Former Rivers governor and presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rotimi Amaechi, says he would abolish indigenship and federal character if elected president in 2027.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday after his screening by the party’s presidential aspirant screening committee, Amaechi said Nigerians should be judged by competence rather than ethnic or religious identity.
“Assess us by what we have done, and reach a conclusion. All I’m hearing is I’m from North, I’m from South, I’m from East. I’m not from South or East or West, I’m a Nigerian,” he said.
“If I become president, there will be no indigenship, there will be citizenship. We are first and foremost citizens of Nigeria.”
Asked if he would abolish federal character based on his position, the former minister of transportation answered in the affirmative.
“There will be no federal character. Every Nigerian will be a member of the federation,” he said.
Amaechi argued that the federal character principle emerged because of systemic inequality and unfairness.
“Federal character is because the system is unfair. One way to manage the system is to say give shares to areas,” he said.
He added that improving economic opportunities and employment would reduce insecurity and crime across the country.
“Make everybody employed. If everybody is employed, there won’t be robbers. Because 6 am you are at work, 6 pm you are closed. You are too tired to wake up to carry a gun.
“The reason why you are seeing people carry guns, kidnap people, is because the system is bad.”
