Federal character as it is being applied in Nigeria is a weapon of ethnic deception. One is deceived into believing that because ones ethnic person is holding an official position, the whole ethnic group is participating in governance even when the official is incompetent and incapable of delivering what the office is designed to produce. Section 15 (4) of the 1999 constitution states, "The State shall foster a feeling of belonging and of involvement among the various people of the federation, to the end that loyalty to the nation shall override sectional loyalties." The example of what Section 15 (4) implies, in practice, is that a Minister of water supply obliged to provide all Nigerians, and not only to people from his own ethnic group, get potable water. You will agree with me that potable water has no ethnic colour or odour. Nigerians who get constant potable water will not think of the ethnic origin of the Minister of water supply, rather, they will be loyal to the nation and its government.
You mentioned the educational gap between the South and the North as the reason why the South should hold the lever of governance in Nigeria. Generally, what we consider as being educated in Nigeria is the ability to speak and write fluently in English language. Presumably, Southerners speak and write better English than Northerners but that has not had any positive effects on the development of Nigeria. Out of the last twenty years of democratic rule (29 May 1999 to 29 May 2019), Southerners had been president for 13 years, 7 months and 27 days (Obasanjo & Jonathan) while Northerners have ruled for six years, 7 months and 26 days(Yar'Adua & Buhari). During these periods educated Nigerians, mostly Southerners spoke and wrote fluent English at Nigeria's oil refineries only to become fuel importers and hustlers of fuel subsidy's payment receivers; at the National Electric transmission Commission, educated Nigerians blew their English grammars causing the nation to be enveloped in constant darkness. While chest-beating ourselves in pride for our achievements in oral and written English language, the Chinese who could only communicate with us in signed language, came to lay tracks of modern railways for us, and Julius Berger who is very proud of his German language is constructing roads, building bridges and houses all over the country. We think we are not educated because we can speak and write fluently in English language. Does anyone need to tell us that the education that cannot give us our desired developmental goal is useless?
S. Kadiri
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