By Prof. Echefuna' R G ONYEBEADI

The issue of zoning/rotation of political offices between North and South of Nigeria has become a recurrent decimal, particularly, in this political dispensation since 1999.

First, let's be clear that Nigeria did not gain independence from colonial rule in 1999, when the current political dispensation commenced under a very strange military contraption of an imposed aberration called "constitution".

Since independence in October 01, 1960, Nigeria has produced 17 (seventeen) Heads of Federal Government (HFG), whether in khaki or agbada viz:

1. Alhaji Tafawa Balewa (approx 6 years; 1960 - 1966) - North East.

2. General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (approx. 6 months; 1966) - South East.

3. General Yakubu Gowon (9 years; 1966 - 1975) - North Central.

4. General Murtala Ramat Muhammed (approx. 6 months; 1975 - 1976) - North West.

5. General Olusegun Obasanjo (3.5 years; 1976 - 1979) - South West.

6. Alhaji Shehu Shagari (4.25 years; 1979 - 1983) - North West.

7. General Muhammadu Buhari (1.67 years; 1984 - 1985) - North West.

8. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (8 years; 1985 - 1993) - North Central.

9. Chief MKO Abiola (Zero year; 1993; - never allowed to rule and died (some say murdered), while still being held incommunicado in incarceration by northern military authorities) - South West.

10. Chief Ernest Shonekan (3 months; 1993) - South West.

11. General Sani Abacha (approx. 5 years; 1993 - 1998; died in office) - North West.

12. General Abdulsalami Abubakar (approx. 1 year; 1998 - 1999) - North Central.

13. General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (8 years; 1999 - 2007) - South West.

14. Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (approx. 3 years, 2007 - 2010; died in office.) - North West.

15. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (5 years; 2010 - 2015) - South-South.

16. General Muhammadu Buhari (8 years; 2015 - 2023) - North West.

17. Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu (3 years+; 2023 - Date)

From the foregoing, out of about 66 years of Nigeria's independence since 1960, the North alone had ruled Nigeria for a whooping 46 years with virtually nothing positive to show; while the entire South put together has ruled for just approximately 20 years only!

Breaking it down further, the Heads of Federal Government (HFG) produced per Region/Geopolitical Zones of Nigeria since independence in 1960 to date are as follows:

1. North West: 6 HFG; 22.42 years.

2. North Central: 3 HFG; 18 years.

3. North East: 1 HFG; 6 years.

4. South West: 5 HFG; 14.75 years and still counting.

5. South-South: 1 HFG; 5 years.

6. South East: 1 HFG; 6 months - 0.5 year.

The foregoing speaks for itself!

North West had produced 6 HFG; North Central 3 HFG; North East 1 HFG; South West 5 HFG; South-South 1 HFG and South East 1 HFG.

So, given above facts and truth, why should anybody with good conscience be opposed to a very belated political power sharing and/or zoning/rotation between North and South of Nigeria?

Meanwhile, no northerner is known in history to have actively participated in the struggle for Nigeria's independence from colonial rule! I stand to be corrected.

Or, is it a case of moving from colonial rule to internal colonization of those opposed to equity, fairness and justice?

Meanwhile, one can easily reference the various active roles played at the emancipation of the country Nigeria by Herbert Macaulay (November 14, 1864 - May 07, 1946); Nnamdi Azikiwe (November 16, 1904 - May 11, 1996); Obafemi Awolowo (March 06, 1909 - May 09, 1987); Anthony Enahoro (July 22, 1923 – December 15, 2010) and a host of many others, all Southerners!

I would very much appreciate to be enlightened on just one name from anywhere in Northern Nigeria that actively participated in the struggle for Nigeria's independence!

It is instructive to note that when Chief Anthony Enahoro first moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in 1953, the North said they weren't ready! The entire Southern Nigeria persevered and waited for their Northern brethren to be 'ready' and persuaded to join the train of independence.

Somehow, political power was surreptitiously bequeathed to the least prepared North at Independence of Nigeria in 1960. Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Western Nigeria extraction kicked and rightly so, but Zik of Africa, Rt. Honourable Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Eastern Nigeria extraction felt otherwise and preferred inclusiveness; which not a few now argue has become an albatross.

Since then, neither the North nor anywhere else in the country has known true peace. If it isn't riots, operation 'wetie', beheading of innocent souls, genocides and such like, it is Maitatsine, Boko Haram, terrorist Fulani herdsmen, importation of armed invaders and so on!

So, if the South could persevere and wait for the North when it mattered most and eventually bequeathed them with political power which the South earnestly fought very hard to secure, to which they continued to monopolize for a whooping 46 years out of 66 years of Nigeria's independence, why should any rational person/group be vehemently opposed to a belated political power sharing and/or zoning between North and South?

Wouldn't it even make a better sense to rotate political power among the Regions/Geopolitical Zones instead of just zoning them between North and South, starting with those who have ruled the least in an ascending order?

Meanwhile, bulk of the resources that sustains the North and the entire country are from the Southern oil and gas.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas producing areas in Southern Nigeria are the least developed in addition to devastating oil/gas pollution and loss of nature endowed mode of sustenance!

Nigeria is the only country in the entire world where oil and gas domiciled in indigenous ancestral territories are "owned" by outsiders!

Nigeria is the only country in the entire universe where armed foreigners are imported to rape, maim, kill and forcefully displace indigenous people with government guaranteed citizenship!

Nigeria is the only country in the entire universe where the live of cows are more valued and rated higher than the lives of human beings! When cows die anywhere in Nigeria, citizens are killed to bury them!

Yet, our national anthem talks about "brotherhood" and a "country where no one is oppressed"!

Nigeria is the only country in the entire universe that is officially not at war, but have far more internally displaced people camps than all the countries at war put together in the entire world today, for the reasons we all know, but fail to tackle frontally!

Notice that number one on the list of rulers above, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, the first and only Prime Minister of Nigeria to date, was gruesomely murdered in a pan-Nigerian military coup which was wrongly labeled "Igbo coup".

General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a man who should know better, having served as Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff and military Head of State (military President), has succinctly clarified in his recently published memoir that the failed coup of January 15, 1966 wasn't actually an "Igbo coup". Ordinarily, this should have put paid to the wrong impression of an "Igbo coup", for which Ndigbo have been continually vilified, displaced, killed and wrongly labeled!

Besides, there have been several 'successful' and 'failed' coups in Nigeria after that of January 15, 1966; which were mainly if not all spearheaded by northerners; and, none of them were named after the tribes of the ringleaders! So, why give a dog a bad name in order to hang it!?

Number two on the same list above was also gruesomely murdered by a military gang up of Northern Nigeria origin in a supposedly 'counter' military coup. This misnomer called 'counter coup' is difficult to place, as the slain first Nigerian Army General and first Nigerian military Head of State, General Johnson T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, never planned or participated in any coup. Power was temporarily handed over to him as the head of the military in Nigeria then, by the civilian authorities to stabilize the polity, following the aftermath of the failed coup of January 15, 1966; but got killed together with his host Governor, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, while on official duty tour in Ibadan.

Since then to date, it is arguable that Nigeria has neither known genuine peace nor real progress!

"Nigeria" particularly of northern extraction waged a genocidal war against "Nigeria" of Eastern extraction, which was then styled "civil war", for which millions of people were sent to early grave; but it seems no lesson has been learned thus far!

Notice also that number 9 on the list above, Chief MKO Abiola, was callously, dubiously and wickedly denied the opportunity to rule by Northern military gang up, having won in a popular election that was globally regarded as the most credible, most transparent, most free and most fair in Nigeria's history to date; and, eventually died (some say murdered), while still in incarceration under the watch of Northern military authorities!

As I write presently, the genocidal atrocities by a small section of "Nigeria" against all other sections of "Nigeria" are still ongoing on an incremental scale, with no immediate hope of abating!

Yet, we mouth "UNITY, ONE NIGERIA, ONE DESTINY"!...

So, how long more shall these dehumanizing atrocities and false sense of entitlement of a few be allowed to continue?

Is it a coincidence that those vehemently opposed to a belated political power arrangement of zoning between North and South are the same people who are vehemently opposed to restructuring/restoring Nigeria to what was agreed by the founding leaders of Nigeria?

While it is imperative for Nigerians to have a say and feel a sense of belonging in how and who rules them through equitable representation, including political offices zoning/rotation, it will be foolhardy to proceed with another "national election" without first resolving the issue of RESTRUCTURING/RESTORING the country as envisioned and agreed by the founding leaders of the country.

Political offices zoning/rotation between North and South of Nigeria, good as it seems, will be better fitted in a restructured/restored Nigeria, where all the federating units (regions/zones) are allowed to determine their destiny, grow and develop at their own pace, without any external interferences.

Otherwise, zoning and/or rotation of political offices under the current skewed and imposed aberration of an abhorrent military governance model, will be like merely treating the symptoms while the main disease is largely unattended to!

So, how long more shall "Nigeria" continue to deceive "Nigeria" that they are not deceiving themselves?

I really wonder!

• Professor Echefuna' R G ONYEBEADI, an elder statesman, writes from FCT Abuja.

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