Out of 10 appointments, the three geopolitical
zones of the north took seven, while the 3 geopolitical zones of the
south took three! No one was appointed from the geopolitical
south/west! This is not inconsistent with the pattern of behavior of
all former Heads of State of northern extraction except, perhaps,
Gowon. This is one of the major problems that led us to where we are
today: Disparity in the distribution of political offices and gross
disparity in the distribution of common resources.
Yar’Adua’s Presidency: Nature of Things to
Come
by Tunde Adenodi.
I had planned to wait to see the list of President
Yar’Adua’s cabinet before writing this piece. But now, I cannot wait.
What he has done so far is enough to draw some important conclusions.
Or at least, it is enough to suggest, to a reasonable degree of
certainty, his future moves on the issue of what we all know as
Federal Character.
The winner take all behavior of former Heads of
State of Nigeria, particularly most of them from the northern part of
Nigeria informed the decision of some wise men to make this policy a
part of our constitution. And rightly so, in my judgment. It is not
known if this is a provision of the constitution can be adjudicated
on. It will be interesting to see a Femi Falana or Gani Fawehinmi take
up this issue in the courts.
A president is free, indeed obliged to nominate
into office those whom he is comfortable working with. This is even
more important if we are talking about the security of his person and
the security of the state. The president made some appointments of his
security team last week and thereby revealed his inner thinking on the
issue.
Out of 10 appointments, the three geopolitical
zones of the north took seven, while the 3 geopolitical zones of the
south took three! No one was appointed from the geopolitical
south/west! This is not inconsistent with the pattern of behavior of
all former Heads of State of northern extraction except, perhaps,
Gowon. This is one of the major problems that led us to where we are
today: Disparity in the distribution of political offices and gross
disparity in the distribution of common resources.
Since Independence in 1960, we did not have a
Minister of Defense who was a southerner, except for the period
Obasanjo was President. We did not have Minister of Internal Affairs,
Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Chief of Staff, Supreme
Headquarters and Chief of Army Staff. Southerners are rarely called
upon to be minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief of Naval Staff or
Chief of Air Staff or Inspector General of Police. The post of
Divisional Commanders of Army, Navy and Air Force are mostly
restricted to northern officers. It is common knowledge that
chairmanship of Federal Parastatals is a preserve of mainly
northerners. One more important point: whenever a southerner is
appointed a minister of something, there is invariably a minister of
state who is more powerful than the substantive minister.
What is worse, politicians were appointed to posts
that should be exclusive preserve of experts. Managing Directors of
NNPC, Refineries and Fertilizer companies in Port Harcourt, Warri and
Kaduna were politicized to the discomfiture of experts.
On the other hand, Nigerians of southern origin are
only good enough for the following appointments: Ministers of
Education, Health, Information and Agriculture. Chairmanship of NEPA,
Ports Authority and a few others.
As for the Judiciary, there is this pattern of
behavior by northern Heads of State: Justices of the south are
appointed when they are 62 years old and above. This way, they spend
only 2-3 years at the Supreme Court and retire. However, northern
justices are appointed when they are 40 years old and above, but not
more than 52 years old! This way they spend a minimum of 15 years on
the bench before they retire! At a time during Abacha, the 3 most
senior Supreme Court justices were from the north!
The small territory of Zanzibar, a federal part of
Tanzania on the Indian Ocean, liked our judiciary. They requested for
5 lawyers to work in their Ministry of Justice. Abacha obliged. He
sent 5 lawyers, all of them from Kano! Under what parameters was it
justifiable to send 5 lawyers from the same state?
Although there were northern murmurs of
marginalization during Obasanjo’s era, it was in no way comparable to
what we had under successive northern Heads of State. As maligned as
he was when he was president, he distributed political offices as
fairly and as evenly as he could.
This kind of behavior of our northern compatriots
is what has led us to where we are. Yar’Adua must not perpetuate it.
He must bear in mind the principle of Federal Character in his
appointments. Meanwhile, he must reverse the appointments, for the
sake of justice and fair play.
