9th Senate Presidency: Buhari And Apc

The current zoning arrangement of principal positions of the National Assembly by the ruling All Progressive Congress has totally ignored the southeast (Ndigbo) of Nigeria. This has elicited concerns from the President-general of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group - Ohaneze Ndigbo - Chief Nnia Nwodo; the President of Igbo Development Union, Chief Emmanuel Igwe and leaders of other Igbo and non-Igbo associations. The concern is so rife that one can read it on the sealed lips of many other patriotic Nigerians who marvel at such affront on the fragile unity of Nigeria. Conscientious people cannot fault these concerns given the total neglect and marginalization suffered by Ndigbo since 29th May 2015 when PMB's administration was inaugurated. Records show PMB's flagrant contravention of section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) in his appointments and so on. PMB's plea that he appoints people he could trust gave him out as a president with premeditated intent to flout the provisions of the very constitution he swore to defend or protect! Studies of the conducts of some of the so-called "trusted" appointees of PMB in public offices like the former SGF, Engr. Babachir Lawal; the former DSS boss, Lawal Daura; et cetera show that they are no special people. Rather, they are corrupt, lawless and selfish people who placed their private interests above the corporate existence of Nigeria.

So far, the PMB-led All Progressive Congress administration is the most parochial administration in the history of Nigeria and this character of the administration which is responsible for PMB's lopsided appointments into the country's security apparatchiks and APC's exclusive zoning arrangement of principal offices of the National Assembly has become the most potent fodder for separatist agitations in Nigeria. Nigeria's corporate existence, according to the preamble and section 14(2)(b) and (c) of the 1999 CFRN (as amended), is founded on social justice. When the composition of an administration is laced with tribalism as we have it in the present administration; and exclusive zoning arrangements such as the one being bandied by APC for the 9th National Assembly is in place, social justice is displaced, threatened and cannot be guaranteed. This is true because social justice implies practical and unfettered participatory inclusiveness! When social justice cannot be guaranteed, it gives room for separatist agitations and as such conscientious elders may not find reasons to blame people for the staccato of voices calling for a review of the corporate existence of Nigeria as a nation through referendum!

This was a quantum leap when compared to the votes PMB and his APC got from the area in the 2015 presidential election. With this and PMB's earlier promise that the Senate President will come from the Southeast, PMB and APC have no justification in ignoring Ndigbo of the Southeast in the zoning of the principal offices of the National Assembly, especially the Senate presidency. By this unpatriotic political move of PMB and the All Progressive Congress, they have put up the leadership of the APC in the Southeast for umbrage; and given more impetus to agitations for renegotiation of Nigeria's unity or corporate existence as one nation. I pray that President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR and the leadership of All Progressive Congress realize fast that the corporate existence or national unity of Nigeria is premised only upon the guarantee of social justice; and that Nigeria's and indeed any country's corporate existence is better guaranteed or secured by social justice than military hardware. I pray also that the APC administration realizes the danger of its current hypocritical approach to national unity, rescinds the hypocrisy and begins to infuse balance and inclusiveness into the administration as required by the extant Nigerian constitution. This, if properly done, will rekindle the hope of many in a united Nigeria; quell separatist agitations faster and more effectively than the barrels of guns could ever do and place President Buhari and the All Progressive Congress in prime positions in the anals of our country.

May God bless Nigeria.