THERE is something about the Nigeria system that defies all logic and reasoning. The country has been enmeshed in the zoning brouhaha since the demise of our dear president, late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. During his long absence, due to ill-health, there were subterranean and unconstitutional moves to block the then Vice-President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from  assuming office because the President  did not properly hand over to him, before travelling for medical treatment in Saudi-Arabia.

The North’s craze for power and personal egoistic interest became larger than the Nigerian State and consequently the body polity became overheat, until a volte-face memo from the desk of the information minister Dora Akunyili jolted the nation back to reality and Dr. Goodluck was consequently installed in Acting-capacity.

The current ranting over the issue of zoning by some rapacious elements in the toga of equity and fair play has gradually torn Nigeria into ethnic lines, and this is because Nigerians always find it difficult to allow  laid down rules to dictate the pace of our lives, instead we complicate matters and become our worst enemies. A sitting president has the right to contest and win an election as far as the law allows it.

The circumstances that brought President Goodluck to power was not predicted by him and therefore should be allowed to sustain, because “laws that govern circumstances are indeed abolished by new circumstances”.

Within this short time in office, Nigerians now have a growing feeling of relief, of renewed hope, of a promise for change and this must be sustained.

President Goodluck is a man known for his perseverance, patience and resilience. A man who  has crossed turbulent and boisterous waters in the past, a man of calm and equanimity, totally devoid of that common thread of pride and arrogance that  run in those in public office. As such, he has the ability to lead.

Therefore, those valiant efforts by the north to push President Goodluck Jonathan out of the 2011 race should therefore be scorned and jettisoned by Nigerians who have the final say, and anything is better than the infernal reality of the North’s craze and inordinate ambition to cling on to power at all cost, and uproot any obstacle like an unwanted weed in their personal gardens.

Those northern elements who are fired up with the “Napoleon complex” and want to use zoning to cause disaffection in the society in order justify their continued stay and relevance in power should note that “leaders are remembered for what they built and not what they destroyed”..! The rhetoric here is therefore how you want to be judged by history and posterity?

These zoning zealots should allow what nature and circumstances has thrust upon President Goodluck Jonathan to run its full course and should rather use this time as a period of self evaluation for the North, reserved as a starting point for them again.

There are times that try the soul and very foundations of a nation. Nigeria has come to that defining moment and time. President Goodluck should be allowed to sustain the ideals of our dear late president Umaru Yar’Adua, because today is reality, yesterday is history; his desire is not to change the future, but to be there today and today is what we have.

He must be allowed to take his place at the pantheon, the North and indeed every good Nigerian must therefore create the room for social peace in order for greater peace to be achieved, because Nigeria was and perhaps is still a huge promise, to millions of Nigerians.

Mr. Orih ANTHONI,   a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja.