An Address By Alh. Tanko Yakasai OFR Co-Chairman At The Occasion organised by Igbo Leadership Foundation

At Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.

5th March, 2020.

Protocols

Distinguished ladies and gentleman 

I was invited to attend today’s event in an unusual manner,
I received a phone call from someone whose name was not so familiar to me
asking for my house address so as to deliver an invitation to me. He sounded
genuine and I therefore decided to send a description on how he can trace my
house. We mutually agreed to meet at a certain time the following day. He was
almost punctual on the appointed day and came along with two of his friends.
When they came, they introduced themselves one after the other. In the course
of the introduction I found out that they are Igbos and that they have been
living in the North for at least 30 years or more. They handed over a sealed
envelope containing the letter of invitation.

When I opened the envelop I directed my attention to the
date and time for the event as they have already indicated the venue. I
immediately expressed my relief to them that being Igbos who stayed in the
North for such a long time, they must have been familiar with the general
attitude of Northerners on the issue of national unity. And that having been a
participant in the political activities in our country since the colonial era,
I knew that Igbos and Northerners, particularly the Hausa-Fulani are committed
Nigerians, given the manner the two communities settle in different parts of
the country despite our country’s unfortunate civil war experience. I therefore
told them that being of Igbo ethnic group with their long stay in the north for
many years, they are in a good position to make a positive impact on issues
related to promoting better mutual respect and understanding between the Igbos
in general, and communities in the North, particularly Hausa-Fulanis. This is
because there are almost as many Northerners in the Igboland and the same with
Igbo in the North. They concurred and requested me to give them names of
some  Northerners resident in Abuja for
them to have an engagement within the course of their preparations for the
event. I obliged accordingly. Thereafter they expressed delights and bade me
farewell.

It was after their departure that I noticed that the group
is interested in matters pertaining to things like structuring Nigeria, true
federalism and such other high sounding political slogans that started ranting
the political atmosphere in the country, but which has potentially grave consequences
if not thought through and carefully defined, before pushing the country to
accept such slogans that will not augur well for the country.

in Nigeria, particularly from around 2015 general elections.
I have been hearing and reading about those slogans but I never got the
opportunity to know what the details of restructuring Nigeria is all about nor
did I ever read anything on the blueprint of what restructuring means. It will
make a world of difference if the protagonists of the idea will take the
trouble to spell out the prons and cons of this concept. If they can do so they
will help people to have an understanding of what restructuring is all about
and be able to make up their minds about it.

I am weary of political slogans. We have had experience of
many political slogans without definitive meaning. I think we should learn our
lesson of political slogans from the last general elections. Most Nigerians
lent their support to the slogan for change. I’m not sure if this country has
seen any significant changes for the better since 2015.

I do not belong to any political party since the year 2001.
Certainly as a Nigerian I have the right to cast my vote for any candidate or
political party of my choice, but I have decided to not vote for any party or
candidate. I allow Nigerians to elect the party or candidates of their choice.
If they chose a good party or candidates, we shall all enjoy the goodies
together. If they made a bad choice we will similarly suffer together. But from
now on let us keep our eyes wide open so that we will not blame anybody for the
bad choices we make.

Before independence, the country was divided into three
parts namely; Western, Eastern and Northern regions. Going by the nature of our
relationship as Nigerians, the people of Nigeria including those from the
eastern and northern parts of the country have learnt a lot about living
together. There are a lot of the Hausa-Fulani that have been living in the
southen part of our country including the Igbo land for a long time. While at
the same time, the Igbo’s have been residing in the north since time in
memorial. Every nook and cranny of the villages and towns in the north are
housing the igbos. Northerners are also living in the south including Igboland
for many years. We have been interacting with one another. We need each other
as our cultures are complementary in nature.

I would like to make some remarks on issues your
organisation regard as its cardinal principle. These are: (a) Federal
Character, (b) Restructuring & (c) Rotational Presidency in Nigeria.

The first item federal character can be discussed
concomitantly with the the last item as they are dealing with the same theme –
which is giving a sence of belonging to every section of the people of Nigeria
on matters relating to the governance of the country.

Rotation and zoning were first introduced to Nigerian
political lexicon by the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. I am happy to
say I happen to be among the founding fathers of that party. The idea was
conceived around 1978 when NPN was transformed from the National Movement of
Nigeria as part of the transition programme of Murtala/Obasanjo administration.
When NPN was sponsoring candidates to contest 1979 general elections it adopted
the policy of zoning and rotation as the platform upon which the party will
seek mandate from the Nigerian electorate for those elections. The party
therefore nominated Alhaji Shehu Shagari of blessed memory from the present day
North West zone to be its Presidential candidate with late Dr. Alex Ekweme from
South East as his running mate. After the election, the party nominated Dr.
Joseph Wayes as Senate President and as a result of NPP/NPN Accord and late
Senator John Wash Pam was elected as his deputy. Late Rt. Honourable Ume Ezeoke
speaker of the House of Representatives and Honourable Idris Kuta also of
blessed memory as deputy speaker. The election of Rt. Honorable Ezeoke and
Senator Jaohn Wash Pam were an aberration.

That was because contrary to its expectation the NPN did not
win majority seats in the 1979 National Assembly elections. That necessitated
the party to go into an alliance with the APP led by the doyen of Nigerian
politics and the first President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe which for some
political exigencies was termed accord instead of alliance. I called the
election of the Rt. Hourable Ume Ezeoke and of Senator John Wash Pam as an
aberration because originally the two positions they held were among those zoned
by the NPN other than the ones Rt. Honourable Ezeoke and Senator John Pam came
from. The intention was for that arrangement to continue in that order until
the country would decide to jettison the idea of rotation and zoning
altogether. Zoning and rotation was intended to operate between the North and
South and the various positions zoned at that time were to rotate  between the North and South.

But that hope of entrenching zoning and rotation in our
constitutional arrangement was temporally truncated by the 1983 military
takeover that brought General Muhammadu Buhari into power. But the aspiration
was kept alive by the resilience and persistent struggle of the Nigerian people
for a constitution that will meet their aspirations of an egalitarian system that
will satisfy the yearnings of our people. By 1994, Nigerians resumed their
march for a democratic rule leading to the election into the constitutional
conference that year which returned the country to the path of constitution
making.

It is worth mentioning that the 1994/5 constitutional
conference in initiating the political offices to be distributed at the federal
level, four positions were initially considered for zoning. These were office
of the president. vice president, Senate president and Speaker of the House of
Representatives along with the offices of the national chairman and national
secretary of the party. When the proposal was submitted to the then Head of
State, General Sani Abacha, he removed the positions of party national chairman
and secretary from the equation and replaced them with an innovation of the
offices of the prime minister and deputy prime minister. That made the total
number of elective public offices to be distributed at the federal level to
six. That will tally with the innovation of six geopolitical zones consued
during the conference. The conference also recommended zoning and rotation at
state levels with the senatorial districts to be the basis for zoning formula
in the states. All of these and many other innovations were accepted and
incorporated into amendment constitution which was accepted by the military
council and promulgated into the new constitution.

That conference recommended many innovations such as
geopolitical zones are now virtually accepted by the country even though the
idea is not yet entrenched in our constitution. The idea of geopolitical zones
was part of the initiative of entrenching principles of zoning and rotation in
the Nigerian constitutional development. Unfortunately the idea was truncated
by the sudden death of the former head of state General Sani Abacha in 1998. By
the time the country resumed its journey towards democracy in 1999, issues of
zoning and rotation were put at the back seat during the intervening period
between 1999 to date. Thank God, the National Assembly has now rekindled our
hope in this regard by appointing an add hoc committee to look into the matter
again and make necessary  recommendations
for amending our constitution once more. I hope this time around Nigerians will
make best use of the opportunity to ensure that all the good ideas that have
been touted in all the previous unsuccessful attempts at amending the
constitution are successfully incorporated into the constitution this time
around as such opportunities rarely present themselves.

Now I would like to turn to the issue of restructuring being
presently touted. The concept of restructuring Nigeria is muted for discarding
the present federal constitution in favour of a new one but the promoters of
this idea are shy to come out to say so. The concept of restructuring Nigeria
has been going on since the constitutional crisis of 1953/4 London
constitutional Conference. , It has been intermittently raised in different
form. For example, during the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, Col
Gideon Orker who hailed from Benue State, declared his intention expell two
geopolitical zones of the north west and the north east from the country during
his aborted coup attempt, and this was all part of the grand scheme of those
agitations for restructuring. 

Finally, I would like to end by making some solemn
recommendations  on issues I believe will
help us move this country forward and help us begin to get things right. The
declaration is on three issues. 

Now I would like to turn to the issue of restructuring being
presently touted. The concept of restructuring Nigeria is muted for discarding
the present federal constitution in favour of a new one but the promoters of
this idea are shy to come out to say so. The concept of restructuring Nigeria
has been going on since the constitutional crisis of 1953/4 London
constitutional Conference. , It has been intermittently raised in different
form. For example, during the administration of Gen Babangida, Col Gideon Orker
who hailed from Benue State, declared his intention to expell two of the six
geopolitical areas namely the north west and the north east from the country
during his aborted coup attempt, and this was all part of the grand scheme of
those agitations for restructuring. 

Finally, I would like to end by making some solemn
recommendations  on issues I believe will
help us move this country forward and help us begin to get things right. The
declarations are on three issues.They are:

a) creation of truly independent political party that system
that will not be under the control of any individual or a group of individuals
in or out of power. A political party that will be control by its members. Such
a party has once existed in our country. NCNC, NPN, PDP are the example of such
party;

b) free fair and proved to be credible elections conducted
by robost electoral commission that will be run by people of proven integrity,
experienced,  honest and truly
independent minded people.

c) courageous, independent and truly non partisan judiciary.