"If we do not believe in freedom of expression for those we despise we do not believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky
A babel of political voices is threatening to drown us all. The biblical account of the tower of babel is apposite here. An attempt by the early inhabitants of the earth to build a tower up to heaven was foiled by the confusion of tongues through the agency of an angel. Since then and ever since, man has been forced to disperse to the four corners of the earth, each inhabiting a space where tongue do not differ. But since man is by nature gregarious, he is often seen crossing boundaries and making do with interpreters. You must be living in Mars if you fail to notice the din of political tongues wagging all over the place. When the politicians were dispersed is really unknown to me but I suspect INEC has a hand in it.
It all started rather innocuously when our dear departed president Yar' Adua was seen to be incapable of continuing in office. From the benefit of hindsight, so many kitchen 'cabinetters', having read the hand writing on the wall began the macabre dance of hide and seek, a ploy to buy time and at the same time bide their time, hoping in the long run to manoeuvre power in such a way that President Goodluck would sooner than you can say "Jack Robinson" find himself beating a hasty retreat down the road to Otueke. They were hoping to assemble at the broth so concocted to ingratiate themselves with the spoils of office. But what many have termed as 'divine intervention' frustrated their every move. Everything done in secret was revealed in the open even before the break of day. The rabid selfishness of not a few government officials and their politician cousins was laid bare for all to see and denigrate. We saw through their every move to deny Goodluck Jonathan the honour to continue from where Yar' Adua stopped. It was a babel of voices interpreting what they knew nothing about. It was a babel of voices opposing what they knew very little about. It was a babel of ethno-religious bigotism masquerading as 'Zoning Formula.' How can you be talking of a zoning formula when an event alien to your zoning permutation has taken place? Was there a time when those who framed and championed zoning factored in a situation where nature takes its course? Is there no such thing as an 'Act of God?' And in all cases where an act of God occurs, it alters all your calculations and brings to the fore the saying that man proposes, God disposes. And so it was with PDP Zoning formula. God has disposed of it and this must be respected by all. I am not one to use the name of the Lord lightly but in the sense of this discourse, the natural course of events since the death of Yar' Adua points to some divine manipulation if you will, albeit not in the strictest religious sense.
Now that Jonathan has signified intent to vie for the presidency, there is the din of voices again, shouting themselves hoarse about some zoning formula that must be respected. The babel is somewhat confusing at times because they find it difficult to run away from the fact that Jonathan has a fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution to vie for any office in the land, including the presidency. How this sits with those clamouring for north-south rotation is difficult to fathom. That this gratuitous arrangement is offensive in the extreme to every 'minority' tribe is lost on the so-called majority. The misnomer of 'rotation' among the big tribes of the north and south needs to be pointed out to the jingoists. It is more appropriately an oscillation between north and south. A rotation will inevitably involve and touch every area in its circular path. The time to silence the babel of voices is now. It is time we considered merit. It is time we considered credibility. It is time we considered justice to one and all. This is the time to consider the 'minorities.'
Furthermore, any attempt to make our constitution subservient to a party's constitution must be resisted. We are happy that President Goodluck himself has broken his long silence on the zoning controversy. He pointedly told Nigerians that zoning was never meant to affect the presidential slot. The logic behind this is that all other posts in PDP are shared or 'zoned' depending on which zone produced the presidential candidate. The presidential candidate by extension of the simple logic is therefore produced by the exigencies of the moment as has happened in this case. This explanation is clear enough for everyone to understand except those who have claimed the presidency as their birth right and will not see reason, either now or in the nearest future. Pity.
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