Take this utterances for example “It’s a system in which an inordinate amount of authority is concentrated in the hands of the privileged and denied to the average electorate on the street. We’ve been seeing the symptoms of that for years. Decisions made behind closed doors. Parliament bypassed and diluted, money buying influence. Too often just an elite few choosing the people who become Members of Parliament for many years, we can’t go on like this.
There would be no news bulletin if the rumblings were made by a hardnosed battle hardened trade unionist, your typical humdrum rabble rouser or for that matter a political bare knuckled progressive. It was not. Of course I’m paraphrasing the young 43 year old “blue blood” Etonian, about to embark on an historic coalition government with another 43 year old graduate of Caldicott, upper class by all indications.
Not without precedence of course, the BIG CIGARED ONE tried it last in 1940. The BIG CIGARED (Uncle Winston) one also said this “If you’re not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty, you have no brain. Going by his self-indulgent inconsequential scrutiny, one can presume Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Tweedledum about to embark on an unfeasible task of functioning mutually on a political level. That of course will quite extraordinary. To be more contemporary though, going by the definitions of USA, s master of political semantics, the land of Lincoln’s mad men here is what they’ll say “THE EXTREME FAR LEFT AND THE EXTREME FAR RIGHT” about to embark on a coalition to jointly govern queens’ country, Oh the intrigue.
The humor will be quite perceptible; if not for the matter of fact they are already the master s of our universe, (The Brits that is) the masters of partition and surmount. Still running us behind the scenes, counting on our ever predictable ability to distrust not them, but each other, yes, the masters of our universe are actually now attaching and banding. Now, you be the judge if they are better at it or we are? The zoning stratagem.
I am always fascinated by Israel, Italy (Pre Berlusconi), Austria, others such as New Zealand, most Nordic countries where governments last on the average 18 months to 3 years or are rather formed as a result of coalitions, political horse trading. The characteristics of selflessness, nationalism, forsaking rigidity for national interest, discarding inflexible doctrine for the national good, how parties get a bit of what they want at the risk of all they want, never escapes my approbation and astonishment .
How a prime minister today could become minister of defense or for that sake a deputy, how a president today would accept a less important role all in a need to give all the talent he/she has for his/her country, all for a selfless national goal.
Today, we are not conversing about them (The British or other success stories); we will be talking about ourselves, that visibly boundary of 36 states together with a “Capital” to match calling itself a country as opposed to a convenience.
Zoning (apply any classification) like government coalitions are a reflection of what? Trust, a fine place to begin will be to gaze the historical credence. For starters, we can easily start with this, firstly let me say this, the examples of distrust are numerous, so I will cherry pick instances I consider impossible to pass over (they too are numerous), some within historical contexts, others in the past 20 years, then discern everyone why PDP geographic arrangements are made by contributors flawed, non nationalist, neither selfless nor patriotic.
The glaring reflections of distrust, selfishness and tribal contemplations so visible in our biased immature political field make the efforts to pretend a nationalistic goal redundant. The players (without ascribing blame; which will generate misdirected passions) are all too familiar.
I (for example) don’t have a single Igbo liaison who does not hate Awolowo (and I have a lots), neither do have any Yoruba friends who does not exhibit extreme paranoia about my Igbo brethren, so we’ll leave ascribing of blames for other written works. My Hausa friends think I’m detribalized because we socialize on a familiar level (I sympathize at their missed opportunities).
A gentle man wrote in “MY COUSIN IFEAJUNA” Looking for scapegoats to blame for the loss of Midwest Brigadier Victor Banjo, Lt Col Ifeajuna, Major Sam Agbamuche (Agbam) and Major Phillip Alale were tried in a kangaroo court and executed by Ojukwu. Executing them for the same thing he did while abandoning Enugu” He went further “Onitsha indigenes including my family, were labeled as “Ndi Sabo” (saboteurs) and ostracized by the Igbo community. At Nnobi, a group of kids were in hot pursuit of me when someone in a crowd identified as an “Onitsha kid”
Did Danjuma and co trust the Igbo General “to do the right thing?” Did Obasanjo trust Wole Soyinka? Did Awolowo trust Zik? Did Awolowo trust Akintola? Did Zik trust Igbo intellectuals not to usurp in on the regional or national level? We embrace these western democratic systems and discuss political issues such as zoning as we are nationalistic. Did Danjuma trust Fajuyi? Did Ojukwu trust Banjo? Did Shagari trust Abiola?
Were any of these “Lack of Trusts” based on something as significant as case in point, national interest, selflessness, a desire for a collective good?
Did Babangida trust Buhari? Did Babangida trust Abiola? Did Obasanjo trust Kalu? Orji the convenient cross carpeter. I know I’m being repetitive with the dreary, but now a non performing party wants to bombard you with an insignificant untrusting issue as Zoning. When? What? Where? Really! How?
Did Obasanjo trust Atiku? Vice Versa. If elections were held, in these times of high oil prices per Barrel (Or is it Kongo), the zoning will be done by the electorate and the party I believe in employment now, will be toast (Of course this are by western standards), Nick and David, the Gentlemen who gave these things to us hook line and sinker.
Try this for size, if you’re looking for a lasting NIGERIAN relationship (pleasure and religion excluded) be it political or not, try MISTRUST, IT WILL LAST TILL YOU DIE.
I can’t get enough of this. Did the north trust Obasanjo? Did Rimi trust Obasanjo? The convenient patriots clamoring for the cancellation of June 12th, by far the best commentary on elections “In Nigeria” Did Obasanjo trust Abiola? Jonathan will soon let us know what is motivations are, the convenience now of not zoning, oh what consistency.
The colonial masters have been saying “datum perficiemus munus” (ever since Dame Margaret Thatcher (together with Ronald Reagan) re-arranged the colonial understanding, ask Mugabe and Madiba, ask Kaunda and Nujoma, ask them! did they ever leave or did they just leave physically. How hard was it, how difficult is it to find a local accomplice.
Trust in social sciences defines thus; an individual’s placement of confidence in another to fulfill their promises
or to be consistent in their policies, in their ethical codes, and/or with the law.
When was the last time? Where is historical context? Here goes another “putting it in historical context” example of trust manifesting?
This is what Major General David Ejoor had to say about Biafra and I quote explicitly “The constitution did not give any power to Azikiwe. So this annoyed the Igbo people and they used to say “How can we run a constitution in which the “Head of State” cannot advise the government, the government cannot contact the “Head of State “for any advice?” So, the answer was well to take over since they were already leading and yet had no control over the government. That was why the Igbo soldiers decided to organize a coup.
The disharmony in the narrative is what’s fascinating, totally devoid of anything national or selfless, one man’s account? Sure, but a player none the less.
Besides I imagine this zoning is PDP, s quandary alone and no-one else. The party in power now wants to sneakily engage in a general dialogue regarding zoning, I’ll trust it better when the proponent is not the beneficiary. Sooner, the motivations will be nationalistic and selfless.
