Nigeria at a cross road: A message to all citizens

By Chief Chief Emeka Anyaoku GCON CFR

The Patriots as you know is a group of respected elder citizens who are committed to achieving the unity and good governance of Nigeria under a suitable peoples’ democratic constitution.

As a background to this summit, it is important to state the following indisputable facts that are recognized by all citizens except of course those who want to continue to live in denial.
Nigeria is a pluralistic country. Like all successful pluralistic countries around the world, for its political stability and maximal development its constitution must address its pluralism by being formulated by elected representatives of its diverse peoples.

Our present 1999 constitution as amended is not such. It was not democratically formulated, it was instead imposed on the country through a decree by the military administration. And the governance system derived from it is not only non-inclusive but also induces over-expenditure of the country’s resources on administration rather than on capital development. Hence the need for a new Nigerian peoples’ democratic constitution.

There are also the following equally incontrovertible facts about the current situation in our country:
i there is serious insecurity of life and property with kidnappings and killings happening virtually every day in most parts of the country especially in the middle belt, the north-east and the north-west regions where not only huge numbers of life and property are regularly lost, but also farmers are no longer able to go to their farms thereby impacting adversely on the country’s food supply.
ii Nigeria has become the poverty capital of the world with the levels of poverty and sufferings among the citizens rising instead of diminishing.
iii the development of the country’s infrastructure is generally lagging behind including especially the health and education facilities which in many cases are no longer fit for purpose.
iv there is eroding sense of national unity within our pluralistic country that is still struggling to become a nation.
v there is a palpable mood of hopelessness and lack of confidence in the future among the growing population of our young people.
vi and overall, the present 36 federating units are obviously incapable of generating and sustaining the pace of national development achieved in the early years of the country’s independence.

In organizing this national summit, the Patriots are of the view that the incontrovertible facts I have enumerated can be more effectively reversed if our pluralistic country is given a more credible and a truly federal constitution democratically made by the Nigerian people; a constitution that would be in sync with the constitutions of successful pluralistic countries in all parts of the world.

To those who say that the fate of a country depends primarily on its leadership, I say that the constitution from which the system of governance is derived largely determines the character of the people who get elected or appointed to govern the country from the three arms of government.

It is therefore my hope that the deliberations of this summit which has in attendance so many leaders of thought and representatives of the country’s major socio-cultural groups as well as representatives of the important women and youth sections of our society, will produce recommendations on the key elements of the desired new constitution and the process of its actualization.

The key elements that I hope will be discussed should include such questions as Presidential or Parliamentary system; tenure and rotation of the heads of government at the national and sub-national levels; unicameral or bicameral legislature; number of federating units; powers of the national and sub-national governments; structure of the security agencies; political parties and their organization; management of the country’s resources, and the other important features of the constitution.
And in considering the process of actualizing the new constitution, I hope that there would be due emphasis on ensuring that it is formulated by representatives specifically elected for that purpose by the Nigerian people who in order to give it legitimacy would have to endorse it in a national referendum.

Finally, I want here to thank the organizers of the town hall meetings that preceded this summit in the six geopolitical zones which have provided ideas to be fed into our deliberations.
In ending my remarks, I would like to stress the importance of speakers adhering to their allotted times so that we can have as many speakers as possible within the two days of our meeting.