A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, has urged President Bola Tinubu to muster the political will to get Africa’s most populous nation what he described as a people-centred constitution.
The human rights lawyer was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics show. He is a member of The Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians led by former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku who met with the President on Friday at the State House in Abuja.
Asked whether the President has the political will to make a new constitution happen, the senior lawyer said, “Well, he should have the political will because these problems will not go away until we tackle it headlong”.
Further asked whether a new constitution is an antidote to poverty, insecurity, and other challenges confronting the Nigerian state, Ozekhome said, “It is. The killings you are seeing, the poverty, the corruption, they are all symptoms of a larger problem which is the basis of what we are talking about. When you solve it, other things will be in place.”
Ozekhome argued that the 1999 Constitution was military-imposed, and not subject to any referendum. He said Nigeria needs an indigenous and people-centric constitution to redirect the country’s “journey of no destination”.
According to him, Nigeria lacks nationhood. “Nigeria is a country still yearning for nationhood. We are not united,” he said. The brand new constitution must be subjected to the referendum of the people, he added.
Asked whether Nigeria must constitute a constituents’ assembly before a new constitution, the senior advocate said, “We have to have a constituents’ assembly and only the National Assembly can pass a law in that regard. Then, the draft constitution will now be signed by Mr President and we will have a constitution.”
He said if the people agree that they want a unicameral legislature, “that is how it is going to be” because democracy is decided by the people.
Ozekhome further stated that the engine (constitution) of the Nigerian state has knocked and should be replaced.
“The political elite has to agree. If you are driving a car and the car has a knocked engine. Is it not the engine you should look at? Do you begin to panel-beat the car, spray it with beautiful paint, and buy new tyres? Will that move the car?
“I am saying that the engine of the Nigerian state, for now, is knocked and it is giving rise to all these mutual suspicion, religious intolerance.”
He said economic reforms are good but must not be put before a people-centred constitution. He said the National Assembly must agree to a new constitution for the problems of Nigeria to vanish.
Ozekhome’s comments followed the 2014 National Conference Report which recommended constitutional, amendment, community policing, fiscal federalism, and restructuring, among others.
A decade ago, then President Goodluck Jonathan and other leaders organised the conference to proffer workable suggestions on how to move the country forward.
The national dialogue began on March 17, 2014, with the late respected Jurist, Justice Idris Kutigi (retd.), as its chairman.
494 Nigerians from all walks of life attended the conference for about five months. About N10bn was spent on the confab which produced over 600 recommendations including suggestions for the restructuring of Nigeria’s political, economic, social and security systems to quell agitations from different geopolitical sections and achieve long-lasting peace.
However, the recommendations of the confab have not been implemented by successive administrations.