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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Movement for National Reformation (MNR) has said the return of Nigeria’s Republican Constitution of 1963 will cure the country’s defective federal system.
It said it was canvassing that position as part of its contribution to the ongoing national discourse on the restructuring of Nigeria, stressing that the 1963 constitution offers clarity to the seeming confusion by the members of the National Assembly.
A statement jointly signed by Prof. Igho Natufe, chairman of MNR Constitution Review Committee and Dr. Yemi Adekoke, Secretary, yesterday, said MNR had already submitted a memorandum calling for a return of the 1963 Constitution to both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Natufe recalled how at their recent retreat in Kano on September 28, 2024, “Nigerian Senators sang discordant tunes on the restructuring of Nigeria. It was reported that they differed over the agitation for a return to a regional system of government.”
While arguing that it was unclear what the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele meant when he assured Nigerians that the issue of regionalism was not part of the ongoing constitution review, MNR said he got it all wrong.
“For the Senate Leader to suggest that regionalism will encourage Biafran secessionism reveals a poor understanding of the value of regionalism in maintaining stability in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious polity like Nigeria.
“On the contrary, a denial of regionalism will encourage the emergence of centrifugal forces with severe consequences for the political system. If Nigerians are sincere in their desire for restructuring, it is vital that they embrace regionalism as a vibrant ideological principle in the articulation of federalism,” the group added.
He argued that the 1963 Constitution is the only existing federal constitution in Nigeria that emerged through a bottom-top process that fits the mantra of “We the People” in its preamble.
He stressed that the 1963 Republican constitution was only suspended, but was never abrogated, noting that civil governance in the first republic was truncated in January 1966.
“Since the collapse of the First Republic on January 15, 1966, constitution making in Nigeria has deviated from the universally accepted principle of the federating units negotiating and agreeing on the terms of federalism.
“An important issue that must be understood in constitution making is that the Constitution of Nigeria does not belong to the Federal Government or the National Assembly.
“The only people that are given this mandate to look at the Constitution and amend it are, of course, members of the National Assembly is a complete disregard of the rights of federating units, the states, in this process.
“In fact, the states, as the federating units, are the ones to decide on the powers to concede to the central government. A contrary process is anti-federalism. It is suicidal to postulate that true federalism was no longer fashionable, because many countries in Africa had discarded it, as a leading Senator argued at the Retreat in Kano.
“This retrogressive mindset explains the insistence of some legislators on the preservation of the 1999 unitary constitution. It is deceptive to pretend to enhance good governance and curb corruption and insecurity, while simultaneously denying indigenous ethnic nationalities, the real federating units, their rights in a supposedly federal polity,” he said.
