A former scribe of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony N.Z. Sani, has disclosed how civilians drafted the various constitutions of Nigeria and not the military juntas.
He told Daily Trust that, “Since the southern and middle belt groups have been honest enough to admit that the 1999 Constitution is a wholesale adoption of that of 1979, it is fair for them to let Nigerians know how the 1999 Constitution was produced.
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“The group of ’49 Wise Men’ brought together in 1978 by General [Olusegun] Obasanjo to write a new constitution under the chairmanship of Justice Udo Udoma did not have military personnel as members or any input by the military.
“The Draft Constitution which they produced was debated by an elected constituent assembly under the chairmanship of Chief Rotimi Williams.
“Again there were no military members who participated in the deliberations of the elected constituent assembly”, He said.
According to Mr Sani, it was the outcome of the debates that was promulgated into the 1979 Constitution under which those who were seen as the beacons of democracy in Nigeria contested for elected positions in 1979.
These were Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Mallam Aminu Kano and Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim, who contested for the presidency while Chiefs Bola Ige, Chief Michael Ajasin and Chief Sam Mbakwe contested for governorship positions.
The Niki Tobi Committee
Anthony Sani said that when General Abacha died, General Abubakar Abdulsalami put up the Justice Niki Tobi Committee to look at the two constitutions of 1979 and 1995 to see the possibility of bringing about one constitution for the incoming democratic dispensation from them.
He said the Niki Tobi Committee went round and consulted stakeholders across the country and brought the recommendation that most Nigerians preferred the wholesale adoption of the 1979 Constitution to be that of 1999.
The only additions were the number of states and local governments that were created after 1979.
The former ACF scribe further explained that the democratic processes that saw the emergence of the 1979 Constitution were similar to how the American Constitution was produced.
It was morally wrong for anybody or group to assert that the 1999 Constitution was produced by the military in favor of the North, he said.
He stressed that if the opponents of the 1999 Constitution had facts in support of any position that it was not democratically produced, let them lay them bare for Nigerians to see.
And if they had reasons in support of any amendments of the 1999 Constitution, they were at liberty to canvass for such amendments in the National Assembly.
Mr Sani, however, said the clamour for a new constitution by some vested interests might be understood, but it was morally wrong for them to submit that the constitution had not been produced democratically.
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