Quota System and Federal Character, Again by Muiz Banire SAN

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Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN 

(Nigeria) By Muiz Banire SAN 

Last Sunday, on my Twitter page, I engaged my readers on the incubus and succubus of quota system and federal character rearing their ugly heads into our polity again. 

I consider it worth the time and effort to agitate the issue here again as it is central to our development as a people and as a nation. The discussion originated from a recent statement credited to my friend, Saliu Lukmon, on the determination or election of the principal officers of the National Assembly. 

The spirit behind the said intervention triggered my previous publications on the policies of federal character and quota system in the country. In the said intervention by Lukmon, he contended that the offices of the National Assembly should be zoned by the All Progressives Congress leadership while denouncing the use of money in the process, and the need to avoid the contravention of federal character in the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly. 

Let me confess that this is one of the interventions of the commentator that I couldn’t reconcile with his personality. His antecedent as an activist and a nationalist does not concur with this current position he is advancing. The first area of my disagreement with him is the quarrel with the use of money by the aspirants to the various principal offices. In as much as that act is condemnable and I do condemn it, my reservation lies in the saintly presumption of the presentation by the author, suggestive of the fact that such nefarious act is novel. 

I am sure that the writer knows that all the electoral steps have been tainted so far with the use of money. The introduction of the cashless policy restrained the use a little bit but did not succeed in totally curtailing it. There is certainly no basis to now be quarreling with same  or be pretensive about it. 

Virtually all the products of the Assembly, inclusive of those vying for the positions, are products of the same financially contaminated electoral process. Why suddenly now that the author is condemning the act that has been entrenched in the system. It is too late to ignite such condemnation.

My further disapproval of his thesis is in terms of quota system. To his mind, the positions need be zoned to reflect the various regions of the country and possibly the multiple religions. I certainly do not agree with this postulation as it is a defeat of the nationalistic tendencies of the people. The advocacy for the continuous adoption of federal character and quota system has been antithetical to the interest of the country. It has succeeded in eroding the spirit of nationalism in us. 

That is why today our people see themselves foremost from where they come from rather than the country. This is quite saddening. For this country to progress, we need to gradually relegate this parochial considerations to the background and promote patriotism. We must allow the best man to always emerge from our processes. If everything works well in the country, nobody remembers where the leader is from. It is only where there is dysfunction that we start agitating the personality of the leader. In all progressive societies of the world, the state or country of origin is being gradually displaced.

The Obamas of this world, the Sunaks, the Yousefs and so many others have been placed in places of trust without anyone considering their origin or background save for what their credentials and achievements show that they can do. I know that the Governor of the Bank of England for about twelve years Mark Carney, between 2013 – 2020, was head-haunted from Canada. Another example is the election of the Congress leadership in America which took days with intensive lobbying of candidates. Nobody said it must be black or white or come from a particular area or region of the country. 

Election of leadership of the National Assembly is not appointment of Ministers or Special Advisers in which we may say that no part of the country should be marginalized. My view, therefore, is that we should stop placing undue premium on primordial factors, otherwise if we do not believe in the unity of the country, let the various regions and ethnic groups go their various ways. 

It is imperative we jettison wrong policies that are capable of making us a lost nation. It is deceitful to be advocating nationalism on one hand and promoting regionalism on the other hand. It is a contradiction in terms. Beyond this, the National Assembly is supposed to be an independent organ with the mandate to choose its leadership. Why intervene?

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