- Urges Tinubu To Act Now
Former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently listen to calls for a people-oriented constitution and set modalities in place to achieve it.
Anyaoku gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, yesterday.
NAN reports that The Patriots, a non-partisan group of leaders of thought in Nigeria, had earlier called for the convening of a national constituent assembly to help draft a new constitution for the country.
The group, led by Anyaoku, had urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately send an executive bill to the National Assembly to that effect.
Tinubu had assured the group that their request would be looked into as soon as he was done with economic reforms.
Anyaoku told NAN that a new people’s constitution was necessary owing to glaring imperfections in the 1999 Constitution.
“The 1999 constitution even as amended lacks the legitimacy that can only be conferred on a constitution democratically made by the people of Nigeria.
“We must therefore, have a new legitimate constitution that will give us a different governance system that can tackle more effectively the myriad challenges currently threatening the integrity of our country.
“In my view, the new constitution should be made by a constituent assembly of persons to be democratically elected on nonpolitical party basis of three each from the existing 36 States and one from the FCT.” he said. The elder statesman said deliberations on the new constitution should take into consideration the 1960 and 1963 constitutions as well as the recommendations of the (NAN)
