The Return of Junaid Mohammed
“First and foremost, argues Mohammed, my understanding of democracy is not about the postulation of people who talk about zoning or rotation in democracy. This is because zoning or rotationing is not in any way democratic. Democracy is at its finest when we talk about freedom of choice by the people. When you believe that power is just going to be rotational, then it means you also believe that power is going to be abused,” This postulation then begs the question.
Why dont we equally throw recruitment into the Nigerian public service open to free market meritocracy? Why should we limit the principle of the freedom of choice to political choice alone? This was the same man threatening fire and brimstone were Buhari denied a second term-because zoning should not be jettisoned when it is the turn of the North. So why should we now jettison zoning when political equity suggests it should be the turn of the Igbo? Those who want to affect the posture of democracy purist had better begin with the 1999 Constitution.
By the standards of democracy, the Nigerian constitution is an aberration, it was foisted on Nigeria by a military dictatorship. Even at the level of realpolitik, it raises the question of the likely consequences of marginalising a regional subset of Nigeria ad infinitum. How much does the relative peace at the Niger Delta oil fields have to do with the fact Goodluck Jonathan was a Nigerian president? Absent Jonathan’s incumbency, how effective would we be in convincing the Niger Delta freedom fighters that they otherwise have a stake in the corporate stability of Nigeria? Structurally, Nigeria is not a level playing group and it was in acknowledgement of this imbalance that federalism became an imperative. It is the present operative and constitutional abrogation of this imperative that is at the root of the political iniquities to which remedy is sought by zoning. Until Nigeria is restored to true federalism, it will continue to require deliberate efforts of political palliatives to foster stability and sense of belonging. If the centre has become far more consequential than it should be in federalism (through the usurpation of the coordinate powers of the supposed second tier of government) then it requires the kind of mitigation that federalism renders superfluous.