The nation’s founding fathers did well to seek and obtain independence and opened up the citizens’ eyes to the enormous potentials of a country blessed with abundant human and natural resources. Beyond that, it is doubtful if there was enough effort on their part to mould Nigeria into a solid unit whose strength should lie in its diversity. Rather than engendering the realisation of its immense potentials, Nigeria’s vast endowments have more or less become divisive factors. This was accentuated in the beginning by the ethnic-leaning leaders who were motivated by less than altruistic intentions. It is hardly surprising because Nigeria is a country of different nationalities brought together by the colonialists without their consent and consideration for their apparent differences and established ways of life. It was with the understanding of these marked differences that the colonial powers employed the policy of divide and rule to facilitate the administration of the territory.
These differences may have been blurred in the last 50 years, but they are far from being erased and the corollary of this is the lack of substantial socio-economic progress up till this moment in the nation’s history.
Things can be different if the country taps in on the promises of an unbroken democracy that this dispensation offers to finally melt away all inhibitions posed to unity by ethnic, regional and religious cleavages. From 1999, it looked like the country was heading in that direction because of the increased opportunities for all Nigerians to participate at the highest level in the democratic governance irrespective of his ethnic or regional background.
Olusegun Obasanjo became president through the votes of Nigerians from all around the country. Voters who were not members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cast their votes for him because of their conviction that he was the most appropriate person, at that point in time, to lead the country. In fact, those who were behind his emergence as the flag bearer of the party thought less about his ethnic background or creed and more about his potential to cement the country. When he was leaving office, eight years after, he handed over to the late Umaru Yar’Adua who hailed from another section of the country. Even though the process of the emergence of Yar’Adua was flawed, the majority of the people of the country were comfortable with his leadership and, with his assumption of office, the country had made progress in the orderly transition from one civilian administration to another.
President Goodluck Jonathan was confirmed by the grace of Nigerians –Christians, Muslims and atheists of all tribes-working together to invoke the constitutional prescription for succession in the circumstances following the death of Yar’Adua. With his general acceptability, though he is of a minority stock, you would think that the country had finally crossed the Rubicon and trudging on with less emphasis on region, religion or tribe.
It does not look as if this is the case with the ongoing battle for the PDP presidential ticket. Ahead of the 2011 elections, it appears ethnic bigotry is rearing its head. This could have been ignored as one of those things that can occur in a large democracy but for the involvement of national leaders such as Ibrahim Babangda and Atiku Abubakar in the scheme to fish out a regional consensus candidate since the declaration of Jonathan.
Their effort smacks of a descent from Olympian indifference to pettiness into the abyss of political desperation. They both have nationalistic credentials. These are what they should project to the voters, rather than relying on the all too worn out phrase, power rotation, to seek a return to Aso Rock.
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