VEJOH - VERITAS JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES

This paper interrogates the concept of rotational presidency as a panacea to the problem of national integration in Nigeria. To a very large extent, there has been a raging controversy that the position of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should rotate among the various ethnic nationalities and geo-political zones that make up the country. This is not strange as the ffederal character principle of proportional sharing is entrenched in the 1999 constitution as amended. The paper argues that the issue of rotational presidency from the North to the South of Nigeria has dominated the political discourse in Nigeria over a period of time, far more importantly after June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment. The paper through a historical analytical methodology interrogates major primary and secondary documents to examine the issue of rotational presidency in Nigeria as an impetus for national integration. It concludes that the states that have no tangible changes in the socio-economic indices of the country; instead, the maintenance of the status quo prevails. Overall, if the rotational presidency is an acceptable method of solving Nigeria’s political problem, then its modus operandi should be entrenched in the country’s constitution.

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