The Resident Independent National Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Mr Mike Igini, has expressed the need to address the excessive display of power by state governors as part of the constitutional review process, saying "our governors are too powerful."
Mr Igini spoke as one of the participants in a zonal media conference for the South-South region on the review of the 1999 Constitution.
According to him, "in Nigeria today, the governor of a state determines who should be the councillor of a ward. They determine who should be the local government chairman, who should be member of the House of Assembly, who should be member of the House of Representatives, who should be a senator and who should be a minister. Out of 36 states of the federation, only 13 have democratic structures with elected local government executives and a duly constituted state independent electoral commission."
He called on media professionals to be focused on issues that would strengthen democratic institutions and go beyond reporting what government officials say concerning constitutional review exercise.
At the two-day workshop organised by Democratic Governance for Development Project in collaboration with the Nigeria Union of Journalists, participants also raised concern about local government autonomy, joint account between state and the local government, freedom of information law and others.
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