A legal practitioner and public affairs analyst, Buhari Yusuf, has said that zoning is not democratic.
Buhari stated this while appearing as a guest on an interview programme on Trust TV on Monday.
He said that successive constitutions have always rejected the idea of zoning.
He was speaking on the idea of zoning the presidency ahead of next year’s general elections.
“Zoning is a ceasefire in democracy, a ceasefire that stops and starts anytime elections come up. It doesn’t solve the problem; rather, it increases the tempo.
“Essentially, zoning and all these divisive vocabularies are not democratic in nature. You don’t give me an option to choose, then compartmentalize my options along certain geographical lines.
“By your action, my right to choose among multiple offers is obviated, and therefore it is not democracy. This concept has been rejected since the creation of Nigeria.
“The post-independence constitution rejected the idea of zoning. The most famous constitutional literature, which is the 1979 Constitution, rejected it, and all subsequent constitutional progressions have also rejected the idea of zoning,” he said.
