Afenifere, the apex Yoruba sociopolitical group, has described the ongoing process of amending the 1999 Constitution as an exercise that will end in futility.
Reacting to the decision of the group not to submit a memorandum to the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, the Secretary-General of Afenifere, Chief Sola Ebiseni, said amending the constitution would not achieve any result.
He said:
Afenifere advocates fundamental restructuring of Nigeria for the reinvention of a federal constitution as the agreed principles of governing Nigeria and its diverse ethnic nationalities by our founding fathers, which will ultimately replace the imposed 1999 unitary constitution.
Amending the constitution is an exercise in futility and a waste of time and public fund.
We cannot claim to be a federal republic and be governed by a unitary constitution. We cannot claim to be in a democracy and be governed by a constitution that does not emanate from the people.
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Amendment will not cure the anomalies. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.
Every session of the two arms of the National Assembly, since 2007, has embarked on the same jamboree of a constitutional amendment, spending public funds on public hearings, without any result.
The National Assembly is part of the issue to be determined in the process of restructuring and cannot legitimately be the judge in such exercise.
This is evident from the condemnation of the declarations of the Southern governors in support of restructuring by both the Senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives, while the committees, as agents of the National Assembly, were gallivanting around the country. From nothing, nothing comes. Ex nihilo nihil fit.
However, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the South-south geopolitical zone and others demanded devolution of powers, fiscal federalism and state police in the new constitution.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo demanded internal autonomy based on a restructured Nigeria in the proposed new constitution.
Ambassador George Obiozor, the organisation’s President General, spoke on the second day of the South-east zonal public hearing of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He stated that true federalism must be clearly defined reflecting decentralisation and devolution of power among the federating units.
It had become imperative for every part of the country to be given equal treatment in order to effectively address the issue of neglect and marginalisation of some sections of the country, he said.
According to him, when true federalism is entrenched, it will be difficult for federating units to continue their lamentations.
The South-south geopolitical zone also demanded decentralisation of power, resource control and creation of additional states in the region.