/ 2 February 1999

NIGERIAN MILITARY APPROVES CONSTITUTION

NIGERIA’S military rulers have agreed to a new constitution, the regime’s number two, Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe, told newspapers on Tuesday. Akhigbe, Chief of General Staff, told reporters in Abuja after a meeting of the country’s top military body, the Provisional Ruling Council, that it has agreed to a constitution similar to that of 1979.The document has not yet been promulgated into law, Akhigbe said. Akhigbe said it would not include a provision in a 1995 draft constitution for the presidency to rotate every four years between candidates from the north and the south of the country.Nigerians have been ruled by military decree since 1983 after a military coup led by General Mohammed Buhari.