Disband Nigeria’s Quota System If It Would Not Be Applicable in Selecting Presidents via Rotation Presidency

The governor of Ondo State Rotimi Akeredolu, has become the latest voice to join the call for southern presidential candidate in 2023. In a statement titled: ‘Our Party, APC, Must Tread The Path of Equity,’ issued on Tuesday through his social media pages, Akeredolu urged his party, the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) to thread the path of equity and avoid making a decision capable of tilting the delicate balance against the established arrangement which guarantees peace and promotes trust.

This comes as the two major political parties; the People Democratic Party (PDP) and APC, face heightening pressure to zone the parties’ presidential candidate to Southern Nigeria.

Akeredolu said the APC can’t afford any internal bickering which holds the potential promise of causing distrust and militating against cohesion, harmony and the zeal to achieve set objectives. Last year, southern governors had agreed that the presidency must be zoned to the south, an agreement that the APC accepted during their convention.

“The leadership of the party ensured that the principle of rotational representation guided its decision at the just-concluded Convention. The party Chairmanship position has gone to the North. All other offices have been filled on this understanding. This is the time the leaders of the party must make a categorical statement, devoid of equivocation, on the pattern of succession’” he said.

The ruling party’s body language is believed to be signaling intent to renege on the agreement of zoning, prompting the growing call for the party to ensure equity by sticking to the agreement it had earlier on zoning during its convention held in March.

“The current democratic dispensation is anchored on the unwritten convention driven by a principle of Equity. Political expediency dictates, more appealingly, that while adhering to the spirit and letters of the laws guiding conduct of elections and succession to political offices,” the governor said.

He said the decision is crucial to ensure successful electoral exercise in 2023, urging the APC to follow its convention electoral principle by giving every part of the country an important stake in Nigeria’s political calculus.

“Our party just elected officers on the established principle of giving every part of the country an important stake in the political calculus. The focus has now shifted to the process which will culminate in the participation of our party in the general elections scheduled for next year.

“All lovers of peace and freedom must do everything to eschew tendencies which may predispose them to taking decisions which promote distrust and lead to a crisis, the end of which nobody may be able to predict.

“The party Executive Committee has fixed a fee for the purchase of the nomination form for the office. It is expected, fervently, that it will proceed to complete the process by limiting the propensities for disagreement to a region for possible micro-management. It is very expedient that we avoid self-inflicted crises before the general elections. It is the turn of the Southern part of the country to produce the next President.

“The party leadership should have no difficulty in making pronouncement on this very important issue, just as it has fixed various fees for the purchase of forms. This must be done without delay. The principle of Federal Character is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, as amended. It will be disingenuous for anyone to argue against rotation at this period,” he said.

Akeredolu added that “equity dictates that we take a stand” and the APC must not keep party members guessing on the position of the leadership of the party.

“This is the time to weigh in and take control of the process. No statement must suggest, even remotely, that the party harbours certain sentiments which may predispose it to consider throwing the contest open. This is certainly not the time for equivocation,” he said.

Largely, the call for zoning the presidency to the south, particularly the southeast, which has been shut out of Nigeria’s presidential leadership since the end of the civil war, has been buoyed by the federal character principle – which is designed to ensure that every part of the country is fairly represented. The federal character, which birthed the quota system, goes beyond leadership to include areas such as education, the judiciary, public sector and ministerial positions.

For instance, to gain admission into Nigerian Unity Schools, pupils in Anambra or Lagos State (Southern Nigeria) require a cutoff mark above 130, while their counterparts in Zamfara and Yobe States (Northern Nigeria) need 3. The idea is to help education-disadvantaged regions to improve their quality of education by enrolling more people into schools.

On this ground, elder statesmen, Pa Edwin Clark and Pa Ayo Adebanjo, have been advocating the implementation of the quota system in the presidency too. The nonagenarians have called for the disbandment of quota system if it would not be applicable in Nigeria’s presidential system.

Thus, the major political parties have come under intense pressure to reach and uphold a consensus on the 2023 southern presidential candidate.

“PDP & APC will set a very dangerous precedent. PDP won’t zone to South, APC won’t zone to South. Both will abandon zoning. Ahmed Lawan’s ticket is being suggested by Abdullahi led APC. In their thinking, only a Northerner can win elections. The South is now a conquered territory?” Nefertiti wrote on Twitter.