National
Without restructuring Nigeria will sink into oblivion, Participants at a political dialogue warn
***’We must do background check of people in our leadership recruitment’
Participants at a National Political Dialogue on the constitutional future of Nigeria held in Abuja on Thursday have unanimously called for restructuring of the country without which the country will soon fizzle out.
The National Consultative Front (NCFront) in collaboration with the Nigeria Political Summit Group, (NPSG) have put together an Emergency Political Reforms Dialogue on the Constitutional Future of Nigeria at the Yaradua Center in Abuja.
Speakers at the event starting from the chairman of the organising committee of the event Pat Utomi, the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State Obong Victor Atta, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Supo Ayokunle all warned about the danger in not allowing for the rebranding of the nation which they say will lead to a failed State.
The CAN president in his presentation said,
“We need rebranding, if you don’t rebrand or restructure you will fizzle out
“Companies rebrand, organizations rebrand to fit into the modern society.
He used the example of the Mobile phones, saying when the GSM debuted in Nigeria the most popular phone brand was Nokia,
“Nokia thought they will dominate forever to infinity but others came like Samsung and all these Android phones and later we saw iphones and people moved away just like that.
“Today, Nokia has been sold out to other companies because they failed to rebrand. If Nigeria fails to rebrand, Nigeria will fail to exist. “It is a matter of time because in this modern society, no set of people in Nigeria want to play second fiddle.
“But if we would not allow people to go away people will go away by force because you cannot force me to belong to where I don’t have anything at stake.
“This is why we are saying that all of us, we need one another let there be inclusion for every region in Nigeria. This is the way for us to move forward.”
He advocated for a home grown democracy like it is practiced in the United Kingdom which is a bit different from the one that is practiced in the US.
“The US is homogenous, the UK is not because it has the west, the Scottish and the English. All these have to be factored into their system, that is why they do referendum from time to time whether they still want to continue to stay together or not.
He observed that in Nigeria “we have refused, we don’t want to listen to referendum, if you don’t listen democratically people will use other means to go away because you can not continue to tie people down with poverty and underdevelopment for ever and ever, we need to reposition.”
Oyekunle also advocate for electoral reform if the country want to move forward,
“Thank God the national Assembly did a reform recently but that reform was not comprehensive enough, for example the way we appoint electoral officers have to change, the people managing our elections should not be appointees of the Government of the day. “There should be an independent political body that would be mandated to chose the electoral managers.
This he said will make it possible that they serve Nigerians not serving the person that has appointed them. “Electoral offenders must also be brought to book so that people would not just be taking us for granted and be manipulating the wish of the people and be announcing the people that did not win as the people that won the elections.
“Electoral offenders must be made to face the music as expected”
The CAN leader also advocated for social and economic life to be enforced in the constitution for enforcement of human development.
“We need to make huge investments in health, in education and social security of Nigerians. The health sector in Nigeria is in shambles and other infrastructures, our leaders are travelling abroad to access better medical facilities instead of making it available. “He faulted the Government for neglecting the Academic Staff Union of Universities who have been on strike for the past three months and have now extended it for three months.
“Who are we killing? We are killing well educated and informed leaders of tomorrow, we are creating a vacuum that will make the future more disastrous for the nation of something is not done.
“I also want to say that to unlock the potentials of social and economic right we should allow the court to be able to intervene.
“When those elected are not doing it we should have the right so that when those elected are not doing it we should be able to sue them and the court should be able to act in favour of the people and compel governors and president, to put certain amenities within a limited period of time so that Nigerians might be proud of the country to which they belong.
“Let me also say that the election of political officers should not just be by simple majority especially the position of the President so that the position of the President should rotate to the 6 geopolitical zone turn by turn and that cannot make other regions to think that they must lead because of the simple advantage of population. “No, Nigeria is a complexity, the democracy cannot be hook line and sinker with western democracy just like that.
“We need to continue together, we need to look at our context and let our context be according to the way we are doing things, because you can not continue to do things wrong and expect people to keep quiet.
He used CAN example of rebranding whereby its constitution has been ammended to allow for the five blocks of CAN will now take turn to produce President on rotational bases.
“Let me use the CAN, you will discover that anytime we wanted to do election there would be noise embarrassing the body of Christ .
“When I took over, I said no we are not going to do this again , we have 5 blocks in CAN all the churches are captured in the 5 blocks.
“I said what we are going to do is that we we are going to amend the constitution that we give recognition to each block to produce President by turn but the constitution will also highlight the basic things that incoming President from that block is going to have.
“There would be an electoral college that will screen that individual whether he has met the criteria or not and if he has not met it we throw it to that block to give us a better person and by the grace of God I will soon rotate out of that office but I am assuring you, you will not hear any noise again because of change of leadership, because I already know the person that is succeeding me because that block has already come as one body with one person who will represent them
“Why can’t Nigeria do that And stop the embarrassment, N100m just like chicken everybody gunning for one position and they knew ab-initio that only one person will get there. “Why the unreasonable gamble? Did God speak to all of them to come and lead us? I wonder, if we are going to move forward we need to address that area of our constitution.
“Those in our leadership before they get there through our electoral process we must do background check on them, background check is very important, some people are not only criminals they are lunatics, they are sick in the head the way they behave, the way they embezzle you will know that these people are not normal they are lunatics, they are really sick.”
The Nigerian Peace Corps Establishment Bill, earlier passed by the House of Representatives on 29th February, 2024 and transmitted to the Senate for concurrence which was read on the floor of Senate has passed through first reading.
In line with the extant rules of the National Assembly a motion for concurrence to be sponsored by the Senate Leader, Sen. Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) will come up shortly to enable the Senate adopt the Bill
The Peace Corps of Nigeria established over 25 years ago by the National Commandant, Dr Dickson Akoh, is incorporated in Nigeria under the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and accorded the Federal Government recognition through the Federal Ministry of Youth Development and granted license to operate in the Country as a Non-Governmental Organization by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
Aside the Peace Corps bill, the Senate also passed for first reading , Nigerian Hunters and Security Service Bill 2024, Legislative Houses ( Powers & Privileges ) Act ( Amendment ) Bill 2024 and National Talent Rehabilitation and Integration Agency ( Establishment ) Bill 2024.
Others are , Agricultural Research Council Act ( Amendment) Bill 2024 and Agricultural Harvest and Processing Zone ( Establishment ) bill 2024 .
Traditional Ruler of Daffo in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, Da Jonathan Sunday Akuns, and the promoter of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self Determination (NINAS), Mr. Tony Nnadi, Thursday disagreed over the modalities to be adopted in birthing a new Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Akuns and Nnadi were among speakers at a consultative meeting convened by the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) on new constitution held via ZOOM.
Akuns contended that the 1963 Republican Constitution was not abrogated, all the House of Representatives need to do was to amend it to preserve Nigeria’s democratic and structural foundation.
He said “ethnic cohorts held a constitutional conference in Lagos on 25-26 July 1963 and mandated elected Members of the House of Representatives to enact the Republican Constitution with effect from January 10,1963.
“The enthroned autochthonous 1963 CFRN was never abrogated by military juntas, but simply suspended. Therefore, we need to carefully stitch the democratic strands of Nigeria by reviewing the autochthonous 1963 CFRN.”
Akuns, who is also an Economist and retired bank director, regretted that the Nigerian governing eras of 1966 to 1999 missed or messed with the opportunity to have called for the needed amendment of the 1963 constitution in order to restore the democratic foundations of the federal structure.
“As a result, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) suffered prolonged period of an interregnum that stifled and stunted the maturity of the tenets of republican governance in Nigeria. India is a global classic of republicanism in the nationhood strides of countries that also emerged by colonial creation.”
The former CBN director maintained that the best route for the constitution review process in the present circumstances is to tinker with the 1963 republican constitution, stressing that that is the best bet to preserve the democratic demands of constitution making.
But, countering Akuns’ postulations, the Executive Secretary of NINAS, Nnadi, argued that nothing short of a brand new corruption produced by indigenous nationalities can set the country right.
Nnadi, a lawyer and constitutional rights activist, noted that since sovereignty belongs to the people, the lie contained in the preamble of the 1999 Nigeria Constitution can only be cured by incorporating the inputs of Nigeria’s indigenous nationalities into a new constitution.
Citing Section 14 sub 2 of the Constitution, the NINAS chieftain explained that what the current National Assembly wants to do is not different from the past attempts at tinkering with the country’s grundnorm.
While insisting that amending the constitution would not berth equity and stability without suspending certain provisions stipulated by successive military regimes to foist a unitary constitution, Nnadi said there was need for a transitional procedure.
Another speaker, Elder Ayokunle Fagbemi, remarked that as the House of Representatives get ready to review the Constitution, it is necessary to build scenarios, noting that while the best case scenario is to birth a new constitution, the worse case scenario is that the legislature would not succeed in amending or getting a new constitution.
Fagbemi praised NCEF for the meeting saying that it would help to guide the Forum on the way forward as it prepares to engage with ethnic nationalities.
Earlier, the chairman of NCEF, Dr. Samuel Gani, disclosed that the consultative meeting was convened for Christian Elders to “deliberate on a new constitution for Nigeria and understand the different perspectives in the proposals for a new constitution before the NCEF with the ethnic nationalities.”
“Presently, there are four different perspectives in getting a new constitution for Nigeria, including *Amendment of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly.
“Adoption of the 2014 National Conference Report and its draft Constitution, *Adoption of the 1963 Republican Constitution (for) amendment to reflect current realities and A New Constitution developed by the ethnic nationalities,” he stated. Some of the dignitaries that attended the meeting included General Zamani Lekwot, Elder Nath Okoro, Mrs. Shola among others.
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, has sent a message of congratulations to Nigeria’s Tunde Onakoya for the feay in setting a new world chess record and etching the country on the world map.
The Nigerian chess champion has broken the world record for the longest chess marathon after playing unbeaten for more than 58 hours in New York City’s Times Square to raise money for underprivileged children.
Akpabio’s congratulatory message ehich was signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh and made available on Sunday in Abuja described Onakoya’s achievement as typical of the audacity of Nigeria’s spirit of determination, hard work and resilience.
“My joy knows no bounds as I celebrate this young and adroit Nigerian, Tunde Onakoya, who is imbued with the Nigerian spirit of determination, hard work and resilience and has elevated our dear country in the comity of nations.
“On behalf of the Senate and the Nigerian National Assembly, my constituents in Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District and my family, I heartily congratulate and rejoice with Tunde Onakoya on this onerous achievement.
“I followed closely while the competition was on and I must commend the brand-new world champion, Tunde for remaining steadfast despite the challenges he had during the journey.
“I am happy that the dream behind this laudable project is to raise funds for indigent African children to also, explore the opportunities that abound in the game of chess. This is a good way of grooming other champions and taking many children off the streets.
“I wish to use this opportunity to advise Nigerians, especially the youth to borrow a leaf from our latest hero- never to give up when they embark on a legitimate enterprise, no matter the obstacles. With youth like Tunde, Nigeria has greater hope to attain her potential”.
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