Nigeria needs restructuring not constitutional review — Deacon Obatungase

By Uthman Salami

The Deputy National President of the Campaign for Democracy who also serves as the Director of Nigerian Unite Against Error, Deacon Obatungase Isreal Adebayo, has warned that what the country needs at the moment is restructuring saying that “there is no amount of constitutional review that will reposition Nigeria back to itself.”

According to him, though a lot of things are wrong with the 1999 constitution, its review is rather a waste of time, resources and will not solve the challenges currently bedevilling Nigeria existence

He said, rather than the resounding calls for disintegration “Nigerians can sit down to look at areas where things have gone wrong. Dialogue about our existence especially the review of 1914 amalgamation.”

He believes that Nigerians “can always review what brought us together to decide whether we want to be together or we want to continue to live in the same country.”

He explicitly expressed dismay and disappointment over all the previous reviews of the “constitution on many occasions” which have yielded no results.

He explained that even though there were no issues with the 1999 constitution that we would still have ended up in the same spots for what he described as “bad operators and managers of Nigerian constitution who he said were responsible for the challenges bedevilling the country.

He said, “it is very possible that we have perfect constitution but when we have bad operators or managers that will manage this constitution, you will discover that we will end up at the same point. If we had bad constitution but good managers, I can assure you that we are going to have a better country.”

He added that “all over the world, there is no constitution that is perfect. But in a constitution where they have bad managers, it will end up badly. But if there are good managers to manage the bad policies, you will discover that, to certain extent, the desire of the people will be met.”

He said the major default in the 1999 constitution was that it was handed down by military men with no consultation to all the nationalities that made up the country.

In his words, “Nigerians had no legitimacy that is written on or a contract between the operators of our democracy and all units that make the country. It is a policy document that came into being through the enactment of military Decree 24 of military government. It has no popular mandate of the masses.”

He said the failure to engage in proper consultation for the formulation of 1999 constitution with the peoples who have made up the countries has led to “suspicions which degenerated into fear of political domination of a section of a country over others.”

He suggested that the  Chapter 4 of the constitution “should be enlarged to provide for rights of the standard of living, rights for sexual and reproductive age for women, rights for women and girls to succeed and inherite their husbands and parents after their deaths, right to work and free choice of employments.”

He said the constitution of 1999 violated the true tenets of federalism in reference to revenue allocation and fiscal autonomy.

He said, “the prevailing revenue allocation formula given consideration to environment degredation, loss of economic activities and income, derivation principle should be given a greater weight than its present form.”

He advocated for more powers to be “accrued to state and local government since they are closer to the people. The exclusive legislative list of the 1999 constitution should be reviewed and amended.

He disclosed that more power should be devoluted in a way that will give more authorities and control to both state and local government so that it will make development to be more viable and visible at the local government level.”

He concluded that there is need for Nigerians to come together “with recognition to all the nationalities that make up Nigerian and decide our future together rather than the wasted efforts and the financial wastage that is going with the constitutinal review.

“The managers and operators of our democracy should as a matter of urgency and national importance convocate sovereign national conference that will provide opportunities for all nationalities to come together to discuss about the present and future of our nation.”