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From Fred Itua, Abuja
CAll by Southern and Middlebelt leaders for a new constitution to replace the existing one, yesterday, hit a cul de sac. At the public hearing on the review of the constitution in Abuja, the Senate said it was impossible though desirable. It said the extant law does not support such a move.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Constitution review, and Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, who made this known, noted that section 9 of the Constitution, as amended, had already foreclosed a new constitution.
He said: “Now, some of our compatriots have urged that rather than amending the Constitution, we should make a new Constitution all together. We respect this opinion, and we believe it is a most desirable proposition. However, we are conducting this exercise in accordance with the extant legal order, which is the 1999 Constitution.
“Specifically, Section 9 of the Constitution empowers the National Assembly to alter the provisions of the Constitution and prescribes the manner in which it is to be done. Unfortunately, it does not make similar provision or provide mechanism for replacing or re-writing an entirely new Constitution.”
According to him, “To embark on any process without prior alteration of Section 9 of the Constitution to provide the mode through which an entirely new Constitution could be made, would amount to gross violation of our oath of allegiance to the Constitution. In other words, it will take a new Constitutional amendment to be able to give Nigerians a most desired new Constitution. It would be unconstitutional to do otherwise.”
Senior lawyers like Aare Afe Babalola, had sought a totally new constitution for Nigeria. The founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Babalola, said the current 1999 constitution can not sufficiently address the socio-economic challenges currently pummeling the nation.
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> Babalola, who described the 1999 constitution as part of the problems of the country, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the drafting of a new constitution that will capture the agitations of many Nigerians.
neighbouring Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger states. Security forces, who are also battling a more than decade-long jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country, are being stretched thin.
As violence spirals in the northwest, sexual violence has intensified, MSF said, as gunmen assault some of their kidnapped victims. Fear of travelling along dangerous roads means that rape survivors often seek support late, or not at all, the aid group added. “What is happening here is a humanitarian emergency that needs urgent attention and a fast and proper response,”said Froukje Pelsma, MSF head of mission in Nigeria.
