Buhari a better democrat than Obasanjo – Ngige

 

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a democrat who is very afraid of breaching the Constitution.

Ngige, who drew a comparison between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Buhari said the former president would not have allowed the media the kind of freedom President Buhari had given to Nigerians to criticise him.

Speaking as a guest on a Channels Television programme on Monday, Ngige said: “There must be a limit to politicking. If a government has done well, if a president has done well; you should give him in the areas of doing well, accolades there. Areas he has not done well, point them out and discuss.”

“This president is a democrat, and he is so afraid of breaching the constitution or any law; he is so afraid of it. I’m even stronger than him in terms of that.

“In what country? Even President Obasanjo, can he give you people this latitude? He will not. I know him; my dad or my grand-dad Obasanjo or senior uncle, he will not grant you people that.

“This president is now a willing horse and you people want to ride him to death.”

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Ngige, former governor of Anambra State, said the 1995 Constitution, under the late General Sani Abacha, would have been the best for Nigeria.

The minister and former senator said the five-year single tenure and rotational presidency proposed by the Abacha Constitution would have solved the issue of marginalisation in the country.

“I still believe today, tomorrow, the Abacha Constitution of 1995 that espouses rotational presidency into the six zones in Nigeria, a single five-year tenure in order to heal all the wounds; the wounds of civil war, and the wound of June 12.”

“Now, that constitution would have been the best constitution for Nigerians to use for the next 30 years by which the six zones would have tested the presidency,” he said.

Ngige also said the issue of marginalisation would be addressed if the South East produces the next president of the country.

“The people in the area have perceived that they are marginalised, that they are unappreciated, whether it was done by propaganda and brainwashing or not, that is now immaterial,” he said.

The minister also alleged that Buhari is more of a democrat than former President Olusegun Obasanjo.