Constitution review will not address Nigeria’s problem, Afenifere insists

The pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere, has maintained that only the adoption of the 2014 national conference and restructuring of Nigeria can help to address all the ongoing agitations in the country, and not the review of the existing constitution as being worked upon by the National Assembly.

The organisation faulted the constitution review and described the exercise as another effort in futility and waste of time and public resources.

Speaking on behalf of the group, its Secretary-General, Chief Sola Ebiseni, while stating reasons the group failed to present a memorandum before the committee, said the present constitution does not emanate from Nigerians and failed to have the inputs of the people.

Ebiseni said the review will not cure the anomalies, adding that “Afenifere believes in and advocates fundamental restructuring of Nigeria for the reinvention of a federal constitution as the agreed principles of governing Nigeria and its diverse ethnic nationalities by our founding fathers, which will ultimately replace the imposed 1999 unitary constitution.

“Amending the constitution is an exercise in futility and a waste of time and public fund. We cannot claim to be a Federal Republic and be governed by a unitary constitution. “We cannot claim to be in a democracy and be governed by a constitution that does not emanate by the people. Amendment will not cure the anomalies. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.”

He regretted that “every session of the two arms of the National Assembly, since 2007, has embarked on the same jamboree of constitution amendment, spending public funds on public hearings, without any result.”

However, public hearings on the amendment of the 1999 Constitution, however, continued across various centres in the federation on Thursday, with various stakeholders demanding for devolution of power and resources to the states, strengthening of federal character, creation of more states cum senatorial districts and inclusion of more women in elective offices.