the promise land.he has all it takes to do so.it is time for us to put sentiments aside and support this man come 2011.

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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.

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[b]If General Babangida wants to contest the 2011 general elections, let him feel free to do so; it is his constitutional right, which no one can take away, even with the harsh criticisms that currently trail his contemplation to contest the said election. The success of or otherwise of the General at the polls next year will not depend on what some few individuals say or do not say against him; it will depend more on the views of the Nigerian electorate as will be expressed through the ballot box. If the Nigerian electorate feel that Babangida is the man for the job, so will it be; if they do not want him, let them say so through the ballot boxI do not agree with the school of thought which suggests that Babangida has no right to want to rule again, after his alleged ‘evil deeds’ while in office as Nigerian Military President between 1985 and 1993. While one does not begrudge this school of thought of its opinion, it is important to bear one thing in mind (assuming IBB actually did anything wrong while in power), namely that even though no sin is so light that it may be overlooked, yet no sin is so heavy that it may not be repented of. Therefore, no matter how big, old, engrained, known, or unchangeable an offence might be, it can still be sincerely repented of, and healed. A word from the Christian Scriptures may help to emphasis what I mean the more: If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.—II Chronicles 7:14. Again, God said: I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud-mass, and your sins like a cloud. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you. –Isaiah 44:22. If God Almighty can forgive and forget, who are we, mere mortals, to insist on taking our pound of flesh against fellow men? These few Nigerians who try and actually do make a mountain out of General IBB`s ambition to come back as Nigeria`s civilian President come 2011 should pause a little and do a thorough reflection; it is possible that this same Babangida, whom they shout now, “crucify him, crucify him,” may turn out, if enthroned President, to be the best democratic leader this country has ever had. The question is, is it not possible that this man genuinely nurses his desire to be given an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past (if any)? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the best way to keep the fish safe is to entrust it in the care of the rat? Do we not ponder, even a little, on the possibility that, given this opportunity, this retired General may in the process of working so hard to prove his detractors wrong, end up surpassing the reasonable man`s expectations? On the premise that the devil we know is far preferable to the angel we yet know not. Let`s give IBB a chance to try his luck. Let him test his popularity. He has the right. And let the Nigerian voters, and not just a few individuals, be the ultimate decider of his fate. It is good to call a spade a spade, no matter whose ox is gored. I talk from the point of view of the law, bearing in mind the real essence of democracy: the beauty of democracy, which is what its founding fathers, led by Abraham Lincoln, had envisaged, is (as Anna Garlin Spencer put it) “its assurance that every human being should so respect himself and should be so respected in his own personality that he should have opportunity equal to that of every other human being to show what he was meant to become.” As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences. Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity. Democracy means not "I am as good as you are" but "You are as good as I am." In conclusion, even though as George Santayana said, “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” yet the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past. You can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches. Further, forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future. In the final analysis, we are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. God bless Nigeria.[/b]