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ARTICLE ON SOUTHERN PRESIDENT |
Why power must go south, by Balarabe Musa
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PRESIDENTIAL power must shift to the South in the next
republic because the North has had its fill for 33 of
Nigeria's 38 years of independence, according to
Alhaji Balarabe Musa.
He said at the weekend that the imperative of national
unity dictated the shift, even if it could be argued
that it would not be altogether democratic. Besides,
democracy, for him, is only a means to some end.
The Second Republic Kaduna State governor considered
it morally indefensible for the north to aim for the
presidency in the Fourth Republic. Speaking in Ilorin,
he regretted the allegedly existing hegemonic structure
dominated by feudalists in the north.
According to him, the north should be prepared to
concede power to "fellow Nigerians to whom we have mutual
responsibility," if the country is to fare well as a
geographical entity.
Musa said: "I know that it is undemocratic if you regard democracy as a method
of one plus one making two. Yes, but democracy is only a means to an end. It is
not an end itself. For Nigerians, the end has three components: Unity of the country,
equality of the people, political stability. These three - in fact I can add the
fourth one, a government that can perform - these four take precedence over democracy.
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