Ikpeazu Calls for New Constitution as Bello Faults Timing

By Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has called for a repeal of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), blaming the precarious situation of the country on a weakened constitution.

He stated that a new constitution would enable power to devolve evenly to all the tiers of government, even as the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, said the timing was inappropriate and practically impossible. They spoke at the 5th edition of the Osasu Show Symposium in Abuja, hosted by Osasu Igbinedion, with the theme ‘State of the Nation: the People’s Constitution.”

While Ikpeazu argued that a new constitution championed by the people would entrench good governance, as power would be devolved to states and local governments, Bello contended that it would be impossible for the country to repeal the constitution at this time.’

Ikpeazu said: “The 1999 Constitution is both deficient and vulnerable. The vulnerability of the constitution is measured by its inability to promote evolution and strengthening of institutions and capable of buffering it from the tendencies of a powerful ruler or against a powerful leader.

“The most potent thing to nation-building are ethno-sensitivism and religious sensitivism. For a true sensitive country like Nigeria, a people’s constitution for us should be a constitution that is capable of protecting the feeling and aspirations of people from Borno through Adamawa to Rivers through Enugu to Ibadan. Nigerians must be given the opportunity to keep themselves with a constitution that is original and home-grown.

“As we grapple with our current challenges as a nation, we need a constitution that is from the people; a constitution that will restructure our country, devolve all powers to the states, establish state police and more responsive in the rights and protection of all citizens as well and provide an enabling playing field where all Nigerians are treated equally.

“Permit me to describe our nation in terms of lack of social cohesion among the people of Nigeria. Lack of trust for political leaders, government policies and programmes. Under this circumstance, the falcon can no longer hear the falconer as the centre has fallen apart.”

Governor Bello, who was represented by the Director General of Research and Development, Moses Okezie Okafor, said: “I understand the argument and I wish I could buy into their optimism.

“Sadly, given our socio-political reality as a nation, I think the calls to dump the 1999 Constitution and make a new one from the scratch are not very realistic at this time.

“Constitutional democracy is not a naturally occurring system of governance; it is always preceded by some authoritarian movement by the society,” he said.

Also speaking on the occasion, a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke linked

secessionist agitations to the marginalisation of some ethnic groups.

Adoke noted that until the present administration evenly embraces different geopolitical zones, the country would continue to witness protests.

He said: “The logical fallout from the pervading feeling of marginalisation in the polity are separatist agitations, which have given rise to movements of various types calling for the separation of their enclaves from the Nigerian state as presently constituted.

“These groups express the feeling that they are not being fairly treated in the federation and strongly assert that time has come for them to take their collective destiny in their hands by creating their own republics.”