The Challenge Of Ethnic Solidarity

Many believe that with the defeat of the Northern consensus candidate, the Turakin Adamawa, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary held at the Eagle Square, Abuja on January 13, 2011, the Northern political leaders would sheathe their sword. But, it goes without saying that even  after the PDP national convention, the burning desire to enthrone a northerner as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which has become an obsession with Mallam Adamu Ciroma and his Northern Political Leaders Forum has continued to spread like the proverbial harmattan fire across sections of the North.

It is no longer news that on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, the socio-political group of the North, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) rejected the emergence of President Jonathan as the presidential standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Besides, it has been widely reported that the north has since after the PDP national convention witnessed series of demonstrations by its youth organisations, students forum, and other groups, protesting the victory of Dr. Jonathan at the PDP presidential primary election. In fact, media reports have it that such groups as the Arewa Citizens Action for Change (ACAC), the Arewa Youth Development Foundation (AYDF), and the Arewa Students Forum (ASF) are already gearing up to ensure that Northern governors and legislators who supported Dr. Jonathan at the PDP presidential primary are voted out of power in the April general elections. Also, it is said that in some areas in the North, some youths have burnt to the ground PDP billboards and flags and some PDP members have destroyed their membership cards.

And even in the midst of these violent protests, some Northern political leaders are still egging Atiku Abubakar to challenge the outcome of the party’s convention in court based on the zoning arrangements.

As asserted by the Northern political leaders, and perhaps some other persons, the zoning mechanism was introduced by the PDP to ensure that there was equal and easy access to power by every Nigerian irrespective of his or her ethnic nationality or geographical location. But the truth about the whole idea behind the intra-party power sharing formula or rotational presidency, and federal character principle is that there is no trust among the various ethnic nationalities and regions that constitute the country.

From all indications, the Adamu Ciroma’s led Northern Political Leaders Forum and a section of the Arewa Consultative Forum have become jittery that the south is wresting political power from the North which monopolised the country’s top-most leadership position for donkey years.

And they have attached themselves perversely to the contentious zoning mechanism which according to them, had been part of PDP’s doctrine since its inception.

Since these Northern elders have vowed not to let go of their obsession for Northern presidency, they are very free to consolidate their plans for another consensus candidate and choose either General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) or any other Northern presidential candidate irrespective of political party affiliation. They are also free to drum up support from the North and other parts of the country for their Northern consensus presidential candidate.

But the spirit of the unity, peace, harmony, growth and development of the Nigerian nation forbids them from sowing any seed of discord, tension, rancour and aggression between the North and the South and among the various ethnic nationalities that constitute the country. And it forbids them from nurturing sub-nationalism, ethno-nationalities or primordial ethnic solidarity which the multiple creation of sub-system states or regions between 1963 and 1996, the grouping of the states into geo-political zones, and the policies and programmes of reconciliation, rehabitation, and reconstruction in the post- civil war period have been trying to subdue.

It is disturbing that after more than 50 years of political independence of the Nigerian nation, some members of the political class are still employing ethnic nationalism or ethnic solidarity as their statecraft and a tool for acquiring political and economic power and gaining popularity.

All over the world, as nations climb their growth and development ladder, they dissipate the various primordial allegiance, constraints, and ties of ethnic solidarity, religion, language and other cultural encumbrances. This is to say that as long as ethnic solidarity, traditional attitudes, or other parochial and sectional concerns are promoted above our national interest, the path of nation building and integration, socio-political development, and economic progress will continue to be difficult for Nigerians and the Nigerian nation to tread.

I think that the Northern political leaders who have continued to nurture sub-nationalism and ethnic solidarity should heed the advice of their brother, Vice President Namadi Sambo, who has cautioned them against ethnic politics.

As he (Namadi Sambo) rightly observed while addressing the North West Executive Committee meeting of the PDP in Kaduna last week, “We must avoid all other sentiments, we must tell our people that God has made us to live together as Moslems and Christians in this country and the most important thing that we need today is who will deliver the good for us”.