Nigerian governor seeks rotational presidency, additional state for South-east

Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has said there is a need for Nigeria to adopt rotational presidency to give every region of the country a sense of belonging.

Mr Mbah spoke on Thursday when he received members of the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment at the Government House, Enugu.

The committee members visited the governor ahead of the regional public hearing on constitution amendment which would be held at the International Conference Centre, Enugu on Friday (today).

“Of course, the idea of a rotational presidency is important. We think that obviously would provide the South-east and every other region a chance at the presidency,” Governor Mbah said.

Additional state in South-east, state police

Mr Mbah also called for creation of an additional state in Nigeria’s South-east to meet up with the number of states in other regions of the country.

“The South-east suffers injustice. The fact that across the different geopolitical zones, the South-east is the only one with five states. So that is also what we believe will be corrected in this process of amendment,” he said.

The governor equally expressed support for the creation of state police to improve worsening insecurity in the country.

“One (thing) that excites us most is the idea of state policing. We have advocated ardently that there is a need for states to create state police services, just as you have the federal police, but with defined jurisdictions and operational parameters.

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“We think that this is overdue and there could not be a better time for that (than now) given the fragilities we have in our various communities. The state police will be a truly welcome development in our Constitution,” he said.

“So, these are areas we believe are commendable and we will be presenting our position formally in the hearing tomorrow and the subsequent days,” he said.

Why we’ll alter the Nigeria’s Constitution – Senate

Earlier while speaking during the visit, the Senate Deputy Chief Whip and leader of the delegation, Onyekachi Nwebonyi, explained the committee was in Enugu to get the inputs of the people of the South-east into the constitution amendment process.

“It goes without saying that the 1999 constitution has received a lot of criticism from Nigerians, including that it is the product of military dictatorship and, as such, does not represent the interest of all the segments that make up Nigeria. As a result of these criticisms. There is a need to alter the constitution from time to time,” he said.

Mr Nwebonyi, who represents Ebonyi North Central District in the upper chamber, expressed hope that the constitution amendment would address some concerns of Nigerians.

“We pray that this engagement will afford us the people of South-east the opportunity to right some wrongs as a result of the position of the 1999 constitution, which we the people of South-east are crying foul that we are being marginalised in so many areas, particularly as it relates to the number of states, juxtaposing same with other geopolitical zones of Nigeria,” the senator said.

Background

South-east leaders have been demanding for an additional state in the region.

At present, there are 36 states in Nigeria.

While the North-west geo-political zone has seven states, the North-east, North-central, North-east, South-south and South-west have six states each. Only the South-east has five states.

Meanwhile, at the moment, the Nigeria’s National Assembly is currently considering bills for creation of 31 new states in the country. The South-east, like others, has five of such bills.

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Although state creation bills are frequently introduced in the National Assembly, no civilian government has created a new state in Nigeria. The states in the country were all created by successive military administrations.

Again, the South-east has repeatedly canvassed for rotational presidency to give the region an opportunity to produce the country’s president for the first time.

Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Igbo-speaking people of the South-east had consistently asked to be allowed to take a shot at the presidency.

After two dominant political parties in the country – APC and the PDP – failed to zone their presidential tickets to the region, hope was rekindled when Peter Obi emerged presidential candidate of the Labour Party ahead of the 2023 poll.

However, Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, came third in the presidential election won by Bola Tinubu of the APC.

Although Mr Obi was not only the presidential candidate from the South-east at the time, he was perceived as a stronger candidate through which the Igbo presidency ambition could be realised.