The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has called on the National Assembly to as a matter of urgency save the country from sliding into anarchy by passing the referendum and constituent assembly bills.
Speaking at the weekend in his country home of Efon Alaye in Ekiti State, the Secretary-General of YCE, Dr Kunle Olajide, noted that the current moves by the lawmakers to amend the constitution is an exercise in futility, adding no amount of amendment will save the country and place it on the part of progress.
On what the National Assembly needs to do urgently, Olajide said: “The first is to include a referendum in our constitution, second is the enactment of constituent assembly commission that will be charged with conducting constituent assembly elections for representatives of the people which will within four months write a new constitution that will be given to people in a referendum.
“Nobody in this world can restructure himself from opulence and comfort. How can you expect the National Assembly to restructure themselves out of comfort and convenience where they earn over N30 million in a month.
“The constitution was prepared by 22 people. Those who were contesting in 1999, including the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, never saw the constitution before they were sworn in and they didn’t know the responsibilities of their office and powers under the constitution.”
He revealed that the National Assembly of fewer than 500 people has no right to foreclose a new constitution in a country of over 200 million people.
According to the YCE scribe, in an advanced democracy, those elected into office are servants of the people, adding that, they do the bidding of people and not their own because they have no bidding.
The Senate had recently said it could not give Nigeria a brand new constitution, as demanded by some socio-political and cultural organisations in the country, saying that the best it could do was to amend the existing one as it was currently doing.
The elder statesman who said though, the National Assembly do not have the power to write a new constitution, “because it is the people of the country that write their constitution, however, they have a role to play, because as flawed as it is, the 1999 constitution recognised them.”
Olajide said that the amendment to 1999 would never end because those going about with the amendment has ulterior motives.
“The United States of America constitution that was enacted in 1776, came into effect in 1789 and up till 1982, it only had 29 amendments because the people sat to write their constitution. They decided to cede power to the centre, but what do we have in Nigeria, the power is concentrated in the centre, whereas the people reside in the local governments and the states, what a paradox,” he said.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
No! TETFund Not Offering Nigerian Students N20,000 Grant
CLAIM: A website claims that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) is offering Nigerian students N20,000 grant. This is being sent to unsuspecting students as a bulk SMS with the name Tetfund2021.Pass referendum, constituent assembly bills now to save Nigeria, YCE tells NASS
and then