Nigeria’s Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, has stated that the 1995 Abacha Constitution, which made a case for rotational Presidential zoning, was a better option for Nigeria’s democracy, as it would have healed cases of marginalisation across the regions.
The Labour Minister disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Sunday.
“People in the area (south-east) have perceived that they are marginalised and unwanted,” Ngige said.
He argued that the 1999 constitution did not make provisions for the zoning of the presidency along all the geopolitical zones, “That is where I quarrelled with those who wrote the 1999 constitution,” he said.
“I still believe today, that the Abacha 1995 constitution espoused rotational Presidency into the six zones, with single 5-year tenures, in order to heal all the wounds of the war, and the wounds of June 12…”
He urged that the 1995 Constitution would have been the best constitution for Nigeria to use for the next 30 years, by which the six zones would have tasted the Presidency.
On special laws that should be absorbed by the constitution, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, demanded a special economic status for Lagos, saying the progress and prosperity of Nigeria were inextricably linked to the progress and prosperity of Lagos State.
