Several political groups, tribes and interest have been shouting that the next president comes from here and there. To me, rotational presidency is in itself an aberation, a confirmation of the failure of political process. It's an affirmation that we will sideline our best candidates for tribal choices.

I believe presidency as well as governors should be voted for, based on merit, public acceptance, etc. It should not be left for tribes to chose for the millions of N[tt][/tt]igerians. We may have much better candidates from other regions, why settle for less. The issue of better representation in government should not be targetted alone at which tribe the president comes from, rather the representation of the various ethnic groups in ministerial and parastatal appointments.

Many of us are witnesses to the Federal character principles that makes appointments (and JAMB admissions to Federal Universities) a issue of percentatges rather than merit, hence I know so many cases where less qualified people were given admissions because of 'federal character'.

1. Is rotational presidency a gurantee for good governance?
2. Will rotational presidency necessarily solve our problems of under-representation, resource control, etc?
3. What about merit and good governance? Are we throwing those to the wind? Why can't Nigerian have the best candidate rather than an ethnic choice?
4. What has ethnic presidents done for our present and past presidents ethnic groups? (Is there any significant advantage of Ibos over the rest of Nigerians during Azikiwe presidency, during Shagari presidency for the Fulanis? or currently during Obasanjo's presidency for the Yorubas?)

Rather, for those clamoring for rotational presidency, its an open declaration to use the post of presidency for the advancement of that ethnic group rather than the whole of nigeria. That, in itself is against the honour of the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The post should be a free for all contest in which the best? candidate is allowed to emerge rather than imposed on the populace.

What do you all think? Is rotational presidency democratic? Will it solve our problems of poor governance? Would it resolve or advance our issues with ethnic militants?

You are on the right track. Meritocracy is to be promoted in place of ethnicism, religiousity, or any other factor.

rotational presidency is the worst idea i have ever heard of. In fact im waiting for a yoruba man to stand up and say he is contesting the 2007 election. why should only the east and the north contest

No it will not and will never solve Nigeria's problem. As long as our leaders are picked based on tribe rather than merit we will forever be backwards.

Do not bring in merit in Nigerian politics. How many Nigerian presidents since the past have been ruling by merit or how many of them entered the four corners of classroom? Since, we are not ruled by our merit, I will surgest we rotate it. I definitely know that only Northerners and westeners will counter this rotational presidency because they know they are the people that are going to be there if by the so called merit.
Is it lie?

It's not a lie, but we need to set the bar higher

that rotation thing you say is stupid.

nigeria will always be divided so long as the citizens maintain loyalty to their ethnicities/states rather than support the nation as a whole.

as long as the leader is a good one, who cares if he's yoruba or not.
there are bad ibo leaders as there are good ones and the same applies to every tribe/ethnicity.

Rotational presidency is one of the nonsense in political system. why will we be talking of rotational in election? are we not saying that even if a person wins and he is not from the stipulated zone should be rigged?

There should be nothing like rotational in Presidencial election, rotation is only relevant in appointment or senatorial and house of representative in-house election of their various positions.

all we need is credible people whether from minority tribe or majority tribe to move us to another level of development.

I recently watched an interview of a lecturer of African Politics at the University of Oxford on the issue of zoning and ethnic representation in Nigeria. He is a Northerner and can therefore be perceived as biased in his analysis, but he had a fair point about finding an effective means of governing a complex nation such as Nigeria. He pointed out the governance structure in Switzerland where they have a council of elders with a rotating chairmanship of the council. Rotational presidency could be plausible if applied properly. To watch the interview, visit http://www.greatnigeria.tv/video/98/The-Bottom-Line-Dr-Mustapha

Capital NO