The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, says President Buhari has tolerated a lot from critics of his Government who now see him as a willing horse to be ridden. He wondered if the former President Olusegun Obasanjo would ever have given Nigerians such latitude to criticize and continue to attack him and his government.
Ngige said this on Monday, June 14 when he spoke to Channels Television. According to him, many leaders will not condone the kind of criticisms Buhari faces.
“There must be a limit to politiking. If a government has done well, if a president has done well, give him accolades there. Areas he has not done well, point them out and discuss.
This president is a democrat and this president is so afrraid of a breech of the constitution or any law. I am even stronger than him in terms of that.’'he said
When the anchor of the show pointed out that Nigerians will contest his statement that President Buhari is afraid of breaching the law, Ngige responded
''It would you people in the media and in the social media world. In which country…even President Obasanjo, can he give you people this latitude? He will not. I know him…My Dad, my grand dad or my senior Uncle. He will not grant you people that. So, this president (Buhari) is a willing horse and you people (Nigerians) want to ride him to death,” Ngige said during the show
On the calls for the presidency to move to the SouthEast come 2023, Ngige said pushing the number one office to the southeast will help change the narrative that the people in the region have been marginalized.
“The people in the area have perceived that they are marginalized, that they are unappreciated, whether it was done by propaganda and brainwashing or not, that is now immaterial.
So I agree with that proposal, unfortunately, the Nigerian constitution does not have that. This is where I quarrel with those who authored the 1999 Constitution.
I still believe today, tomorrow, that 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” the minister said