By Rotimi Fasan

THE headlines were loud the past week that the North has decided to stick by its resolve that the presidency in 2011 be zoned to it. The question of whether the presidency should be zoned to the North has been both a contentious and polarising issue in the many weeks since Goodluck Jonathan became president following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Unlike in the past when matters of this nature had split the country down the middle along the North-South, Muslim-Christian dichotomy, those opposed to zoning as a political principle and more specifically those opposed to the presidency being zoned to the North have been no less vociferous in the North than in the South- perhaps more so in the North than in the South.

Indeed, it would seem now that those most vehement in their disclaimer of zoning have been the emergent class of Northern youths and the “new breed” politicians that have not been part of the ruling elite in the North. Their opposition to zoning was so strong that the Northern Governors’ Forum had to take time to sleep over the issue before taking a definite stand on the matter.

But by the beginning of last week, the governors, by a narrow margin which should itself tell those yet in support of it, that our “zoning days” like the political days of those past beneficiaries of one form of zoning or another in the North- the narrow margin should tell them that their days as politicians are not only numbered but can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Yes, the governors voted to retain zoning but does that mean that the North is indeed in support of zoning? The answer is a loud No! It’s the Northern arm of the PDP rather than the entire North that has voted for zoning. In this very matter, the so-called North appears to be speaking from sides of the mouth. While one part wants zoning another part gives President Jonathan the all-clear to be part of the presidential race.

So, what really does “the North” want? Let’s be clear about the fact that there is a big difference between the entire people of the North and the power-mongers that have ruled and misruled in their name all these years. The Northern ruling elite have since independence contrived to deceive the rest of Nigerians that their interests are the interests of the ordinary people of the North, and that when they speak they do so in the name of the people.

This is the very notion that the new power bloc in the North, represented by the youth and new breed politicians, is trying to dispel. Without trying to break the North to say nothing of the entire country along religious lines, in the same manner that the power mongers in favour of zoning have created the impression that their views are representative of the views of the North, so have they tried to make it look like Northerners are all Muslims.

This is not true as is the idea, I emphasise, that the North has voted for zoning. It is the leaders of the PDP, the most dominant party in the North and, alas, Nigeria that wants zoning, a principle that has in this present context and others before it, given them the unfair advantage- it is they that are threatening fire and sulphur should the presidency slip out of their increasingly weak fingers.

The longsuffering masses of the North that have endured the profligate incompetence of their past leaders now angling to return, cannot support any attempt to perpetuate their suffering. It’s clear they wouldn’t mind where the next Nigerian President comes from- indeed might prefer the president come from outside their zone for as long as he can do the job for which he was elected; namely, provide adequate food and quality housing, education and health among others.

The few lucky ones among the masses who can read and write have nowhere to lay their heads at the end of the day. And should they fall ill, they will quickly realise they are on their own with nobody, not even government in the various cadres, to save them from sure death as the so-called hospitals they would be taken to are worse than abattoirs. The bitter irony of governors who proclaimed the Sharia and amputated poor Nigerians who stole to eke out an existence but starched billions of dollars abroad, while taking under-aged girls in marriage, has not been lost on Northern youth who are bent on effecting the long-needed change in the leadership of the North.

The attempt to railroad Northerners and by extension the rest of us into accepting the zoning formula should be resisted by all well-meaning Nigerians. It is not a constitutional principle. We must move away from our unprofitable past where a few cornered what belonged to all and insisted on privileges that only served to give them the means with which to further enslave the rest of the country, beginning with their own immediate community.

The only reason the zoning “chumps” are up in arms campaigning for zoning is in the clear realisation that whoever holds the rein of power in Nigeria invariably wins an election, and since Goodluck Jonathan is at present the President, they believe he would employ state powers to ensure he returns to power in 2011 should he join the presidential race.

It matters nothing that President Jonathan has not yet formally indicated any interest in the race, which race he will surely join except the unexpected happens, as they sometimes do, to turn things totally around. Otherwise President Jonathan who is fast learning the ropes and has decided to play mute to questions of his possible candidacy in the presidential election has so far been a very good student of one or two of the past rulers planning a comeback, with his ability to make others dissipate energy on debating an issue on which he had reached a decision well before the commencement of the vacuous noises and name-calling caused by the zoning debate.

Nigeria deserves the best of the human capital she can produce at any point in time. They will have no truck with the hue and cry being made to stop one man from taking part in an election some believe it’s their birthright to win.