Miiltary agrees more power for the regions in new constitution

Nigeria’s ruling military council has agreed that more powers will be given to state and local governments in the new constitution to be used when the army hands over power in May, Reuters reported a government official as saying yesterday. After a meeting of the Provisional Ruling Council in Abuja, Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe, told reporters that the Council rejected a proposal for the presidency to rotate between Nigeria’s regions with multiple vice-presidents from other regions. “States are co-operative partners of the federation, therefore their powers should reflect this,” he said. He told reporters that the new constitution would be released once the ruling council had carefully examined all the necessary amendments.

Speaking to the BBC in London today, the Nigerian information minister said the new constitution would have a “new focus to ensure efficiency of infrastructural development in the areas concerned.” Sharing power, and more importantly oil revenues, has been at the centre of political and ethnic turmoil in Nigeria since independence - under successive military rulers power has been concentrated in the centre, Reuters noted. Regions want their claim to a greater share of Nigeria’s wealth to be written into the constitution before the military step down in May, it added.