Niger State is setting a pace many states have avoided: making zoning legally binding. The state government announced plans to gazette a zoning system for elective positions, turning an informal arrangement into enforceable policy.
Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago revealed this during a strategic meeting with APC stakeholders and aspirants at the Hauwa Wali Multipurpose Hall in Minna. The motive is straightforward: to ensure power rotates fairly across all 25 local government areas, and in doing so, secure lasting peace and political stability.
The plan is deliberate. Bago said a public hearing and other steps will be completed before 2027, with a clear rule: no local government will hold office for more than eight years.
“We are going to gazette zoning in Niger State. If that’s the only thing we do before 2027, so that power will revolve from local government to local government, from constituency to constituency, there will be everlasting peace in Niger State,” he stated.
He acknowledged that the Nigerian constitution doesn’t bar anyone from contesting regardless of senatorial district. But he argued that an understanding already exists in Niger, and it has been working.
This move touches on a debate I’ve written about before: zoning versus competence. The two are not mutually exclusive. When applied sincerely, they can coexist. Rotation doesn’t erase merit; it creates access so merit from different groups gets a chance to compete.
The reason rotation matters became clear in the way past officeholders have used their positions. When former Minister Isa Pantami testified about helping Gombe indigenes secure jobs in CBN, NNPCL, NPA, NCC, and NIMASA, it illustrated a reality. Every state has a minister in the Federal Executive Council, but not every minister has equal influence. Pantami headed a strategic ministry and was close to President Buhari.
Once favoritism becomes legitimized through unwritten rules, rotation becomes inevitable. Every region, tribe, and segment begins to demand “their own” in power, not just for representation but for protection and access. That’s when considerations of ethnicity and belonging often override merit and integrity.
This is why the question of “where the leader comes from” generates tension. People believe that having one of their own in office translates to undue advantage. What follows is a contest that feels less like an election and more like a battle for survival.
I saw this firsthand during the last Kogi governorship race between Usman Ododo, an Ebira, and Muri Ajaka, an Igala. An Igala neighbor in Abuja, someone who rarely goes home was shouting on the phone for hours: “Who did you say is leading?” The anxiety was raw. You didn’t need to be in Kogi to feel it. For many, it wasn’t an election; it was war without guns, driven by ethnic solidarity and the fear of exclusion.
Niger State stands apart in the North Central. It is the only state where zoning among the three senatorial districts has been fairly consistent. That’s not a weakness. It’s a strength.
The irony is sharp when you look at states like Benue. The Tiv majority often justify political dominance as strength and wisdom. Yet the same voices cry foul about marginalization at the federal level. And within Benue, the Idoma who complain of marginalization are accused of monopolizing the senatorial seat in their zone, where other ethnic groups have never produced a senator. If you call for equity, you have to come with clean hands.
Plateau, Nasarawa, Kwara, and Kogi show the same pattern: rising ethnic tension, claims of exclusion, and accusations of systemic suppression. Political scientists call this “horizontal inequality”, when identity groups feel systematically shut out of state resources and power. Donald Horowitz and Arend Lijphart both argued that in divided societies, power-sharing arrangements like rotation and zoning reduce conflict by giving groups a stake in the system.
Zoning, at its core, is simply the principle that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. It is not anti-democratic, nor is it against competence. In fact, democracy in plural societies often requires the merit of balance by balancing access, representation, and opportunity across groups.
If Niger State follows through, it will offer a working model for the rest of the North Central and beyond.
Bagudu Mohammed
bagudumohammed15197@gmail.com
