Abstract
Power they say corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely. The quest for political power has killed the federal character principle in which Nigeria’s democracy was built upon. Democracy is a game of number, where the most populated region tends to have numerical advantage over the less populated region in terms of political appointments and elections. In such a struggle, the weak ones are elbowed out and the strong ones get hold of power. In view of this, the advent of John Rawls‟ “A Theory of Justice” (1971) provides a procedural method of distributing political rights, economic benefits, opportunities, as well as other social goods – like health, shelter and education. The Nigerian Quota System doctrine reflects Rawls‟ theory of „justice as fairness‟, which is intended to provide modalities for the march to nationhood and enthronement of a stable democratic sociopolitical order as against the pschophant, sentiments and mutual suspicion built by ethno-political zones against each other through the nation’s political journey.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The concept of zoning is a brain child of party politics in Nigeria. Party politics and zoning/power shift are two very important elements of any liberal democracy that no one can brush aside with a wave of the hand in a primordial state like Nigeria. Political party is the platform in which democracy is built upon. Akindele et al (2000) described the importance of the political parties in a liberal democracy when they succinctly posited that: Political parties encourage stability of the governing process because once elected for a fixed term, the government knows its life span at the corridor of power, and the opposition parties too are aware of this. Thus, both the government and opposition would operate along this political axis. Party politics is inevitable in any country operating liberal democracy. The practice of modern democracy would be totally impossible without the existence of political parties. In other words, political parties are indispensable features of democratic societies due to the conglomeration of people with similar ideologies under one umbrella. The existence of political parties within a political system breeds various forms of relationship or co-existence within the polity itself. Political parties are essential for democracy to function, as well as for the promotion of peace and stability and the prevention of violent conflict. The zoning policy/power shift is also important like the political parties in a primordial democratic state like Nigeria. Agbakoba (2011) stressed the importance of zoning in Nigeria when he posited that “the call to abolish zoning seriously underestimates and ignores the complex political character of Nigeria.” He posited further that Nigeria is a federation and also a divided society. Federalism is the only known political system that accommodates divisions and diversity; through zoning/power shift the problem of divided society can be abated. Zoning provides a procedural method of distributing political rights and economic benefits to the citizens as moral agents in any given society, especially, in a democratic set up where there is free economy and individual liberty. This perhaps aims at maximizing the welfare of the citizens, especially the worst off group. It is in accordance with Rawls‟ doctrine of procedural principles of fair treatment that Nigeria adopts the federal character or thezoning system as a formula of distributive justice which aims at achieving a fair play in politics as well as equal distribution of burdens or opportunities and other social goods (economic and social benefits). Consequently, Nigeria consists of several ethnic groups with diverse cultures, languages, religions, socio-political and economic formation as well as administrative styles, social norms, personality types and disproportionate population sizes. Although, federal structure was introduced at the formation of Nigeria to ease governance, but it is not adequate to meet with the demands of such complex composition. Through the course of its history other mechanisms such as Federal Character principle or the Zoning System were introduced and entrenched into the constitution to cater for yearnings and aspirations of the diverse cultures. The phenomenon of zoning is considered a high stake politics in Nigeria’s democracy, “this is because zoning is seen as a mechanism of uniting various diverse people. In the words of Simbine: Zoning formula seems to fit into the heterogeneous and federal nature of the Nigerian state, helping to accommodate all groups as much as possible and therefore reducing complaints of domination and marginalization. To this extent, it helps to make the system more inclusive (of identifiable groups), and therefore more supportive of the democratic culture. Hence, the research posit that, due to the sectional politics and tribalistic sentiments of each geo-political zone the mechanism still promotes the endemic problems of ethno-regional, religious and sectarian bigotry which it is set to address.
- STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The zoning principle was adopted by Nigerians in the democratic settings to promote effective and equal representation at the federal and local level. Though many are of the opinion that it is not democratic in nature as such it application in the Nigeria setting has been questionable, as some also posit that it does not give room for the best brains to be elected. It is on this backdrop that the researcher intend to investigate the effect of zoning in consolidating Nigeria’s democracy.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- To what extent does zoning policy and development democracy
- What are the relationship between zoning and development democracy in
- What are the impact of zonal politics on national unity
- PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to examine the zonal policy and development democratic in Nigeria. But for the successful completion of the study, the researcher put forward the following sub-objectives to be achieved:
- To ascertain the effect of zoning policy in Nigeria’s democracy
- To ascertain the relationship between zoning and development democracy in
- To evaluate the impact of zonal politics on national unity
1.5SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is perceived that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the leaders of political parties in their choice of candidacy or flag bearer during any general elections, the study will also be of great importance to the political office holders in their choice of appointment into their carbinate. The study will also be of great benefit to the researchers who intends to embark on research on similar topics as it will serve as a guide. Finally, the study will be of great importance to academia’s, lecturers, teachers, students and the general public.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of the study covers the zonal policy and development democracy in Nigeria. (A study of Anambra State) But the research has some constrain to the expansion of its scope, which are:
1.7 Limitations of the Study
In the course of writing and carrying out this project work, the research encountered many difficulties; some errors in the results of the research and from external sources of data collection. These are factors standing as constraints thereby limiting the effect of the research result.
Among these are, time finance , scope and use of wrong statistics in data analysis, due to time limit, the research work is a time consuming one. A lot of time is taken to observe the subjects.
Most times the behaviour of the staff changes even when they are aware that they are being observed by the researcher, this is by taking their behavior. The researcher also observed that these senior staff some time give true and false information in order to cover their branches.
At sometime the research work lasted over two months due to large scope of area of the study.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
POLITICAL PARTY
A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good or furthering their supporters’ interests.While there is some international commonality in the way political parties are recognized, and in how they operate, there are often many differences, and some are significant
Consolidation
Democratic consolidation is the process by which a new democracy matures, in a way that means it is unlikely to revert to authoritarianism without an external shock. The notion is contested because it is not clear that there is anything substantive that happens to new democracies that secures their continuation beyond those factors that simply make it ‘more likely’ that they continue as democracies. Unconsolidated democracies suffer from formalized but intermittent elections and clientelism
Politics
Politics is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance organized control over a human community, particularly a state. Furthermore, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community (a usually hierarchically organized population) as well as the interrelationship(s) between communities.
policy-making
the formulation of ideas or plans that are used by an organization or government as a basis for making decisions
1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows
Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study its based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendationsmade of the study
Politics of zoning: The process of planning for land use by state and local government information.
Anambra state: Anambra is a state in southeastern Nigeria. Its name is an anglicized version of the original Oma Mbala, the Igbo name of the Anambra River. The capital and seat of government is Awka. Onitsha, an historic port city from pre-colonial times, has developed as by far the largest urban area in the state. The state’s theme is “Light of the nation”.
APGA All Progressives Grand Alliance
1.10 Organization of the Study
This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows. Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (background of the study), statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study etc. Chapter two being the review of the related literature presents the theoretical framework, conceptual framework and other areas concerning the subject matter. Chapter three is a research methodology covers deals on the research design and methods adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study
DISCLAIMER: All project works, files and documents posted on this website, eProjectTopics.com are the property/copyright of their respective owners. They are for research reference/guidance purposes only and some of the works may be crowd-sourced. Please don’t submit someone’s work as your own to avoid plagiarism and its consequences. Use it as a reference/citation/guidance purpose only and not copy the work word for word (verbatim). The paper should be used as a guide or framework for your own paper. The contents of this paper should be able to help you in generating new ideas and thoughts for your own study. eProjectTopics.com is a repository of research works where works are uploaded for research guidance. Our aim of providing this work is to help you eradicate the stress of going from one school library to another in search of research materials. This is a legal service because all tertiary institutions permit their students to read previous works, projects, books, articles, journals or papers while developing their own works. This is where the need for literature review comes in. “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. The paid subscription on eProjectTopics.com is a means by which the website is maintained to support Open Education. If you see your work posted here by any means, and you want it to be removed/credited, please contact us with the web address link to the work. We will reply to and honour every request. Please notice it may take up to 24 – 48 hours to process your request.
