…wants government’s dialogue with #EndBadGovernance protesters
From Leon Usigbe, Abuja
The Patriots, a group of Nigerian statesmen led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku on Friday told President Bola Tinubu to convene a constituent assembly to draft “a people’s democratic pluralistic constitution” for the country.
The group met with the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where they urged him to forward an executive bill to the national assembly to legislate on a national referendum that will approve the draft constitution.
Speaking to correspondents after the meeting with the president, 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 referendum will give the new constitution the legitimacy it requires.
On the #EndBadGovernance protest, the group urged President Tinubu to dialogue with the leaders.
It also advised that law enforcement agencies should avoid using lethal weapons in the management of the protest to avoid deaths.
He stated: “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 non-partisan group of eminent Nigerians, some call 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, 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 people of Nigeria a chance to determine the new constitution.
“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 dialogue 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.”
On the need to replace the current constitution, Chief Anyaoku explained: “As to the difference between the expected new constitution and what we have now, what we have now does not make for effective internal security measures. It does not make for rapid economic development, it does not make satisfactory social development. I believe that the new constitution would make it easier for these challenges to be tackled.”
Among the members of that came for the visit are Kanu Agabi, Segun Osoba, Mike Ozekomhen, Labaran Maku, Ben Obi, Shehu Sani, Pauline Tallen, Olawale Okunniyi (General Secretary).
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