SINCE 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule, no word has been weaponised more selectively in our political dictionary than “zoning.” Mention it at the national level and you will get a standing ovation from every corner of the country. Bring it up at the state level and suddenly everyone develops a convenient case of amnesia. That selective memory is exactly the problem.
The truth is this: you cannot shout yourself hoarse demanding that the presidency be rotated to your region while back home in your own state, the same doctrine you are preaching is being violated with impunity. That is not principle. That is opportunism dressed in the language of equity. There is a difference, and most Nigerians can smell it.
The tragedy is that the argument for national zoning is not without merit ,there is genuine value in ensuring that every major region gets a chance at the presidency, that no one group permanently monopolises the office, that the federal character principle means something beyond a clause in the constitution. That is a legitimate conversation. The problem is that it is being made by people who have no credibility to make it, because they refuse to apply the same standard at home.
Let us start in Kwara State. Since 1999, the governorship of Kwara has been circulating between Kwara Central and Kwara South. Twenty-six years and counting, and Kwara North has not produced a governor. Not one. The people of Kwara North have been shouting themselves hoarse, rightly so, that power needs to come to their zone ahead of the 2027 elections. They are not asking for a favour. They are asking for basic equity. The question is: where are all the zoning advocates when Kwara North is being systematically shut out? Where are the passionate speeches, the emergency meetings, the resolutions passed with great fanfare? You will not find them. The amnesia is too convenient.
Move to Ogun State, where Governor Dapo Abiodun has endorsed Senator Yayi, effectively throwing the weight of incumbency behind the Ijebu Yelwa people for the next governorship cycle. You can take that endorsement at face value or read the political calculations underneath it , Ogun politics is rarely what it appears on the surface.
Either way, the broader question for Ogun is whether this internal arrangement reflects genuine equity or simply one powerful bloc engineering another succession, dressed up as rotation. The two look similar from a distance but produce very different outcomes for communities left outside the circle.
Now let me say something about Niger State that I am genuinely proud to say: my home state has a formula, and it works. The governorship rotates among the three senatorial zones, Niger North, Niger Central and Niger East and the arrangement has been broadly respected. T
hat is the correct approach. It is not perfect, but it is structured, predictable, and has prevented the kind of frozen exclusion that Kwara North has endured for over two decades. No political family has been able to monopolise the office indefinitely because the rotation creates a built-in check. Other states should study this model seriously instead of inventing the wheel each election cycle.
But I will not leave Niger State without raising a matter that has been swept under the rug for far too long. Niger State has a sizeable Christian population spread across all the major tribes ,there are Christians in significant numbers among the Nupe, Gbagyi, and other communities. Yet Christians in Niger have not had so much as a deputy governor in memory. I cannot pinpoint with certainty the last time we had a Christian deputy governor , some will point to the era of Shem Zagbayi, but the broader reality is undeniable: the office has been effectively closed.
Geographic rotation among senatorial zones is a good thing. But rotating the governorship across zones while keeping the deputy governorship permanently in one religious column is not equity, it is a halfway arrangement. The Christians of Niger State are not asking to be celebrated. They are asking not to be invisible.
Kogi State offers a different story entirely. For years, the unwritten rule was clear ,if you wanted to be governor of Kogi, your surname had better carry the Igala stamp. The governorship was treated as an Igala inheritance, and the Ebira, Okun and other nationalities simply watched from the gallery. Then came Yahaya Bello. By a combination of divine providence ,an Ebira man from Kogi Central shattered that assumption and governed the state for eight years.
Whatever the verdict on his tenure and Kogi people have strong opinions the fact of an Ebira governor cracked a ceiling that many had assumed was structural. Now with Governor Usman Ododo, who is from the Kogi East axis, in office, the logic of equity and the arithmetic of inclusion both point in one clear direction: after Ododo, power must shift to Kogi West. The Okun people, the Bassa, the communities of Kogi West have waited long enough. No amount of political gymnastics should delay that reckoning.
Then there is Benue State, where the story is stark. Since 1999, the governorship has been a Tiv preserve. Samuel Ortom — Tiv. George Akume before him — Tiv. Hyacinth Alia today — Tiv. Twenty-six years, four governors, one nationality. The Idoma people, who constitute a substantial share of the Benue population and carry a proud history, have not produced a governor since the return to democracy.
Not once. The same zoning argument that Benue politicians take to Abuja , the same language of equity and fairness and giving people a sense of belonging , somehow evaporates the moment the conversation turns to the Idoma question at home. That is a contradiction that deserves to be called out plainly.
What I have described in Kwara, Ogun, Niger, Kogi and Benue is not peculiar to those states. Across the country, many states operate with an informal arrangement where power quietly rotates between two zones or effectively stays within one, even when a sizeable population from another group has never had its chance.
The informal arrangement hardens into assumption, the assumption becomes tradition, and the tradition becomes a weapon used to shut out entire communities. Meanwhile the politicians from those same states are at the national level signing resolutions about zoning. The gap between what they preach and what they practise at home is wide enough to drive a truck through.
Which is why the hypocrisy at the national level loses credibility fast once you look underneath it. A governor who zones his state against a major ethnic group cannot be a genuine advocate for equity at the federal level. He is advocating for himself.
A political class that demands rotation in Abuja while rigging rotation at home is not a principled class , it is a class that uses principles as a battering ram when convenient and discards them when they become inconvenient. The Nigerian voter deserves better than that.
The path forward is not complicated. States should do what Niger State has done: formalise a rotation arrangement among their senatorial zones, commit to it publicly, and inscribe it in party constitutions and political agreements where possible. Informal understanding is too fragile , it evaporates at the first sign of political pressure. Formal agreement, with public buy-in, is harder to break without political cost. That is the only kind of arrangement that protects communities from being locked out for another twenty-six years.
Beyond geography, political parties must also reckon seriously with religious and communal representation. A state with a significant Christian or Muslim minority that has not had representation at the deputy governor level in decades has a structural problem that senatorial zone rotation will not resolve. The same logic applies to minority tribes in states where two or three large groups have cornered the executive offices since 1999. The principle of inclusion is indivisible , it applies to geography, religion, and ethnicity simultaneously, not on rotation.
The people of Kwara North are watching 2027. The Idoma people of Benue are watching. The Christians of Niger State are watching. The communities of Kogi West are watching. They are not asking for charity. They are asking for the same justice that their politicians demand loudly in Abuja but practise reluctantly at home.
Before we write another resolution about presidential zoning, let us clean our own houses first. Let us stop treating equity as a national demand and a local inconvenience. If the argument is strong enough to wave in front of the cameras at a press conference in Abuja, it is strong enough to apply in Ilorin, in Lokoja, in Makurdi and in Minna. If we are serious about zoning , truly serious, not just strategically serious , then let us start at home.
- Nda-Isaiah is a political analyst based in Abuja and can be reached on jonesdryx@gmail.com. His syndicated column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Saturday.