Kudos to Governor Sullivan Chime on Enugu zoning, consensus

Recently, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State revealed Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, as the man who would succeed him at the expiration of his tenure in 2015. Media reports indicated that Ugwuanyi was the clear and popular choice of both the governor and the Nsukka zone whose turn it is to produce a credible and electable Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate for the gubernatorial race in 2015. The timing of the announcement couldn’t have been more perfect, as it hit when the entire state and stakeholders were having a political awakening and suspense. Other states are embarking on the same project of ‘continuity’ with mixed results.
Yes, the announcement by Governor Sullivan Chime didn’t go down well with other gubernatorial aspirants, with some threatening Armageddon before the Armageddon.  But it’s all a threat, shy of our peculiar and historical political process. As politicians gear up for the general election in 2015, the central question at the heart of Nigeria’s political process is how to make the process more open and representative of the people’s wishes to avoid associative rancour and wrangling. This question of ‘how’ is so unresolved that it has recurred at every general election in Nigeria since 1999 and defied any credible solution. To interrogate it is to do two things.
First is to reassess and reaffirm the power of elected individuals and the people to shape the democratic promise into a unified political front. For it is easier to achieve political consensus when there is a desire for understanding and accepting a given political direction. Whether that direction is in the form of policy or in the form of candidate nomination is fundamental to understanding our democracy. Second, even with its long history, the term, democracy, has remained a problematic political philosophy to engage and digest in much of today’s world. It is not difficult not to see why. The idea of democracy itself and its applicability in a hugely complex Nigerian society presents political challenges that are at the centre of the said question. It is both ‘an ideal and an actuality’, yet there exists a reinforcing connection between the two that is defined by time, place and culture.
But we cannot let the challenges dwarf the immense importance of democracy, even when it is our peculiar kind of democracy. It is imperative for our society and culture to define and shape its own system of political administration according to the prevailing norms acceptable to political parties and society. Though not everyone would agree that it works but it does provide a basis for a unified political consensus that will enthrone openness, trust and representativeness. Following the end of the 1999 Constitutional Conference, the country was divided into six geo-political zones for the purpose of selecting the country’s presidential candidates. Former president, the late Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua emerged through this same zoning system. Once anointed by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in the dying days of his tenure, other dissenting candidates within the party quickly rallied support for Alhaji Yar’Adua in obedience to Obasanjo’s foresight and choice, which, to a large extent, represented the cant of the party, PDP. The states adopted a similar zoning structure in the name of the promise it holds in staving off associative rancour and wrangling.
In Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s nomination, it had the unanimous support and backing of the state chapter of the PDP, all stakeholders from Nsukka Zone, citizens of Enugu State and the governor himself.  Nominations by governors or presidents for replacement are common in our political experience, provided such nominations reflect popular will. Most recently, the PDP state governors have unanimously nominated President Goodluck Jonathan to run for Presidency in 2015.
Indeed, Governor Chime benefited from the same process when he was nominated by former Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani almost eight years ago. Today, Enugu State indigenes have no regret in the emergence and administration of Governor Chime. He is like a River. A River, they say, affects the landscape round it. So, the landscape affects it also. Over time the pressure changes and erodes obstacles. That, I believe, is also how society creates change, under true, exemplary guidance and leadership over time. Governor Chime has provided that inspiring leadership. I felt real change in 2009 when I came home in the first four years of Governor Chime’s administration. It was a personal landmark moment to see so much transformation, not just in the State capital, but also throughout the State. For the first time in Enugu State I felt a real sense of pride and possibility.
I believe it is the same inspiring leadership that has been reflected in the choice of Ugwuanyi, a sense of the relationship between civil society and politics that elevates the various strands of our democratic conversation into a cogent desirability, a view of the beauty that burps when the power of the Executive and the people cohere to nourish the popular will. For politicians that conversation starts within the political party in its policies and unwritten beliefs. One of such policies would be the zoning policy in PDP, for instance, one that closely but indirectly reflects the nation’s federal character policy.  To pretend to ignore it or contest it is to show that some party members are not truly interested in their party’s electoral wins but rather in their selfish pursuit of power. It is the failure of commonsense to contest in the courts what was clearly the zoning policy of the political party, PDP. After all, the creation of the six geo-political zones was the brainchild of Dr. Alex Ekwueme of the PDP, which perhaps, has been adopted to ensure equal representation, rotation and democratic consensus.
By insisting that it was the turn of the Nsukka zone to produce the next governor of Enugu State, Governor Chime has only demonstrated his belief and fidelity to a much-cherished policy of his party. If anyone wanted to contest it, the most appropriate platform to contest it would be at the party’s annual convention.  Political parties normally develop a formal statement of their values and policies in their conventions as part of their effort to win elections. These values and policies may therefore be viewed as not only the texts through which parties characterize themselves and their differences with their competitors but also as the bible for delivering candidates selection and electoral wins.
Unfortunately, Nigerian political parties’ conferences look more like a circus rather a gathering for serious policy crunching. In an age where there is widespread cynicism about politics and politicians with seemingly corrosive effect on our values and political process, we should hear it for the politician who remains open, consultative, and loyal to recovering the ground lost to selfishness and unhelpful struggle for power at the detriment of popular will.