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No one pretended
that it was democratic. Its sole purpose was to ensure that the South
produced a president at a time the country was reeling from the
excesses of Generals Babangida and Abacha’s dictatorships. It was a
compromise in national interest. And so it was that rotational
presidency produced Obasanjo (who as it turned out, was not the South’s
best specimen).

After Obasanjo’s 8
years power returned to the North, but Yar’Adua died shortly
afterwards, returning the presidency back to the South. Suddenly,
rotational presidency is now ‘unconstitutional’. In an ironic throwback
to the Abacha era, motley groups have emerged with the stated mission
of ‘convincing’ President Goodluck Jonathan to run for president in
2011. As if the man needs any convincing…

But the propriety
or morality of rotational presidency is not the crux of this piece; it
is the fact that 11 years of democracy has only ‘democratised’ poverty,
especially in the North. The concern of most people in the North is not
the presidency, but poverty. Did Babangida’s eight years improve the
North? Or conversely, did Obasanjo’s 8 years really improve the South?
So while the political elite fight about what the mother tongue of the
next president should be, the real issue must be how to challenge
poverty.

The focus should be
on multiplying the hundreds of trucks laden with fresh food produced
from irrigated schemes in the North that depart for markets all over
Nigeria daily. The irrigation infrastructures that produced the crops
were built in the 1970s, implying that Nigeria is capable of meeting
its food needs and even for export through the expansion of irrigation.
Today, less than 10 of the country’s irrigable land are irrigated.

Nigeria has the
potential to become a global food exporter by expanding irrigation. In
1999, 42 percent of arable land in Asia was irrigated, 31 percent in
the Near East and North Africa, 14 percent in Latin America and the
Caribbean, and only four percent in sub-Saharan Africa. Irrigation
increases yields of most crops by 100 to 400 percent.

Increased irrigated
agriculture is a key to reducing poverty. In many countries, irrigation
triggered high economic growth increased incomes and improved
nutrition. It raises yields and is essential to increasing
productivity. Farmers benefit from irrigation through increased and
more stable incomes and the higher value of irrigated land. Nigeria has
large untapped reserves of groundwater. In addition, there is great
potential for harvesting water runoff and for farming lowlands and
valley bottoms that catch it naturally.

The development of
small, cost-efficient earth dams is important in breaking the poverty
circle. A study of small-scale irrigation schemes across Africa found
that irrigation improved incomes, diets and health. For example, when
women no longer had to fetch water from far away, they had time to
start market gardens, thereby improving their incomes and diets. The
benefits extended beyond increased agricultural productivity. Women
earned income and helped families reduce debt. It increased school
attendance, reduced seasonal migration for work and earned cash to pay
for previously unaffordable essentials.

Underused water
resources in Nigeria offer great potential for irrigation using simple
and inexpensive technologies. Irrigation development is a goldmine as
long as it includes: (1) a sustainable strategy for irrigated
agriculture in Nigeria; (2) development of cost effective rain
harvesting techniques for domestic and agricultural uses; (3) steps to
position Nigeria as Africa’s leading organic crop production area; (4)
creation for millions of direct and indirect employment; (5)
encouraging the emergence of agro-allied industries in; (6) ensuring
better management of soil moisture in rain fed areas; (7) facilitation
of direct investment in water harvesting and storage.

Focus must be on
the development of small-scale community-based irrigation schemes;
improved water access and control for semi-urban agriculture; the
evolution of an environmentally sound system of improved water access
for livestock in arid and semi-arid areas; better alignment of
irrigation and drainage institutions, and transfer of responsibilities
for operation, maintenance and management of irrigation and drainage
systems to organised local user groups; cost-sharing for infrastructure
improvement; appropriate systems of water rights and volumetric
delivery for greater efficiency in water use; and re-dimensioning of
irrigation systems where they are not financially or environmentally
viable.

Implementing these
strategies will create millions of jobs. Food security would be
assured. Environmental challenges would be mitigated. Foreign exchange
earnings would be boosted and poverty eradicated. If we focus on the
things that are truly important like fighting poverty, who wants to
know if the next president is Goodluck Jonathan or Badluck Babangida?