The catch phrase, “with my full chest” gained popularity during the just concluded Big Brother Naija reality TV show, season 5. It was credited to a female contestant, Dorathy Bachor when in her acceptance speech of being nominated as a deputy head of house said, “I accept with my full chest” — meaning that she accepted the nomination. Since then, the phrase has gone pretty viral to underscore someone’s complete endorsement of something or decision. To be candid, I usually do not like to get myself involved in the debate or controversy of zoning; but to my greatest surprise, Cmoni has found a way to make me renege on this decision. How this was done, I am yet to decipher (***chuckles***). My decision to write on this topic has therefore put me in a position where I am forced to take a stand; and yes, I make bold to say that I support zoning, and I support it with my full chest. Sincerely, the politics of zoning is indeed an incredibly vast topic. But this essay takes a visible approach; it restricts the exercise within the boundaries of Nigeria with a case study on the South-East geopolitical zone. Therefore, the essay tries to establish a nexus between the concept, “zoning” and how it can be of benefit to “Ndigbo” and the entire country at large. But What Really Constitutes Zoning? The Oxford dictionary of African Politics describes Zoning as, “a political practice in Nigeria under which political parties agree to split their presidential and vice-presidential candidates between the North and South of the country and also to alternate the home area of the president between the North and South of the country”. The principle of zoning is designed to ensure that neither the North nor the South of the country is ever permanently excluded from power. This practice is not only restricted to the presidency alone; it can also be seen in state and local government congresses and elections. Historical Antecedents of Zoning The idea of zoning was initially experimented in the second republic, following the Nigeria-Biafra civil war. In a bid to douse the post-war inter-ethnic tensions, party structures began to operate a zoning formula to smoothen some already ruffled feathers. However, the most glaring display of zoning was after the political imbroglio of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections and the takeover of power by General Sanni Abacha’s military junta. A number of advocacies rose in support of rotating the presidency between the country’s geopolitical zones. This was because the national feeling and empathy at the time was for the Yorubas to produce the next president to assuage them. This brought on board Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Therefore, zoning amongst geopolitical zones received widespread support, but the idea later lost its appeal in favour of a simpler process of rotating power between the North and South. This division was selected to reflect the country’s polarizing religious divide between the dominantly Christian South and the dominantly Muslim North. Even the truncated 1995 constitution provided for zoning principle, but such principle could not be accounted for in the 1999 constitution. However, there appeared to be an unwritten law in the country that the presidency be rotated amongst the six zones, with bias for the North and south. Yet, there remained North-South tensions that had been foisted from the British colonial era till date as a result of the divide and rule approaches of the colonial masters not forgetting allegations of colonial favouritism towards Northern Nigeria. This informed why in the build-up to independence, Southern politicians raised some alarm that the North’s numerical advantage was built to cause their region some marginalization. These tensions continued unabated and have often reached crescendo during elections, leading to calls for some form of zoning arrangement(s) to maintain stability within the country. This, interestingly, is the background that sets the tone for this essay. Support for Zoning: A Case Study of the South-East Geopolitical Zone Now, post-colonial politics saw political parties and zones that had the numerical strength in the electoral arrangement treat those that were politically and electorally disadvantaged area of Nigeria with some level of apathy and injustice. On the premise of such disadvantage, the South-East’s population remained not as big as the population in other parts of the country. Looking at the 2019 voter registration for instance, the North-West flaunts about 18Million registered voters and the whole of South-East zone (with the least number of states) have just about 8Million registered voters. So, if you mix the voting of the North-West with that of the North-East for instance, their vote alone will always ensure a Northerner wins the presidency with votes from a particular area. This is why there is need for Nigeria to consider copying the principles of Federal Character alongside that of Educationally Less Disadvantaged States (ELDS) into the principle of zoning; at least in an interim period where every geopolitical zone would’ve tested the office of the president of Nigeria as a nation building strategy. It is vital to note that it’s not just a case of turn by turn; but rather, a case of nation building strategy. As a matter of fact, Nigeria have done many things to build the nation; the authorities tried Federal Government Colleges plus the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) to bring people together and have a sense of the country. In like manner, the time is now for the country to also continue in that tradition to build the nation by allowing all constituent parts to have equal access to key executive offices. This can only be achieved on a balance of play via zoning. It is in the spirit of zoning that the South-East region should be given the chance to produce the next president come 2023 irrespective of which political party it would come from. This is because, zoning the presidency to the region will not only give the Igbos some sense of belonging in Nigeria but will also promote national

  Introduction There is a strong nexus between zoning and political parties in Nigeria’s democracy today. In fact, in any liberal democracy, party politics and zoning are two vital elements that no one can brush aside with a wave of hand due to the fact that party politics are the vehicle and veritable tool for enhancing democracy in Nigeria while zoning herein referred to as “power shift” is majorly a mechanism for uniting various diverse people in the country today. I strongly believe that the practise of modern democracy would totally be impossible without the existence of political parties but I have asked myself a couple of times, if zoning system can produce the best leadership material suitable for the development needed in Nigeria today at these critical times? However, my search revealed the answer buried deep in the factors responsible for political zoning in Nigeria. Causes of Political Zoning The political system in Nigeria had over the years been impaired with tribalism, electoral malpractice, ethnicity and religious intolerance. Thus, led some patriots in the country to call for a modified and structured arrangement which will enable inclusive and active political participation, political stability, peace and fairness in Nigeria. The truth is that Nigeria’s hope have usually been centralised on how to develop a comprehensive and universally accepted framework of organisation for active political participation, equitable distribution of power and a crisis free government which will allow for the rotation of all the political offices including both the executive and legislative among the identifiable geographic locations in Nigeria such as North East, North West, South West, South East and the North Central. Furthermore, the adoption of a zoning system was basically to fashion out a new formula to create a foundation for the equitable distribution of power even though this might not be constitutional nor democratic, it has enabled the interests and inclusion of diverse people in the sharing of power. Although, the political zoning was designed primarily for the federal system of government, it has equally been adopted in the local and state levels of authority for the ease in the diffusion of government. In addition, the target to ensure equal representation of government at all levels was one of the principal factors for establishing the zoning structure in Nigeria polity. In recent times, the hope of the country was that the perfection of this principle will go a long way to diffuse religious, ethnic and other sectional interests in government. But for a country that is barely two decades into democracy, the development index is still crawling and not too encouraging. Effects of Zoning System in Nigeria I am a firm believer that the zoning principle is part of a democratic culture used for fair play in our country today, as it counters negative impulses and the tendency of a group of people to remain in political offices as long as possible and use the nation’s resources to service their selfish interests as well as an antidote to a practise that promote corruption, breed inefficiency and engenders nepotism which in turn deprive growth and development. Judging from a cursory glance, the zoning system of democracy in Nigeria had been marred with corruption and inefficiency, which I believe is due to the challenge of ethnicity, as the fear of domination of one ethnic group or section has been one of the major factors restraining political stability in the nation today. Also, digging deep into Nigeria politics, if power is allowed to systematically rotate between different zones in government, our political space will not only widen, but the process will definitely throw out capable leaders who can transform our country and take it to greater heights. Moreover, many office holders in politics today had participated below expectations because every incumbent leader focus more priorities on his people or zone by establishing policies that will only favour the economic development of his zone thereby deselecting the development projects in other regions of the country. It is quite disheartening today that some political leaders in the nation today have now adopted this zoning system of government to attain progressive and retrogressive movement in the Nigeria polity. Political Zoning: The Way Forward I believe that in order to effectively tackle the political zoning system in Nigeria today, steps must be taken by governments to regain the trust and goodwill of the people. Political leaders must channel deliberate actions at delivering on the plans set out in their manifestoes. This will consist in tackling infrastructure deficit particularly in the underserved parts of Nigeria. In addition, the government needs to actively involve the citizens in decision making. The increasing youth population in Nigeria can be leveraged to produce a viable partnership between the political leaders and the electorates.   Furthermore, in building a solid foundation for leadership and good governance in Nigeria, our security infrastructure must be vigorously addressed. For example, In the North, fulani-herders clash, Boko Haram terrorist and bandits have become like the Roman god “Antheus” who keep getting stronger when thrown to the ground. This threat has become an issue of serious concern to our political system. Consequently, the gospel of ideal democracy needs to be taken into the heartlands of Nigeria’s polity. Active steps must be taken to sensitize Nigerians on the rights and duties embedded in liberal democracy.     I believe that the attempt to restore equity was thus the quest for a paradigm shift in egalitarianism, which was what found expression in the concept of zoning in Nigeria today, therefore; in order to tackle the concerns of election rigging in the country and foster development, the government may capitalize on observation records made by some international election observation missions such as the international Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) and ECOWAS Mission to trace electoral irregularities and punish defaulters accordingly. This will in turn create a restructure in the political system of our country and give a call to rescue of the gospel of ideal democracy in our

  The need to distribute political rights and economic benefits equally among citizens in the history of political philosophy has been a necessity as a result of men’s struggle or quest to get shares of the limited resources. In such a struggle, the weak ones are shallowed out and the strong ones get hold of the resources. Recently, the advent of John Rawls political philosophy has become a topic of controversial over the past years. It has indeed accentuate from different quarters. John Rawls is a reinvigorated political philosophy with strikingly original ideas during his forties as a Harvard philosophy Professor. His aim was to accomplish a ‘Just Society’. Rawls tried to formulate a workable formula of ‘fair’ distribution of social-economic and political right among citizens equally, more especially in a democratic society where there is political and economic liberty. The expected result of John Rawls doctrine however, has remained unaccomplished, nowhere is this more than in Nigeria. Adopting ‘politics of zoning’ in the society can substantially increase the possibilities of accomplishing a just and fair society in accordance with John Rawls doctrine of procedural principles of fair treatment. This theoretical complementary seek to highlight the importance of adopting politics of zoning effectively in accomplishing a fair distribution of social-economic and political rights using Nigeria as a case study. Politics of zoning also known as the federal character principle or the zoning system. Regardless of the term used, it is important to have a deep understanding of the zoning formulae. The oxford dictionary of African politics explains politics of zoning “As a political practice in which there is a shift of political power between the different interethnic group. This explaination looks at a means of sharing key political posts in a diverse society. Power sharing in the words of Sisk in 1966 entails practices and institutions that result in wide-based governing coalition generally inclusive all major ethnic groups. In a nutshell, politics of zoning seeks to prevent the dominance of persons from one or a few state or from one or a few ethnic groups in the running of the affairs of the country. One of the basic considerations for adopting a federal character principle or politics of zoning is the existence of various groups with different ethnic, religious, language, social norms, political background and disproportionate population sizes, the quest for every federation to device means of managing its pluralism so as to ensure fair and equal participation of various interest groups in its political governance has become an epoch-making and Nigeria is not an exception. Admittedly, Nigeria consists of several ethnic group with diverse culture, socio-political and economic formation, this nation alone accounts for over 250 different ethnic groups. Adopting the zoning formula seems to be the right approach to meet with the demands of such complex composition Nigeria faces but unfortunately, results shows dearth effort and commitment in actualizing the purpose of zoning formula and hence may require a pragmatic solution. The many political and leadership problems Nigeria faces has lingered unresolved for the last fifty-three (53) years: One reason for this, is the ascendancy and continued dominance of the Northerners ascending to the presidency. Nigeria as a political enclave came to be when the colonialist, amalgamated the South and North protectorates on 1st January 1914. Flora Shaw, a British journalist called this enclave ‘Niger Area, which later became Nigeria. The merging of the North and South protectorates was done with the aim to bring the diverse cultures and ethnic groups and unite them politically as one people, which are heterogeneous in many aspects. The leadership question in Nigeria revolves around the possibility of every indigenous ethnic group ascending to be political leaders of the country. In order to confront the high level of inequality and marginalization, Nigeria had to usher into democracy in 29th May 1999, after about 16 years of military rule. By virtue of the Northerners having a long occupation of the various political seat of power (both in military and democratic regimes), the Northerners elite developed an affinity for state power and thus perceived it as their birth-right. This perception by the Northerners has given the Southerners a sense of belonging. The need to distribute political rights and economic benefits equally among the Northerners and Southerners has been a topic of controversial as a result of the both region struggling to get share of the limited resources. In such a struggle, the Southerners are shallowed out and the Northerners get hold of the resources. Going by the struggle between the Southerners and Northerners, some Nigerians believe that the power should remain in the North while some strongly believe that zoning is a foregone issue and is no longer relevant, so it should be jettisoned. However, such believes that Nigerians poses over zoning has defeated the federal character principle which has been enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution since 1979. The federal character principle seeks to ensure the appointments of various political seat in respect to the various ethnic, religious and geographic diversity of Nigeria. The phenomenon of zoning is considered a high stake politics in Nigeria democracy: This is because the principle of zoning aims at maximizing the welfare of citizens, especially the worst-off group in accordance to the federal character principle. Adopting the zoning formula effectively could ameliorate the problem of the inequality found between the Northerners and Southerners thereby distributing political and economic rights equally among the two region. The unity of various diverse people is one of the indicators of progress and improvement of every political system. One of the United Nations Goals is to create an atmosphere with maximum unity among diverse ethnic groups and fatherlands. However, the likelihood of Nigeria achieving it is in doubt; One reason for this is the perception of the Northerners perceiving the various political seat of power as their birth-rights and hence, has created an atmosphere of hatred between the Northerners and Southerners. Zoning is seen as a mechanism of uniting various people diverse people