Political parties in Nigeria have been advised to borrow a leaf from Cross River state which is known for rotating governorship among its three senatorial zones.
A political pressure group, The Advocacy for Rotational Leadership (TAROL), made the call at its inaugural meeting held on Thursday in Abuja.
TAROL National Cordinator, Prince Ene Okon, noted that rotating governorship among senatorial districts or ethnic constituents of a state will reduce enthic tension during election, promote a sense of belonging, foster peace, stability and unity among the people of a state.
Prince Okon commended states like Cross River which has consistently ensured that the governorship position was rotated among the South, Central and North Senatorial districts.
According to him, “Cross River state has an institutionalised arrangement where the governorship rotatates from the south to central and to the northen senatorial district.”
According to him, “When the PDP which entrenched the rotation principle in the state circumvented it during the 2023 gubernatorial race, majority of the people across political divides who cherish the values of rotation, pitched their tenth with the ruling APC to ensure that the southern senatorial district is not denied its next turn to produce the governor.”
He expressed worry over some states like Benue where since the dawn of the fourth republic in 1999, the majority Tiv enthnic group seems to have taken the governorship seat as its exclusive preserve, leaving other enthnic components of the state as second and third class citizens.
“Sadly too, this was the scenerio in Kogi state where the majority Igala enthnic group is aledged to see the governorship as its birth right untill the stroke of fate in 2015 saw the high political office moved to the Igbira enthnic component of the state in the central senatorial district.
“We hope that in future the governorship will seamlessly move to Kogi West before going back to Kogi East. The bottomline is that all enthnic components of a state should be given opportunity to rule to foster sense of belonging and to promote unity,” the Nlnational cordinator added.
He urged states which already has rotation structure in place to sustain it as the state belongs to all.
