A nonpartisan group of leaders of thought in Nigeria also known as the patriots have called for the convening of a national constituent assembly to help draft a new constitution for the country. They are therefore urging President Bola Tinubu to immediately send an executive bill to the National Assembly to that effect......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
They made the call in Abuja when they paid a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa.
Leader of the delegation, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, disclosed these while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the visit.
He said there was a need to take such decisive steps without delay to maintain the indivisible status of Nigeria.
“We affirmed to the President that Nigeria is a pluralistic country and you know that pluralistic countries exist all over the world. Those of them that addressed their pluralism by having true federal constitutions have survived. Examples are India and Canada but those of them that failed to address their basic challenge of pluralism through the federal constitution have ended up disintegrating. Examples of that are Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia; here in Africa, Sudan. “We put some proposals to the President and we urged him to send an executive bill to the National Assembly; a bill that will call for two essential measures. One is the convening of a National Constituent Assembly to be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. “We suggested that such National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non-party basis, say for example three individuals per each of the 36 States and one for the Federal Capital Territory and they should be mandated to produce a new draft constitution.”
Chief Anyaoku further disclosed that the patriots want a national referendum to be held in the interest of the nation.
“We also suggested that in the bill, the National Assembly should be asked to legislate for a National Referendum because a s our laws stand at the moment, we have no provision for a National Referendum. “We concluded by saying that the draft constitution to emerge from the Constituent Assembly should be subjected to the National Referendum, in order to give the people of Nigeria the chance to determine their new constitution, ”
he added.
Responding to a question on the cost of convening a Constituent Assembly, taking into consideration the current economic challenges, Chief Anyaoku said no amount is too expensive for the survival of the nation.
On the recent protests held in some parts of the country, the leaders of thought advised the President to dialogue with the protesters.
“We also talked about the current crisis of protest throughout the country. We suggested that in our view the government at the federal and state levels should dialogue with the leaders of the protest. The Government should take the initiative in dialoguing with them, “Secondly, we advised that the law enforcement agencies; the Police and the Army should avoid the use of lethal weapons in the management of the protest so that we do not have casualties because the law enforcement agencies are managing the protest,” Anyaoku added.
PIAK
