The manner in which the British took over, administered and left Nigeria is the reason the North and South are polarized and suspicious of the other.
The quest for leadership is always a tussle between South and North, not based on competence.
Hence, the cycle is, after the South or North, it must be the turn of the other or else, it is considered a marginalization.
What is the problem with Nigeria?
Nigeria is a country that is not well structured for growth. Give it the best leader, the country will fail a thousand times because it is not well constituted and structured.
Now, as the 2023 general elections fast approaches, the issue of whose turn it is to produce the next president is the most topical discourse.
The country is politically polarized into six geopolitical regions – South-South, South-West, South-East, North-Central, North-East & North-West.
Since after the return to democracy in 1999, the South-West had a shot once (1999-2007, Olusegun Obasanjo), the North-West has had two shots (2007-2010, Umaru Musa Yar'adua & 2015-till date, Muhammadu Buhari), South-South (2010-2015, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan).
Going by the geopolitical construct of our political idealism, these following regions are entitled to the presidency because they have never had a shot since the return to democracy in 1999:
- South-East
- North-Central
- North-East
If the arguements for these regional rotation is anything to go by, these three regions are entitled to the presidency and are right in their quest for it after the tenure of President Buhari.
Interestingly, last night, Atiku Abubakar, from the North-East emerged victorious at the presidential primaries of the PDP.
Also, on the platform of the APC, we have the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan ( North-East), Yahaya Bello (North-Central) & other candidates from the South-East contesting for the ticket.
Where should the Nigerian seat of government rotate to? These three regions feel entitled to it based on the geopolitical idealism. But the South-East cries more for it because of the thinking that the whole geopolitical regions in the North are the same.
If we are a just people, we should know that any one of these geopolitical regions are right in their own sense to seek to produce the president after Buhari.
In a sane and decent society devoid of suspicion and distrust the people and the electorates agitate for the best of their best to lead them and decision on candidates are made based on policy propositions.
Nigeria will never be fine unless this entitlement mentality is squashed and our best presented and supported by all irrespective of his/her religion, region, or ethnicity.
Unfortunately, we are a people polarized along ethnic and religious lines. We suspect each other and do not think and see the federation as a whole.
We are not going anywhere even if a proven leader of repute lead the ship. The problem is the way we started as a country. Our foundation is laid on the wrong emphasis.
The way forward is to re constitute Nigeria, our laws rewritten and a new national consciousness embraced by all. This is extremely difficult now because Nigeria is far gone on the wrong path. But we can start from somewhere.
The somewhere is a mass resolution!
