₦airaland Forum

As Nigeria approaches its 6th general election in its fourth republic, a lot is at
stake one of which is the unity and stability of the country. We are at a precipice
and as a people we must put selfish agenda aside to foster a path of unity and
cohesion for the future. In the last 6 years we have seen an increasing and even
more violent agitations for secession across several regions of this country and
to a general bewilderment, these agitation are from ethnic majorities which if
not looked at and properly handled could lead to a catastrophic end to the
pseudo peaceful coexistence we have in this country.
In advanced democracies like the United States that we have patterned our
democracy to, the major criteria of selecting a leader are based on competence,
popularity, policies and even moral character. However in fragile democracy
like ours, other factors are given strong consideration some of which are
religion, ethnicity and regionalism.
As a serious minded people we must not shy away from this reality no matter
how ugly they may look, rather we should try to understand it better and look
for the best way to handle it going forward. We are not United States neither are
we Great Britain, we are Nigeria, a country of over 500 languages, multiple
cultures and religions, we are unique people and must forge the kind of
democracy that suits us best at this moment and in the nearest foreseeable
future.
In my opinion, Nigeria is blessed with enormous human capacity. We have
smart and intelligent minds all over the 774 local governments in this country.
Every village has a man or woman capable of providing the kind of leadership
Nigeria needs but in selecting that leadership, we must be careful not to further
deepening the mistrust, marginalization and polarization that has plagued us for
almost a decade now. The main objective should be our stability and peaceful
co-existence without which the best leadership cannot thrive.
Political parties are the vehicle and platform that gives people the opportunity to
vie for leadership position in every tier of government. Political party leaders,
religious leaders, traditional rulers, socio-political and socio-cultural
organizations are very important stakeholders in our polity and if they are able
to agree that social justice and equity is the way to stabilize our country and
move forward as a people then we have the chance of building the Nigeria of
our dreams.
To achieve this, CONSOCIATIONALISM is the best way to go in achieving
social justice and stability. We are a unique people and adopting democratic
consociationalism will set us on the trajectory of peaceful co-existence and
stability. Consociationalism is a form of democratic power sharing in a state
which has major internal division along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines but
which remains stable due to consultation among the elites of these groups,
present good example is Switzerland. Formally Belgium and Cyprus between
1960-1963, Israel and Czechoslovakia between 1917-1967.
The good of consociationalism are stability, the survival of the power sharing
arrangement, the survival of democracy and avoidance of violent secessionist
agitation. It is a democratic tool for reconciling societal fragmentation along
ethnic and religious lines.
After all being said, the primary responsibility is on the major political parties to
look inwards, be courageous enough to put Nigeria ahead of individual interests
and jettison that desperation of getting into the Aso Villa come 2023. Political
parties should look at competent, credible and popular candidates from the
south eastern region of the country which I believe are in abundance in the two
major parties and any third force. The narrative of always fielding the richest
and most influential candidate is not always best. In my opinion, a united party
with a competent and less popular candidate can beat a divided party with a
more popular candidate in the polls. Political parties just have to put their house
in order and go to the polls as a united force and a well received ideology to be
able to win elections.
Political leaders across the major parties must consult, compromises must be
made and a common sense decision must be reached to field candidates from
the south eastern region of the country. Any zoning arrangement that doesn’t
produce a candidate from this region will further increase the feeling of
alienation and marginalization being felt by the people of the south east and
could lead to instability and more violent secessionist agitation for decades to
come that is if the country has not fragmented. Political parties should not allow
themselves to be seen as being unfavorably biased against the south eastern
region of the country. Any party that zones or present candidate not from the
south east will be remembered in history as a party that fostered
MAJORITARIANISM or worse case “tyranny of the majority”.
If zoning and power rotation doesn’t work now it will never work again and
Nigeria may continue to suffer from the consequences of not getting it right in
2023. Political parties will continue to have perpetual internal crises, ethnic and
religious group may begin to perceive political parties as being biased against
them thereby defeating the objective of modern day political parties as one of
the most important vehicle of nationalism and unity, therefore taking us back to
the first republic politics where political parties were only a representation of
ethnic groups and do not cut across board to incorporate all Nigerians from all
region, ethnic or religious application.
As a nation, we all agree that our major problem is leadership. Despite having
enormous leadership capacity across the length and breathe of his country, we
have somehow not able to have the best leaders since independence. Albeit, we
must not be fooled, there is at least one person in every local government of this
country that could provide the leadership we all desire which is summarily a
progressive, visionary, focused, courageous leadership. Giving every region a
sense of belonging and participation by allowing them through consensus and
compromise to provide that leadership for a given a period of time as allowed
by the constitution will not only be common sense but it will promote equity,
fairness and justice which are important recipe for a stable democracy.
As I summarize my argument I want to call on the APC, the PDP and the third
force to give preference and special consideration to candidates of competence
and track record from the south east region of Nigeria. Popular aspirants like
Chief Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should take their seats
as elder statesmen and Kingmakers which they are and help point to us good
candidates in whom they see the kind of leadership quality they themselves
would have provided.
Nigeria will never forget them and their names will definitely be in the good
history book of this country for sacrificing their long term aspirations for the
common good of the nation. No doubt both of them and many others I did not
mention have the political prowess of winning elections but truth be told,
Nigeria will not die and they will also not die if they don’t become president
come 2023. I call on them to crown their legacy now by taking a bow out of this
race and use their structure to support a younger, progressive and more vibrant
candidate from the south east.
As a nation, we look forward to seeing Nigerians from all over the country and
all walks of life regardless of ethnic and religious affiliation, supporting,
campaigning and voting for south eastern candidates in all political parties
competing in the 2023 presidential election.
Thank you and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
By Ebesekaye Rukevwe

Nice piece of write up. Really wish the politicians sees this

they need this, everyone needs to see this

Lucky4real28:
Nice piece of write up. Really wish the politicians sees this

Consociationalism kor...Konkobility ni

Go out there, contest and win! It is a democracy.

Nobody will give you a free presidential ticket. Lobby, form alliances and build bridges to win votes, otherwise you will keep grandstanding at the bottom till thy kingdom come.

we are not fighting bro, if you were ever politically active and understand things you would not talk like this

QuotaSystem:
Consociationalism kor...Konkobility ni

Go out there, contest and win! It is a democracy.

Nobody will give you a free presidential ticket. Lobby, form alliances and build bridges to win votes, otherwise you will keep grandstanding at the bottom till thy kingdom come.

lawdrukky:
we are not fighting bro, if you were ever politically active and understand things you would not talk like this

You must be new on this section or forum.

I think it’s really not who wins or who looses anymore. When next a particular region talks about fairness in future they will be reminded that those who come to equity must come with clean hands. What goes around comes around.

that's true but it could make things worse and the minorities will feel even more marginalized we have to set the right path now.

orion7:
I think it’s really not who wins or who looses anymore. When next a particular region talks about fairness in future they will be reminded that those who come to equity must come with clean hands. What goes around comes around.

more opinion