Kalu Okoronkwo For too long, the gospel of zoning and rotational presidency (a wellintentioned strategy to balance Nigeria’s ethnic diversity) has devolved into a tool for political manipulation, often enthroning mediocrity cloaked in ethnic or regional entitlement.
While the system may have served its purpose in dousing early fears of marginalisation, the cost to national development has been precipitous: a leadership culture defined more by tribe or region than by governance aptitude. As Nigeria inches closer to the 2027 general elections, a defining question confronts her battered citizens and political class:
Will Nigerians choose competence over compromise, or succumb to the age-old trap of rotational politics and ethnic appeasement? The stakes are too high, the wounds too deep, and the time too critical to take the familiar road of convenience. 2027 must not be another ritual of regional compensation, it must be a national referendum on competence, credibility, and capacity.
The truth is stark and painful: Nigeria is in crisis. Poverty is deepening, youth unemployment is soaring, institutions are weakening, and public confidence in governance is near collapse. In this hour of reckoning, choosing a president based on rotation rather than preparedness is not just shortsighted, it is dangerous.
After nearly a decade under the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria finds herself economically bruised, institutionally broken, and morally adrift. Insecurity festers like an untreated sore, inflation gnaws at the poor, corruption quietly flourishes in corridors of power, and public trust in government has reached historic lows.
What the country desperately needs is not another transactional leader from a different geopolitical zone or a perpetuation of the status quo on the premise that it’s the turn of the zone, rather, the country needs a transformational figure with a track record of integrity, vision, and results.
One who has excelled both in the public and private sectors irrespective of the geopolitical zone of such a leader. Nigeria needs a leader not because they are from the North, South, East, or West but because they have the vision, competence, experience, and moral spine to reset the broken foundations of governance. A rotational presidency that sacrifices merit for political appeasement cannot pull Nigeria from the edge; only a competencebased presidency can.
Time and again, Nigeria has watched regional sentiment override rational scrutiny, elevating candidates not because they are best prepared to govern, but because it is “their turn.” In doing so, the nation continues to bleed from avoidable mistakes, missed opportunities, and mass disillusionment.
The current coalition of political parties especially those in opposition who envision reclaiming power in 2027 must rise to a higher patriotic calling. Zoning should no longer be a precondition for consensus. Instead, parties must adopt robust internal democracy, where every presidential aspirant, regardless of tribe or religion, tests their popularity, character, and ideas on a level playing field.
Let the primaries be open and competitive. Let competence, not compromise, shape the ticket. This is not a time for anointment in smoky back rooms or “turn-by-turn” politics. This is a time for renewed democratic courage, where the most prepared, not the most positioned, emerges. History vindicates competence.
When Italy faced a severe debt crisis in 2011, political leaders stepped aside and handed the reins to Mario Monti, an economist and former EU Commissioner. Though unelected, his technocratic government implemented tough but necessary reforms that stabilised the economy and restored investor confidence. Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew was not transformed by tribal rotation, but by a visionary leadership that prioritised results over rhetoric.
Singapore’s journey from Third World obscurity to First World prosperity was led by a visionary technocrat, Lee Kuan Yew, who, through pragmatic, intelligent leadership, transformed the nation into one of the most efficient economies in the world. Rwanda’s post-genocide recovery, driven by Paul Kagame, is a product of meritocratic and strategic planning not zoning.
Through Kagame, a disciplined, technocratic leader, the country rose from horror to become a model for post-conflict recovery and governance, with zero tolerance for corruption and emphasis on development.
Even in Nigeria, some of our most impactful leaders at state and federal levels earned their place through performance, not patronage. Under Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Nigeria negotiated debt relief from the Paris Club and introduced fiscal discipline in government spending. Her leadership in the finance ministry is still regarded as one of the few instances when professionalism guided fiscal policy.
