{"id":69683,"date":"2025-07-04T11:39:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=69683"},"modified":"2025-07-04T11:39:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:39:27","slug":"mbah-calls-for-new-state-in-south-east-backs-rotational-presidency-state-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/04\/mbah-calls-for-new-state-in-south-east-backs-rotational-presidency-state-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbah Calls for New State in South-East, Backs Rotational Presidency, State Police"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has renewed calls for the creation of an additional state in Nigeria\u2019s South-East, citing the region\u2019s underrepresentation in the country\u2019s geopolitical structure.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a visit by members of the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment at the Enugu Government House on Thursday, Mbah said the constitutional review offers a vital opportunity to correct longstanding structural imbalances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are the only region with just five states,\u201d Mbah said. \u201cThis is a clear inequality that carries political and developmental implications. It is time this anomaly was addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also reiterated the South-East\u2019s longstanding demand for a rotational presidency to promote national unity and ensure every region has a fair chance at producing the president.<\/p>\n<p>On security, the governor pushed for the establishment of state police, arguing that the current centralized policing model is inadequate in tackling localized security threats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is no longer a matter of debate, it is a necessity,\u201d Mbah said. \u201cOur communities are fragile, and we need a security structure that reflects local realities, with defined jurisdictions and operational clarity for state-controlled police forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The governor\u2019s remarks come ahead of a regional public hearing on constitutional amendments scheduled to hold in Enugu on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>He confirmed that the state would present its official position at the hearing and in follow-up engagements with the committee.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi, Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate and leader of the delegation, said the visit aimed to gather the views of South-East residents as part of the constitution review process.<\/p>\n<p>He acknowledged widespread criticism of the 1999 Constitution for its military-era origins and failure to reflect Nigeria\u2019s diverse regional interests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe South-East feels shortchanged, especially when compared with other zones in terms of state representation,\u201d Nwebonyi said. \u201cThis review is a chance to begin correcting those historical imbalances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the public hearing approaches, key demands from the South-East state creation, rotational presidency, and decentralised policing are expected to dominate the regional submissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has renewed calls for the creation of an additional state in Nigeria\u2019s South-East, citing the region\u2019s underrepresentation in the country\u2019s geopolitical structure. Speaking during a visit by members of the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment at the Enugu Government House on Thursday, Mbah said the constitutional [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":69684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,186],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-69683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69685,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69683\/revisions\/69685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}