A group of elder statesmen under the aegis of The Patriots and led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku visited President Bola Tinubu to demand for a new, People’s Constitution. Specifically, the statesmen made two demands: “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 Constituents Assembly, to be mandated to produce a new Draft Constitution.

And we suggested that such National Constituents Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non-party basis”. Anyaoku revealed what the group told Tinubu during their session with him in an interview with State House reporters. Excerpts:

We had a very constructive meeting with the President. We The Patriots are a non-partisan group of eminent Nigerians who are committed to the unity of our country and good governance of our country under a legitimate People’s Democratic Constitution.

So, we came to convey this view that Nigeria needs a People’s Democratic Constitution. Nigeria, we affirmed to Mr. President, 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 constitutions have ended up disintegrating.

Examples of that are 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 truly federal constitutions.

And 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.

Say for example, three individuals 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.

And we concluded by saying that the Draft Constitution to emerge from the Constituent Assembly should be subjected to national referendum in order to give the peoples of Nigeria a chance to determine the new Constitution.

On the cost of Constituent Assembly, we’ve had similar meetings in the past. I do not believe that, with the challenges facing this country, the challenge of national unity, challenge of insecurity, the challenge of poverty and hunger, the cost of setting up a Constituent Assembly, with the mandate to produce a Constitution due to the inappropriateness of the Constitution that we have at present, is too much. (There is) the inappropriateness of the governance system we have at present. And I’m sure that, when a Constituent Assembly looks at all these and looks at all the recommendations of past efforts to call a National Conference and produce a Draft Constitution, their job will be easier. (Sunday Vanguard)

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