The Fight for Aso Rock

As the battle for 2007 Aso Rock Residency thickens, the North dares the

Governor Kure

rest of the nation; charges the South-south as the underdogs and the South-east as mercantile carnivores

By Solomon William-Johnson

No dropping the ball. If there is time for it, not now. From the masters, we went to school to pick the lesson that when all heads are up, as if you are in the eighteen, both the attackers and defenders don't dribble. Get going, score and the ovation will echo across and through the wilderness and the thickets. This is the time. Time to imitate the masters. Leave nothing to chance. Do the nice job, and the bad one if it comes to that. The colonial officers taught us so, which is why we have the nation, Nigeria. They did the nice and ugly job, in self interest, to unite the Southern and Northern protectorates to create the Nigerian nation. Don't blame them.

Politics means, not in academic sense, self service. The colonial officers knew this and it has been the style of the colonizers, who see other worlds as empirical grounds for career politicians of their stock to test a new plot. Ask Lord Lugard. To a conservative British historian, Lugard was a fine colonial service officer. Sure! Lugard maneuvered his way through and exploited the rich bowels of the mangrove rain forest of the south and to the arid northern fringes of what was the Northern Protectorates; all subdued nation states. Such a historian is, naturally, toeing the path of a conservative British politician who measures political horse-trading and debates in terms of national interest. And Lugard certainly, as the superintendent of the British colony in this part, saved the colonial office the burden of funding what was then the Southern and Northern protectorates, now Nigeria, from the London treasury. The South funded the administration and with benefit of hindsight, elongated this and thus saved the North from the danger of economic leukemia. Not surprisingly, the leech latches on the bowels of the south to date, for survival. And yet, not surprisingly as well, has continued to insist that on their sons' head should the Nigeria crown ever remain. And not to forget, that the determination of the socio-political circumstance of Nigeria must take, as its focus, the welfare of the entire North.

Empirical politico-historicism! The South have been living with this, grumbling, hoping that somehow, we will begin to sort out the incongruent angles so that whosoever will find nothing to protest again; to decry injustice, to feel marginalised and therefore demand equity, if not reparation, would be at home with Pythagoras solution. This is why the Southern Nigeria is saying that if the Nigerian project means the involvement of all Nigerians, the South must drive the engine of government because, for 39 years, the North, including 1999 off-the-statue-book political party creation – the political zones, has held the leadership, military and civilian. Don't drop the ball! It is the decisive moment when a good soldier digs in to neutralise the enemies' offensive. For an effect let the talking, let the tracking, continue unrelenting. Reason must prevail, not prejudice, not emotion. It is interesting that our generation up North is not pretending to keep Lugard's gift in their firm grips by daring everyone outside the North. There are enough elite combatants in its system to ward off ‘intruders' who mindlessly venture into their heir. And this heir is that the nation's economic health and the survival of the North is the wealth from the South. If it is assumed that the South is the hegemony of the North or that the South is a serfdom of the North, does a serf not have right of say, even in a democracy, to self-determination? The South is neither a selfdom of the North nor is a second-class citizen in the Nigeria project. Again, thanks, I would say, to Lugard for deviously planting the seed of discord and awarding an unearned superiority over the South through dubious political gerrymandering.

Many rancorous Northern political elites do not mind the inelegance of their actions and utterances so long as the interest of the North is protected. They do this because they have always ridden roughshod over the ‘unorganised' South. We still recall, with disgust, the premature abortion of the 1999 Constitution Amendment Bill which the National Assembly, with the prompting of the Southern press, acquiesced, on the suspicion that President Olusegun Obasanjo was driving a third or life term agenda. If there was surreptitious scheming to introduce term elongation, was it enough to guarantee that abortion that was primarily designed to divest the constitution of the brash toga of the military that midwifed it? Was that review not designed to rectify those defects which had made it impossible for the establishment of true federalism, enthrone fundamental human rights as enunciated by the United Nations of which Nigeria is a signatory? And wouldn't the exercise have removed all injustices and marginalisation so far entrenched in the nation's political arrangements? Or do we feign ignorance of the plot to deny the oil-producing zones fair and equitable compensation for the devastation and degradation they suffer as a result of oil exploitation and exploration in their areas? Nobody answered these questions to solve our problem; rather the music and alluring smell of naira notes produced the harmonious sound for the deaf. And we ignored the reality of the game. The consequence of throwing away the child and the bathwater:

We are now faced with the hard reality of vacancy at the residence of Aso Rock villa, the seat of Federal Government. It is no more, as Anenih, the fixer, would say, ‘no vacancy at Aso Rock.' It is that ‘there is vacancy at Aso Rock villa' and it is that the Presidency should not rotate among the so-called six geo-political zones or oscillate between the North and South. This is a strange arrangement so long as we cannot find it in our statue books or the constitution. We burnt the opportunity to give true Nigerian spirit to the constitution when the third term elongation hype and emotion overtook our common drive; a drive that would have been the miracle player in finding true federalism.

There is no doubt that the idea, of North and South power oscillation is the design of northern leaders to hold on to power, possibly. This will amount to the continuation of the injustice of those great patriots who have ignored the deliberate mistake of colonial officers to urge the nation to live as one big empire. Time is in flight. The nation must be mindful of stressing the polity. True Nigeria legitimacy lies in the ability of the big political players to recognise the strength and emotions of supposed political under-dogs and find ways to allow these so called under-dogs access to power. And this is why the current campaign to source the next occupant in Aso Rock must be given serious thought by all the political parties.

However, in doing this, attempts should be made not to secure such balance of power based on spurious calculations but be guided by recognisable historical facts. The facts: that we had four viable and stable regions – North, East, West and later on, Mid-west region. That despite the feeble evidence that tries to contradict substantiated evidence for the continued existence of conscripted power base and influence by the north, the East deserves a shot at the presidency in the emerging dispensation. The facts are there: the North had produced the leadership or the president for thirty-nine years; the West had it for a little over 11 years and the east just for a mere six months. Agreed that the motivation for political jockeying is to maintain grip of power or government apparatuses for selfish ends, must we overlook the inherent danger in pursuing an end which its means is fraught with potential danger? Perhaps, few see this motivated danger but are overtaken by ethnic arrogance; arrogance encouraged by false feudalistic mentality.

It must however be said that this attempt by some people from the North to polarise this demand to retain the presidency, as a right, or dichotomise the power-shift argument, as north/south pendulum, discounts the lessons of history. The lesson of history is that the appropriation of power by one feudal or monarchial lineage is a potential source of serious revolution. This lesson of history, of course, never seems to portend danger to noble savages who willy-nilly will face the anger of the larger society that mock their pretences and ignore their tricks with which they had held a seemingly permanent dominion over the society.

One takes exception to their pretences; that you or I is a second class citizen of this country. We are all equal stakeholders in the Nigerian business. Lose grip of eternal power! This is the preserve of God. God is eternal and He does not share this eternal possession with us, mere mortal, and His creation. Then, why is the arrogance? Still thanks to Lugard. Time was fast gone! And the shining armour of permanent dominion has given way in a free world of democracy. What way? What means? Not feudalism, not even monarchy. This is democracy. And in democracy, we listen to each other's music, even when the fifer may have its way. Truly, they say in a democracy, the masses may have their say, but the few ruling class that found their way into the political beltway take sway. But would we not tell the fifer that vigorous beating of the drums has drowned the vibration of fife? It has.

The drum beat in the East echoes, ‘you can as well find Bismarck here'. There are nobles from the East as well. The East produces the oil, the coal, the tariff from the ports, the V.A.T. from the gin, beer, food and luxury at the centre of tourism down East, ditto the West. And the West had had their turn in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who rose from prison and rode into presidency to assuage the justified anger of the West whose son, Alhaji MKO Abiola, was denied a mandate Nigerians gave him some 12 years ago. The East may not boast of an ex-prisoner like Chief Obasanjo, or a Joseph in Egypt because the season does not scout for such character, but has the drums of blood of youth burnt and wasted in mindless pogrom and civil war of 1967-1970.

In addition, and as a consolation, there are, in the East, and in good number, men who drive the engine of reform and development, who take risk to rediscover the lost past of their people and who have courage to hold the world, for Nigeria, in their palms.

The thought of a greater Nigerian nation tomorrow begins with the discharge of feudal toga and arrogance, obstinate political horse-trading and false sense of eternal leadership. It means inclusion; it means justice, fairness and equity. Let the oscillation take bearing on old regional structure. It makes more sense than illegal political zoning which is the thought of the big political block players to distort history and reality. And perhaps, eternally latch on to power. This is not the time, again.

Solomon William-Johnson is a veteran journalist and lives in Enugu.