From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Patriots, led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, urged President Bola Tinubu on Friday to convene a constituent assembly to draft a “people’s democratic pluralistic constitution” for Nigeria.
The group met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, urging him to submit an executive bill to the National Assembly for a national referendum to approve the draft constitution.
Briefing State House Correspondents after the meeting with the president, Anyaoku, emphasised the need for a pluralistic constitution to address Nigeria’s development challenges.
He noted that countries like Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan disintegrated due to poor management of their diversity.
Anyaoku called for a national constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, arguing that the existing 1999 Constitution lacks legitimacy and fails to unify the nation amid rising divisiveness and insecurity. He urged the government to consider past constitutional frameworks and recommendations from the 2014 national conference in this process.
He emphasized that countries with pluralistic constitutions like India and Canada have thrived. He proposed that a constituent assembly draft a new constitution to be approved by a national referendum, ensuring its legitimacy.
He said: “Well, ladies and gentlemen of the media. My colleagues and I are very pleased to be here. We’ve had a very constructive meeting with the President.
“We the Patriots, and I believe you know what the Patriots are. The Patriots are a nonpartisan group of eminent Nigerians, some calls, leaders of thought, who are committed to the unity of our country and good governance of our country on under a legitimate people’s democratic constitution.
So we came to convey this view that Nigeria needs a people’s democratic constitution.
“Nigeria, we are 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 Constitution have ended up disintegrating. Examples of that 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 the federal constitution.
“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 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.
“And 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.”
Additionally, the group urged President Tinubu to engage in dialogue with #EndBadGovernance protest leaders and advised law enforcement to refrain from using lethal force to manage protests, aiming to prevent violence and loss of life.
Anyaoku said: “We also talked about the current crisis of protests throughout the country.
And we advised the President that in our view, the government at the federal and state levels should dialogue with the leaders of the protests. The government should take the initiative in dialoguing with the leaders of the protests.
“And secondly, we advised that the law enforcement agencies, namely the police and the army, should avoid using lethal weapons in the management of the protests, so that we do not have casualties, people killed because the law and order enforcement agencies are managing the protests.
“So these were the points that we put to Mr. President.”
When asked if the country was in a position of constitute a constituent assembly considering its present finances, Anyaoku emphasised that the cost of a new Constituent Assembly is justified given Nigeria’s pressing challenges, including national unity, insecurity, and poverty.
He argued that these issues stem from the inadequacies of the current 1999 Constitution, which lacks legitimacy.
He proposed that the assembly be tasked with drafting a new constitution to address these challenges effectively.
He said: “Well, let me answer the first question about the cost of Constituent Assembly. Because we’ve had other 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.
“I do not believe that the cost of setting up a constituent assembly with the mandate to produce a Constitution. Because all these challenges that we are currently facing, are symptoms of the inappropriateness of the Constitution that we have at present. The inappropriateness of the governance system we have at present.
“And I’m sure that when a National Constituent Assembly, looks at all these and looks at all the recommendations of past efforts to call national conference and produce a draft constitution that would make it easier for these…”
On where the President responded, he said:
“We presented our views to Mr President and he will consider our views with his government.”
On the time frame the Patriots was looking at for a draft constitution, he said: “Well, in my personal view, the new constitution can be realised within six to nine months if the bill is passed like the National Assembly passes the bill and the constituent assembly convened and they deliberate, we can accomplish that within nine months.”
Asked the difference between the expected new constitution and what we have now, he said: “What we have now does not make for effective internal security measures. It does not make for rapid economic development, it does not make for satisfactory social development say in education, health and so on. And I believe that the new constitution would make it easier for these challenges to be tackled.”
On why the issue of referendum was of particular interest to the group and what it will achieve, Anyaoku said: “If you look around the world, in the countries that have written constitution they have generally gone through the process of a national referendum, because it is a national referendum the view of the citizens of the country that confer legitimacy to a written constitution. And there are examples of countries with constitutions that found it necessary to change and have a new constitution that went through the process of a referendum. That is why the referendum is necessary.”