A group of Nigerian statesmen, The Patriots, on Friday met with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where they asked the President to immediately constitute a constituent assembly with a view to producing a people-oriented draft constitution.
Led by the former Secretary of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the group, therefore, urged the President to initiate an executive bill to be sent to the National Assembly for the approval of the constituent assembly to be constituted.
The group also said the outcome of the constituent assembly, which should consist of three persons each from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, should be subjected to ratification by a referendum.
On the ongoing nationwide hunger protests, the group urged the federal and state governments to engage the leaders of the protesters in a dialogue to resolve the issues raised.
Speaking to newsmen after the meeting with President Tinubu, Chief Anyaoku explained that Nigeria needs a pluralistic constitution to tackle its development problems.
The former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth observed that countries that have failed to manage their pluralism through a federal constitution have disintegrated, citing the examples of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan.
According to him, those with pluralistic constitutions such as India and Canada have remained strong.
He said the constituent assembly should be mandated to produce the draft constitution to be subjected to a referendum.
According to him, the draft constitution should also be subjected to a national referendum that should give the people a new constitution, expected to tackle many of the myriad challenges in the country.
The group, which said the new constitution, which can be put together in nine months, will give it the legitimacy it requires.
It also advised that law enforcement agencies desist from the use of lethal weapons in the management of protests to avoid deaths.
Anyaoku’s words: “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 call it, leaders of thought, 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, as 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. Examples are 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.”
The former Commonwealth Secretary-General said 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.
His words: “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. We suggested that such National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on a non-party basis.
“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. 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.
“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.”
On the #EndBadGovernance protest, Anyaoku said the group urged President Tinubu and other tiers of government to dialogue with the leaders of the aggrieved citizens.
“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.
“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,” Anyaoku told State House Correspondents.
Among members of the group were Chief Kanu Agabi, Segun Osoba, Mike Ozekhome, Labaran Maku, Ben Obi, Shehu Sani, Pauline Tallen, Olawale Okunniyi (General Secretary), Annekio Briggs, among others.
