By Chidiebere Onyemaizu 

The issue of the type of constitution or constitutional arrangement most suitable for a plural country like Nigeria is not only a reoccurring decimal in various political discourses but also an emotive issue that often elicits opinions and arguments along Nigeria’s fault lines. Since the Second Republic, it has tugged at the heart of the country and dominated national debate following several failed attempts at holistic constitutional re-arrangement of the country.

Penultimate week, the issue again returned to the front burner of national debate when an elder statesman and former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku led a delegation of statesmen under the aegis of the Patriots to visit President Bola Tinubu in Aso Rock to make a case for a brand new constitution.

Chief Anyaoku, not known to hug the headlines, speaks only on weighty national issues which explains why his group’s demand that the president urgently convenes a 109 member constituent Assembly with the view to drafting  a new “people democratic pluralistic constitution” for Nigeria which would be subjected to a referendum to prevent the country from disintegrating like the former USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Sudan, has been receiving divergent reactions.

Speaking to the State House Correspondents after the Patriots’ meeting with the President, Chief Anyaoku said:  “We put some proposals to Mr. President and we urged him to send an executive bill to the National Assembly, a bill that will call for two essential measures.

“One, the convening of a National Constituent Assembly, to be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. We suggested that such a National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on a non-party basis.

“Say, for example, three individuals per state, per each of the 36 states and one from the Federal Capital Territory and they should be mandated to produce a new draft constitution.

“Nigeria, we affirmed to Mr. President, is a pluralistic country. And you all know that pluralistic countries exist all over the world.

“Those of them who addressed their pluralism by having true federal constitutions have survived. An example is India and Canada.

“But pluralistic countries that failed to address their basic challenge of pluralism through a federal Constitution have ended up disintegrating. Examples of that are Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan, here in Africa.”

Though a broad spectrum of commentators on national issues, including a majority of members of the Tinubu administration, National Assembly members and egg heads of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, according to Daily Sun’s finding, are agreed that Nigeria, as presently constituted needs an urgent re-engineering of its socio-political and bureaucratic structure whether by the way of a wholesale implementation of the Steve Oronsaye report or the adoption and implementation of the 2014 National Conference report, the Patriots’ call for a new constitution as a veritable means of  achieving the re-engineering came at the wrong time, hence it has largely gained negative traction.

For example, sources close to Aso Rock told Daily Sun that while President Tinubu is not averse to either the considerable tinkering of the existing 1999 constitution to give the country a true, enduring federal structure or framing of a totally brand new constitution, he felt the visit and demand of the Patriots was ill-timed and this, Daily Sun was further told, dictated his response to the Anyaoku- led group. President Tinubu had told the Patriots that pulling Nigeria out of the current economic doldrums and not a new constitution was the priority of his government.

The President, Daily Sun was informed, was concerned that giving an affirmative answer to the Patriots at a time his government was smarting from violent anti- government protests in the North where protesters, allegedly sponsored by his political opponents, openly called variously for his resignation and overthrow, could further inflame tension in that part of the country and make him unpopular.

Said a source familiar with Aso Rock’s concern: “You must appreciate the fact that the President like any other elected office holder, desires re-election and this is three years from this year. You must equally appreciate the fact that what put him into office was a bulk of Northern votes and he would want to reap similar votes in 2027 when he will be seeking re-election, reason he was careful not to injure the ego of the North.

“Note that the North is always sensitive to, and reacts negatively to any government policy or move capable of significantly altering the existing political structure of Nigeria which it considers advantageous to it.

“Read the reactions of many Northern politicians and intelligentsia to the Patriots’ demand for a new constitution and you will understand what I’m saying, so, Mr President was pragmatic in his reply to the Patriots; he was careful else he incurred unnecessary distractions from these people, especially given the violent demonstrations against him in many Northern states where protesters openly called on him to resign or for the military to overthrow him “. 

Expectedly, prominent Northern leaders and opinion moulders have kicked against the Patriots’ proposal. For example, Presidential Liaison Officer to the National Assembly in the Second Republic ,Tanko Yakasai has faulted the Patriots’ call for a new constitution, insisting that due process was not followed in articulating the views it presented to President Tinubu,  urging him to thread cautiously on the issue.

Similarly, Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional lawyer and former Adviser on Legal matters to the late maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha, picked holes in the Patriots’ stance, warning that reworking the constitution or restructuring the country without following a constitutional framework could lead to choas. He argued that the Patriots lack the authority to dictate to, or impose its views on the rest of the country.

A serving member of the House of Representatives from the Northwest who preferred anonymity simply told Daily Sun that “ as always, the North will surely put partisan interests aside and speak with one voice whenever that issue( new constitution) is tabled. We won’t accept any constitutional arrangements that affect the North negatively”.

Daily Sun gathered that many Northern political leaders, academics and monarchs are particularly rankled and offended by the word “referendum” as used by the Patriots. “They are already reading secessionist agenda into the Patriots’ demand”, a source revealed.

However, another House of Reps member from the North central shares a different view. The member who is a member of the APC described the Patriots move as “ bold move and commendable”. According to him, “the Middle Belt supports and will always any constitutional arrangement that will free us from our oppressors and we therefore thank the Patriots for this bold and commendable move.”

Chief Goddy Uwazurike, a lawyer and delegate to the 2014 Constitutional Conference convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan, agreed that constitutional reform is imperative for the survival of Nigeria but argued that the report of the Confab report has already taken care of such imperativeness. Chief Uwazurike told Daily Sun that convening a constituent Assembly for the purpose of framing a new constitution was a waste of time and resource, arguing that “if the Confab report had been implemented, it would have significantly reconfigured Nigeria.

“Tinubu is here now and what I think the government can do instead of convening a fresh constituent Assembly, is to set up a small Committe and even send the Confab report to the Patriots and say, please review it, and then afterwards send it to the National Assembly.

“We need restructuring,  we need to reduce the size and cost of government, we need to reorganize this country in such a way that we focus more on production and not consumption. We need restructuring and urgently too. We need to reduce the size of the National Assembly; there is no need for the humongous size we have now, we need to make the National Assembly part time”, he said.

Chief Uwazurike who was the President of an Igbo socio- cultural group, Aka Ikenga, said President Tinubu now has the chance to implement restructuring which he relentlessly advocated for as a political activist and opposition leader.

“Tinubu who was the biggest champion of restructuring is the President today, he now has the chance to achieve restructuring through the National Assembly”, he said.

Many political analysts opine that the National Confab report, had it been implemented would have practically birthed the pluralistic democratic constitution the Patriots are demanding. “Lack of political will on the part of our leaders to go the whole hog to effect far- reaching constitutional restructuring of Nigeria even when template, reports and guidelines on how to go about it are already in the archives gathering dust, is the reason Nigeria has remained static”, says Ayomide Akinfenwa, a former National Assembly aspirant.

“The 2014 Confab report would have solved much of the political problems as a nation and bridged virtually all our fault lines had it been implemented by the government that took over from president Goodluck Jonathan.

“Though the Patriots mean well for Nigeria, in my view, what Nigeria needs now is not a brand new constitution but a collation of, and marrying of all past reports that sought to restructure the country.

“I therefore appeal to the revered former Commonwealth Secretary-General and his group to redirect their efforts to championing, not just the implementation of the Confab report but a comprehensive review of similar reports in the past, including the 1994 Constituent Assembly report which birthed the stillborn 1995 constitution which was to come into effect on October 1st, 1998, items tabled for deliberations at the 2005 National Political Reform Conference, NPRC convoked by former President Olusegun Obasanjo(the NPRC disintegrated before it could achieve its objectives following the walk out of South south delegates over resource control and 50 percent derivation controversy) and the 2011 Steve Oronsaye report, with the aim of marrying them to produce a workable constitution that seeks to promote true federalism in line with the plural nature of Nigeria.”

Notedly, the main recommendations of the 2014 National Conference include:

Scrapping the current 774 local government areas- this was intended to save money and reduce corruption as states would now set up their own local systems, creation of 18 new states which will be equally spread around the country. It was also agreed that states wishing to merge can do so if certain conditions are met by them.

The Conference also proposed the reduction of the share of national income going to the Federal Government and increasing share for the states, modification of the presidential system of government that combines the presidential and parliamentary systems of government which allows the president to pick the vice-president from the legislature.

It was equally agreed that power should be shared and rotated at all levels of government: The Presidency was to rotate between the North and South and among the six geo-political zones of the country. Likewise, the governorship post should rotate among the three senatorial zones in each state.

In a similar fashion, the framers of the unimplemented 1995 constitution, taking cognisance of the peculiarity of Nigeria’s ethno- religious configuration, resolved in one fell swoop, the political ills that had bedevilled Nigeria since independence.

Sadly, however, General Abdulsalam Abubakar who assumed the reins of government after the sudden demise of Abacha jettisoned the constitution in favour of a modification of the 1979 constitution.

Some of the elegant provisions of the 1995 constitution as itemized by the late former Vice President Alex Ekwueme who was a member of the 1994 constituent Assembly that drafted it include:

Recognition of six geopolitical zones:

S.229 (4): For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria shall be as set out in part III of the First Schedule To this Constitution.

Zone/states

• North-Central: Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

• North-Eastern: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.

• North-Western: Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara.

• South-Eastern: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.

• South-South: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers.

• South-Western: Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo.

Diffusion of federal executive responsibility:

In addition to the offices of President and Vice President and Ministers, the Constitution provides also for the offices of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister:

S. 149(2): “Subject to such reservations or conditions as may be made by him, the President shall assign to the Prime Minister responsibility for the general administration of the Government of the Federation”

S.149(4): “The President shall hold regular meetings with the Vice President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and all the Ministers of the Government of the Federation for the purposes of-

a) Determining the general direction of domestic and foreign policies of the Government of the Federation (b) Co-ordinating the activities of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Government of the federation in the discharge of their executive responsibilities, “

Single 5 – year term of office for governor coupled with rotation of office of governor etc.

S. 149(4): “Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, a governor shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of 5 years commencing from the date when (a) He took the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office, “

S.184(1): “A person shall not be qualified for election to the Office of Governor of, (b) He has been elected to such office at an immediately preceding election, “

S.229(2): “The Office of Governor, Deputy Governor and Speaker of the House of Assembly shall rotate among the three Senatorial districts in the state.

Single 5-year term of office for president coupled with rotation of office of President etc:

S. 138(2): “Subject to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, the president shall vacate his office at the expiration of a period of 5 years commencing from the date when (a) He took the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office, “

S. 140(1): A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if , (b) He has been elected to such office at an immediately preceding election, “

S. 229(1): “The following six principal offices shall rotate among the six geo-political zones created under subsection (4) of this section, namely –

The office of the Vice President; The office of the Deputy Prime Minister;

The office of the President of the Senate; and the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

S. 2290(1): “The principle of rotation enshrined in this section shall be strictly adhered to by the political parties during the transition period of 30 years commencing from the date this Constitution comes into force.”

During this transition period of 30 years, at the state level, each senatorial district would have filled the office of Governor two times, the office of Deputy Governor two times, and the office of the Speaker of the House of Assembly two times, each term of office being of 5 years duration. At the national level, each of the six geopolitical zones would have filled the offices of President, Vice President, Prime Minister, deputy Prime Minister, President of the Senate and Speaker at the House of Representatives for a term of 5 years each. Thereafter, the cry of “marginalisation” would have been a thing of the past. The 30-year period would have been used to positively and constructively promote state level and national integration at all levels, following which all positions could then be filled on the basis of merit and competence in the true democratic spirit.

Discharge of functions of President:

S. 147(1): “Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) of this section, if any vacancy occurs by reason of the death or resignation or the removal of the President from office (impeachment) in accordance with section 144, 145 or 340 of this Constitution, the Vice President shall hold the office of President for the period of not more than 3 months during which there shall be an election of a new President from the same zone, who shall hold office for the unexpired term of office of the last holder of the office.”

Farewell to Winner takes all:

S. 148(7) “The majority of the number of ministers appointed pursuant to subsection (3) of the section shall come from the political party or parties on whose platform the President is elected.”

S. 148(cool: “Any political party which wins not less than 10 per cent of the total number of seats in the National Assembly or of the total number of votes cast at the election, shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (7) of this section be entitled to representation in the Federal Executive Council in proportion to the number of seats won by the party in the National Assembly.”

This is a prescription for an all-party government with ministers drawn from all serious political parties (with 10 per cent of the votes cast at the National Assembly election). This is to promote consensus building rather than antagonism among the political parties; and holders of ministerial posts from parties other than the President’s party will appreciate that they hold such positions as of right by virtue of the constitution and not as a gift by the President or his party.

Elimination of incumbency and its abuse to the electoral process:

S. 140(1): “A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if

(b) He has been elected to such office at an immediately preceding election, “

An incumbent President and incumbent Governors are therefore disintegrated from standing election for the same office during their incumbency. This eliminates the incumbency factor and the abuses arising there from in connection with the electoral process.

In the case of Oronsaye report, had it been implemented, it would drastically reduce the cost of governance by restructuring federal bureaucracy and agencies to a manageable proportion.

Recall that in 2011, former President Jonathan set up the presidential committee on the reformation of government agencies, chaired by Steven Oronsaye, a former Head of Service of the Federation.

In its 800-page report, the committee proposed reducing statutory agencies from 263 to 161, with recommendations to scrap 38 agencies, merge 52, and revert 14 to departments within different ministries.

The report further highlighted the existence of 541 Federal Government parastatals, commissions, and agencies, both statutory and non-statutory.