By Osita Okechukwu

 

Let rotation of presidency convention be for it is not out of place but necessary for national reconciliation. In the democratic domain, the law and convention are the hallmark of governance throughout the history of man.

The law is written and armed with legal teeth whilst there are unwritten parts of convention and they all have the same force of law through customs and practice.

It is common knowledge that the unwritten parts of the constitution are not contradictory, ultra vires and do not conflict with the very essence and principles of freedom of exercising individual rights of choice and association as alluded.

To allude that convention is out of play and must be written before it is admissible in law is like alluding that all agreements must be written.

Albeit the unity of the country is still paramount and neither the law nor the convention is out of place. This is why some liberal democracies rely more on convention than on the law. Hence the popular ancient maxim that the United Kingdom has no written constitution.

It is on this basis that one deemed fit to reply the more or less misinformation of our eminent columnist Iliyasu Gadu of revered Daily Trust newspaper, he kind of reinforced prejudice and stereotypes.

“At the outset of the present civilian democratic dispensation, something out of place with democratic practice occurred that was glossed over in the euphoria of expectations of a new democratic dawn”.  – Gadu submitted.

Am happy that Gadu has the candour to recognise that the rotation convention is a child of national consensus conceived for national reconciliation which was guided by the wisdom of Nigerian patriots.

These patriots are heroes of democracy; we must acknowledge them for shelving their personal ambitions and placed national interest above self-ambition.

One remembers vividly how Dr Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President of blessed memory, one of the foundation members and conveners of PDP was to file a suit to challenge the abrupt postponement of PDP presidential primary against the date scheduled by the National Executive Committee of the party.

It could be recalled that the military government shifted the date when they figured that Ekwueme was coasting to victory against their preferred candidate Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who was an outsider just from prison. The reason they preferred him was that they are not only zoning to the South but specifically to Southwest.

Or does one forget how the flamboyant Alhaji Abubakar Rimi was persuaded to drop his ambition at the Jos Township Stadium the arena of PDP presidential primary.

While this horse trading was going on in the PDP, same took place at Kaduna the arena of the All Peoples Party (APP) presidential primary. Here the heroes of our democracy and rotation convention were Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, Bamanga Tukur, Dr Sola Saraki and Dr Ogbonnaya Onu. The latter  emerged as presidential candidate and was persuaded so as to accommodate Dr Olu Falae from the Southwest to make the Southwest vs Southwest.

A cursory analysis today gazettes that the wisdom of rotation convention of president from North to South and vice versa is still very germane as national reconciliation is an ongoing process until we unite properly in an enviable manner.

Some pundits, in dismissing this Gadu’s cynical allusion, may ask was the rotation convention the causative factor of the culture of impunity which has metastasised into bandits of multi-colours in Nigeria?

My brother Gadu, it is important to take note that the group we should hold responsible for the malignant ailments in Nigeria is the one per cent political elite who have a long history of misappropriation, therefore rotation convention is not culpable.

There are many like Gadu who because of the economic hardship consequent upon Mr President’s economic policies have already written him off.

Yes, there is economic hardship which even Mr President had acknowledged serially, however, our local proverb admonishes that you cannot properly assess the market results until it is closing or better when closed.

On a positive note is it not better to listen to Mr President’s economic team which had stridently assured that there is light at the end of the tunnel? And that we cannot make an omelette without breaking an egg; hence appealing for patience to the citizenry and urging us all to join hands and assist the federal government in over sighting some of their legacy projects.

Their canvas goes thus far; one Mr President has returned power to grassroots peasants by granting financial autonomy to local government councils. A major milestone which successive National Assembly Joint Committees of 1st -9th Sessions, 1999-2023, failed to accomplish despite billions of naira squandered.

They noted further that development commissions have been established to provide critical infrastructure to all geopolitical zones and livestock ministry to develop ranches to end farmer/herder crises.

In addition, they appealed that without the peasantry’s vigilance, buy-in and ownership of this milestone game changer by the people; the local government council autonomy will be in vain.

They beat their chest that the era when the weeping boy is Mr President is coming to an end.

And that in spite of all the criticisms no traducer will doubt the fact that Tinubu’s government disburses on monthly basis humongous allocations unrivalled since the 4th Republic to states and local governments. That all hands should be on deck as the rat cannot snatch the dry fish from the cupboard of a woman who is awake.

Accordingly, let the rotation convention be. Rotation convention is not for President Tinubu but for the harmonious and peaceful coexistence of our dear fatherland.

My little knowledge of Nigeria coupled with my hindsight of Nigerian history naturally inform me that we are yet to hear the last about this rotation convention abrogation canvas.

The other day, it was His Excellency Atiku Abubakar’s campaign team that flew a nebulous kite that the South has presided over Nigeria more than the North in an awkward equation, as if Nigeria’s independence was obtained in 1999.

Ironically, this is the campaign team whose political party, the PDP, paid dearly for their ignoble role in jettisoning the same rotation convention. This was in the 2023 presidential election when they made the fatal assumption that Gadu was romancing the northern electorate, and were quarantined in a hotel to be railroaded to polling booths to vote for His Excellency Atiku Abubakar.

Therefore, the percentage milestone garnered by the rotation convention as the ligament which glued our fledgling, nascent democracy is unparalleled. They cannot be easily consigned to the dustbin of history. Let rotation convention be.