The Patriots led by the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately institute a process of producing a new constitution for the country.
The group said the new constitution has become imperative as the existing one has no capacity to take the country to the promise land, adding that the constitution is also responsible for the prevailing situation in the country.
The group addressed State House Correspondents after meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the State House on Friday.
Others members of the group that attended the meeting with President Tinubu were, Senator Shehu Sani, Mike Ozekhome, Labaran Maku, Senator Ben Obi, Segun Osoba, among others.
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They said President Tinubu should immediately send a presidential bill to the National Assembly, so that a constituent assembly would be put in place and be mandated to produce a new Constitution that will put into consideration the plurality of the country.
The draft constitution should also be subjected to a National referendum that should give the people a new constitution, expected to tackle many of challenges in the country.
The group which said the new constitution can be put together in nine months, added that what we have presented was responsible for the challenges bedeviling the country.
Anyaoku said, “We came to convey this view that Nigeria needs a people’s democratic constitution. We affirmed to Mr. President that Nigeria is a pluralistic country. And you all know that pluralistic countries exist all over the world. Those of them that addressed their pluralism by having true federal constitutions have survived. Example is India and Canada.
“But those pluralistic countries that failed to address their basic challenge of pluralism through federal Constitution have ended up disintegrating. Examples of that is Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
and here in Africa, Sudan.
“These countries existed in the case of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia for about 100 years as one country, but they eventually disintegrated because they could not manage their pluralism through a truly federal constitution.
“We put some proposals to Mr. President and we urged him to send a president’s executive bill to the National Assembly, a bill that will call for two essential measures.
“One the convening of a National Constituent Assembly, to be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. And we suggested that such National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non party basis.
“Three individuals per state, per each of the 36 states and one from the Federal Capital Territory and they should be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. And we also suggested that in the bill, the National Assembly should be asked to legislate for a National Referendum because as 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 peoples of Nigeria a chance to determine the new constitution.”
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