•Special Guidelines For Peaceful 2023 Top Federal Seats Of Power Transition In Nigeria
•SE-President, NE-Vice, NC-Senate President, SW-Reps Speaker, SS-Deputy Senate President, NW-Deputy Reps Speaker
•SE-Police IG, NE-Chief of Defense Staff, NC-Chief of Army Staff, SW-DG SSS, SS-Chief of Naval Staff, NW-Chief of Air Staff
√SE-CJN, NE-AGF, NC-Appeal Court President, SW-Federal High Court Chief Judge, SS-Solicitor General, NW-FCT Chief Judge
By Intersociety
Grand Summary: Sharing Of 18 Top Federal Public Offices And Others In 2023
For purpose of ensuring geopolitical, ethnic and religious balancing in 2023, the following eighteen top elective and appointive federal offices shall be shared as follows: Southeast Region-President of Nigeria (Christian/non Muslim), Northeast-Vice President (Muslim), North-Central-Senate President (Christian/non Muslim), Southwest-Speaker House of Reps (Muslim/Christian), South-South-Deputy Senate President (Christian/non Muslim), Northwest-Deputy Speaker of House of Reps (Muslim). From the angle of Security/Service Chiefs: Southeast-Inspector General of Police (Christian/non Muslim), Northeast-Chief of Defense Staff/Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (Muslim), North-Central-Chief of Army Staff (Christian/non Muslim), Southwest-Director General of State Security Services (Muslim), South-South-Chief of Naval Chief (Christian/non Muslim) and Northwest-Chief of Air Staff (Muslim). From the angle of top judicial officers: Southeast-Chief Justice of Nigeria (Christian/non Muslim), Northeast-Attorney General of the Federation (Muslim), North-Central-President of the Court of Appeal (Muslim), Southwest-Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (Christian/non Muslim), South-South-Solicitor General of the Federation (Christian/non Muslim) and Northwest-Chief Judge of the FCT High Court (Muslim). In the same vein, all the top executive offices listed under Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution as well as other top Federal Government agencies and parastatals and the officer corps of the Armed Forces and their equivalents in the Nigeria Police Force, SSS, NIA and Paramilitaries shall be shared in full compliance with the country’s geopolitical, ethnic and religious settings using the six geopolitical zonal or regional arrangements.
General Summary Of Our Recommendations/Guidelines
The Int’l Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law is respectfully appealing to political actors in the North-Central, the Southwest, the South-South and the Northwest Regions in Nigeria to morally and dutifully join hands with the Southeast and the Northeast Regions to credibly, popularly, fairly and peacefully produce the country’s next President and Vice President. While the Southeast shall be assisted to produce the country’s next credible and popular President, who must be a Christian/non Muslim; the Northeast shall be urged and supported to produce the country’s next Vice President and Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic Council. He or she must be a Muslim. The above cardinal recommendation is to ensure ethno-religious fairness and oust the present practice of “All Muslims Affair” in the country’s polity of Federal segment. Apart from offices of the country’s next President and Vice President, other top federal elective and appointive offices shall also be comprehensively balanced along the country’s multi ethnic, cultural and religious lines or compositions.
Granted that the position of ours above is conventionally, morally, culturally, pluralistically and constitutionally grounded or customized in several constitutional provisions such as Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, it must also be pointed out that there are still need for more legislative enactments or amendments to be timely carried out to solidify the arrangements under recommendation. Apart from the required legal paper works by the National Assembly of Nigeria, there shall also be required purges, promotions and postings in the security forces and their High Commands as well as the judicial arm preferentially for geopolitical regions suffering age long exclusion and segregation. Important too is the need to ensure fairness in the allocation of key ministries and ministers and key agencies such as office of the National Security Adviser.
At the State and Senatorial levels under Section 14 (4) of the 1999 Constitution, such recommended arrangements shall also be reflected. For instance, in religiously troubled areas such as Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa, Niger, Borno, Kebbi, Gombe, Kogi, Nasarawa and Yobe States, governorship and legislative speakership and appointment of commissioners and top judicial officers shall be reflected along their Senatorial and religious compositions. There shall be abolition of “All Muslims Affair” and reversion to Muslim-Christian or Christian-Muslim Governorship and Deputy Governorship tickets and emergence especially in the above mentioned States or areas.
Recommended Guidelines Will Yield ‘Negative Peace’ Leading To Positive Peace
Our recommendations will temporarily bring about ‘negative peace’ or temporary reprieve to the country’s landscape troubles and open a path to positive peace. While ‘negative peace’ brings about absence of substantial physical violence and substantial cessation of hostilities, ‘positive peace’ brings about absence of substantial physical and structural violence. That is to say that the recommendations being put forward by Intersociety will launch the country into a meaningful ‘National Discourse or Talk’ especially in the areas of the raging nonviolent and violent resource, autonomy and religious agitations presently shaking the existential foundations of the country and its citizens. Intersociety hereby respectfully calls on the country’s international development partners or development and humanitarian funds providers including those part-funding Nigeria’s electoral and political process to adopt the recommendations of ours and factor them into their policies on Nigeria especially with regard to the 2023 Elections and Federal Seats of Power Transition.
Nigeria Must Be Rescued From Disastrously Heading ‘Somali And Zimbabwe Way’
Intersociety has been deeply worried and alarmed by the level of wanton destruction of lives and properties brought upon on the country and its different parts by political actors of the recent past and the incumbent. This is to the extent that the country is already headed the ‘Somali Way’. The economy of the country is so mismanaged and battered that ‘Zimbabwe is now much better off’. The country’s present political actors since 2015 are so incompetent, governance empty, selfish and clannish that they have dangerously balkanized and sectionalized the country along chronic ethnic and religious lines and dominances. This is to the extent that the leading sectional and religiously radicalized political actors have continued the old anarchist, exclusionist and segregationist ‘political gamesmanship’ whereby “they are born to rule” while others “are born to be ruled”. The dangerous dimension to this especially under the present central political dispensation is the ‘extra jus’ adoption of “All Muslims Affair” as against the country’s structural foundation and groupings constitutionally tailored along political, cultural, ethnic, religious and democratic pluralism.
Subsisting 1999 Constitution And Treaty Laws Support Our Recommendations
The constitutional “indivisibility and indissolubility” contained in Section 2 (1) of the 1999 Constitution can never be successfully enforced by retaining and continuing with “born to rule and born to be ruled tyranny”. These are strange and unknown to the principles of modern plural democracy and spirit and letters of the 1999 Constitution and the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Contrarily too, Sections 14 (3) and 15 (4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended clearly provide for ‘geopolitical balancing’ and ‘a sense of belonging’ in the composition and sharing of top federal elective and appointive offices in Nigeria while Section 17 provides for Freedom, Equality and Justice. Section 42 provides for Freedom from Discrimination. From the Armed Forces perspective, Section 217 (3) directs that “the composition of the officer corps and other ranks of the Armed Forces of the Federation shall reflect the Federal Character (geopolitical balancing) of Nigeria”. Section 10 also directs that “the Government of the Federation or a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion”.
1999 Constitution Backs Ethnic And Religious Balancing Of 1,083 Top Federal Offices
While Section 13 of the 1999 Constitution recognizes the organs, authorities and persons exercising top executive, legislative and judicial functions in the country’s Federal, State and Local Governments, the ‘Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, Etc.) (Amendment) Act of 2008’ specifically lists about 17500 top public office holders in the country and they include: 472 Federal Executives (inclusive of the President and the Vice President), 469 Federal Lawmakers and 142 Federal Judges totaling 1,083. There are also 2,664 State Executives, 1,152 State Lawmakers and 792 State Judges totaling 4,608. The rest are 11,788 Local Government Public Office Holders comprising elected LGA Chairpersons, Deputies and Councilors. It is therefore our strong recommendation that for ‘negative peace’ to reign in the country from June 2023, all the 1,083 top Federal Public Offices as well as the Officer Corps of the Armed Forces and their equivalents in the Nigeria Police Force, the Service (Intelligence) and the Paramilitary Agencies must be structured and allocated in full compliance with ethnic and religious balancing or composition in the country using its six geopolitical zones or regions.
Revisiting Nigeria’s Democratic Dispensations And Their Geopolitical Leaders
In the Nigeria’s democratic dispensations since its colonial transition in 1957-1960, the country was executively governed by Late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belewa as Prime Minister from present Bauchi State in the Northeast Region who was in office till 1966. Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had served as ceremonial or non executive President from 1960-1966. Revisited and considered too was the Presidential Democracy of 1979-1983 and that of 1999-2023. Rejected was the military era governance of 1966-1979 and 1983-1999. This is because military involvement in public governance is an aberration and can never be cited or counted. Therefore, looking at the occupation of the country’s executive prime ministerial and executive presidential seats of power since its transitional period in 1957 and most importantly its executive presidential seat of power from 29th May 1999, it is found that the most cheated geopolitical zones or regions are Regions of the Southeast and the Northeast. The North-Central, which ought to be the third most cheated, was found not to have stayed too long away from the executive presidential seat of power. From the perspective of fairness and “primus inter pares”, the Southeast Region is eminently qualified to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023. This is because the Northeast Region from where Late Sir AbubakarTafawa Belewa came from (Bauchi State) had held the country’s executive prime ministerial seat from transitional period of 1957-1960 and from 1960-1966, a period of nine years.
Cumulatively, therefore, the Northwest Region had occupied the country’s elective/executive presidency from 1979-1983, 2007-2010 and 2015-2023; a total period of fifteen years, Southwest Region 1999-2007; a total period of eight years and South-South Region 2010-2015; a total period of five years. Rotationally and fairly speaking, the Southeast Region which had never occupied democratically and executively elected presidential seat since independence, is eminently the next in line, to be followed by the Northeast and North-Central Regions. In other words, the Southeast Region is the most qualified and all the aspirants jostling from the Southwest, the Northwest and the South-South Regions are, with all due respect, meddlesome interlopers. To abolish the entrenched politics of “All Muslims Affair” introduced by the present central Government since its inception in mid 2015, the Southeast shall produce ‘a Christian/non-Muslim President’ while the Northeast produces a Muslim Vice President.
Signed
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chair
Chinwe Umeche Esquire
Head, Democracy and Good Governance
Chidimma Eva Udegbunam Esquire
Head, Campaign and Publicity
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