This article examines contemporary arguments and counter-arguments about
zoning and power rotation, and the overall implications of these principles for the consolidation
of democracy in Nigeria. Because geopolitical zone structures roughly approximate to ethnonational
groups, they play a central aggregating role in Nigeria’s body politic. However, arguments
about zoning and power rotation tend to undermine the geopolitical system and bolster
the nation’s North/South division. The death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2010
opened a “Pandora’s box” of intrigue within Nigeria’s political elite. In the run-up to the 2011
Nigerian presidential election, logics of ethnicity, geopolitical zones, and geographic dichotomization
were employed as justifications for claiming the presidency. Post-election riots and
Nigeria’s general lack of security are rooted in, and dictated by, the logic of this struggle for
power. Delimiting the country in terms of North and South rather than geopolitical zones, depersonalizes
and undermines ethno-national identities, which are important building blocks for
the Nigerian Federation. It may also result in the creation of structural flaws that will drive and
sustain political tension within the polity and pose a serious challenge to the consolidation of
Nigeria’s democratization.