In relation to the larger world, every society evolves peculiar norms and culture amongst others, as necessary means for cultural and social survival and as a distinct way of living.
Social philosophy and engineering are thus established to aggregate and classify the different constituents in a larger society. This phenomenon is an emergent social trend and is constantly changing in response to the changing nature of the constituents in society.
In a multi-ethnic society such as Nigeria, series of social changes must occur at the inception of the nation-state and must continue until an ‘equilibrium’ of forces is attained that will tend to align all social configurations indices. Thereafter changes will be minimal and will thus require a huge leap in expended energy to achieve.
Nigeria as a country has over time developed its uniqueness in attaining stability as a united country which is partly due to its diverse people, cultures, religion, geography, etc. God in His wisdom has graciously blessed the country with three dominant tribes with so many smaller tribes embedded and scattered all over them. The three dominant tribes are the Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo and are predominantly found in the Northern, Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria, respectively. Nigeria is socially and culturally hinged on these three dominant tribes.
The overwhelming influence of these big three over all the other smaller tribes in the Nigerian project can be likened to the tripod stand supporting a platform. Each of the three tribes is vital to the continued stability of the union just as each of the three legs in a tripod stand is to the stability of the supported load. God in His benevolence has blessed each of these three with an individual peculiar advantage over the others. The advantages come in different colours and manifest in divergent hues. Their respective relevance depends on how well and coordinated they are in the application within the larger society.
It is natural for everyone to project his/ her vantage positions in whatever dealings he undertakes with others, hence it is normal for every region to exploit, harness and propel all the relative advantages it has over others in its bid to prosper and compete for the common resources of the larger union.
The West comprising predominantly Yoruba people strategically dominate all corporate and financial institutions. This is as a result of their making use of opportunities that presented themselves at the coming of the Europeans in the late 19th Century. The Atlantic serves as the entry point of the Europeans on Christian evangelical mission. The Westerners were quick in accepting the missionaries’ culture with their ways of life. Children of school age were made to enrol in the European system schools, hence the early advantage and early start of Western education in Yoruba land. As of now, Yoruba will never, willingly accept to delist their numerical advantage in Nigeria’s corporate arena or hands up Lagos beaches and ports, for instance assuming such is possible.
Similarly, it is not contestable that our Eastern brothers are gifted with enterprising skills. The speed at which the Igbos reverted to normal after the 30-month civil war in the late 60s was so amazing. They have business acumen and also possess the gift of artisanship. On average, and within the scope of the Nigerian setup, the easterners are the people who have the greatest capacity to stand alone economically, no matter the condition they found themselves in. It is common knowledge that once you give the average Igbo a stable business environment with zero capital, you will see how he will amazingly manoeuvre his way to get started and prosper within a short period of time.
The North; our North is not so gifted with such enterprising skills and also not opportune to have early Western education due to some reasons that had to do with conflict of culture and religion between the early Europeans and the Northern administrative paraphernalia that had already been set up in Arabian models due to earlier interactions with Arabian traders and merchants. The only most conspicuous edge the North has over the others is its population and land. All the advantages accruing from these are therefore the potentials the North wields in the Nigerian set-up.
Hence the tripod phenomenon in Nigeria’s setting has to do with the relative advantages each of the three major tribes has on the Nigerian socio-economic configuration. This sort of balances the country’s stability. Each of these tribes will do everything possible and doable to ensure it maintains the relative advantage it possesses in the context of the union.
Having enumerated the above and with respect to the growing calls especially from the Southern part on the Presidency to be zoned to the South, it will be foolish of the North to accept such a proposal. It will be a grievous misstep for the North to willingly throw away the vantage position it has within the Nigerian project. It will be like someone willingly castrating himself and render himself useless because a lot of neighbours are complaining of their ‘teen’ daughters prowling all over the streets.
The Northern leaders and establishments should not even contemplate this so-called zoning of the presidency. Since Democracy is a game of numbers, the North must always produce the No.1 slot, no doubt about that. And if it dares relinquish this because of Southern ‘gra gra‘ it will make a mistake that will have dire consequences on its people, and it will take several years before the presidential power returns back.
The North must insist that zoning is unconstitutional and all elective posts must be open to every Nigerian. The South must learn to stay with Northern political leadership whether they like it or not, just as the North accept the superiority of business mercantilism of the East and the corporate dominance of the West. If the North was to relinquish its powers and allow Presidency to go to either the East or West, does it think the two will agree to relinquish their ‘vantaged’ positions in the polity? The answer is No! For instance, will the West agree to recall all Yoruba people in all the corporate and financial institutions and ask that the positions should all be filled by Northerners, with or without a quarter system? Again the answer is No!
The North must therefore be firm and steadfast and insist on what is rightly hers in the context of democracy which symbolises and actualises the concept of majority carrying the day. The North must insist on that, else let the country be deleted geographically, after all, each and every region was surviving on itself before the coming and forced merger of the protectorates by the British colonialist.
If the country needs democracy then let democracy and all its cardinal principles be. It should either be delivered in full or we forget it entirely!
Eng Aminu Bashir Mormoni can be reached via Mormonys@gmail.com or 08032003559.
