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Our ways and means of doing things are queer. It’s strangely distinctive. You would wonder why. Other people won’t dare us. Or they will be lost forever. No clime will risk contesting our uncommon audacity. They can’t even come near it. Ours is wild and weird.
Take it or abandon it. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo did offer a helping hand. It was his finest. And on a gold platter! He was lavish and generous to a pitiable fault. He provided us with his best template for restructuring.
He “solidly” laid its foundation on the rock. So he devilishly thought. All other grounds are sinking sands. Stranger than fiction. But he did it largely for the wrong reason. His selfish, greedy agenda. That’s why we did not buy into it then.
However, remove his evil abstract. Take another look at it. You have a nearly perfect instrument on your laps. And it’s for restructuring. We may not need any other.
Obasanjo missed and mixed it altogether. His 2006 Constitution Amendments Bill would have been it. It had the potential. Even if faintly, of being a veritable springboard.
Effortlessly. It could have launched us into restructuring at full blast. Perhaps, the needed impetus to drive the agenda. But the National Assembly (NASS) thought differently. It violently flung it out with deep, unfettered annoyance.
We ought to have worked on the framework Obasanjo threw at us. That was not so. We were made to see the 119-item bill solely as his Third Term Agenda (TTA). NASS was in the forefront of this scheme.
They flaunted the TTA as the flagship. And dwarfed the other 118 items on the bill. It was a mischief. What deliberate intention. They shut their minds and blinded their eyes.
They chose to interrogate only Obasanjo’s TTA and sold the dummy to us. We bought into it cheaply. We swallowed it hook, line and sinker. For once, we believed our legislators were on the right path. We rushed to align.
The fault might not be entirely theirs. Obasanjo’s bill was defectively packaged. He shouldn’t have put all his eggs in one loose basket. For his hideous reason, he built 119 items into one single bill. You would be right to be sceptical, wary.
That was too heavy-laden. It made it very suspicious. The reason the onslaught on the bill was huge, monumental. It came from every segment; civil society organisations, opposition parties. Some members of the ruling party were also willing recruits.
Even at that, the National Assembly shouldn’t have reacted so violently. It should have been more cautious, meticulous. Why throw away the baby with the bathwater? What the assembly needed do was robust deliberation. Simple logic: Dump Obasanjo’s ulterior third term agenda. And make use of the useful ones.
One report collated what were supposedly embedded in Obasanjo’s bill: “Enhanced good governance, transparency, accountability and, ipso facto, democracy, national integration and development were thrown out along with the review process.
“In the end, the 119 amendments that were sought to deal with festering issues such as fiscal federalism, the derivation principle, the secular nature of the country, equality of states and local governments, state-federal government relations, citizenship, police, judicial independence, human rights, women’s rights and land use all had to be discarded because of the tenure.” All these are our misses.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu came in 2007. His committee initiated a positive digression. It was novel. He was Deputy Senate President and Chairman, Committee on Constitution Review. They saw the weaknesses in OBJ’s bill and avoided them like a pandemic. The committee wanted to make an appreciable difference. Insisting that the review was doable.
They treated each item strictly on its merit. No lop-sidedness or ambiguity. It was an-item-a-bill. The amendments were simplified and made easy. That committee did make some arguable breakthroughs.
Unfortunately, the gains turned out to be our losses. The package landed on former President Goodluck Jonathan’s expansive table. And he messed it up big time. His timidity took the best part of him. He was frightened, scared to the marrow. He couldn’t give his assent before leaving in 2015. That was how we forfeited it.
The greatest casualty: Fourth Constitution (Alteration) Act 2014 in the Seventh National Assembly. The very elaborate amendments included but not limited to: devolution of power. It was well scripted and crafted.
It moves “railway, aviation, power, stamp duty, etc., from Exclusive List to Concurrent List and the separation of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation/State from the Office of Minister/Commissioner for Justice.
“Office of the Attorney-General (OAGF), was granted financial autonomy and security of tenure to insulate it from political control. To appoint AGF, the National Judicial Council (NJC) would advertise, then interview applicants, and recommend three candidates to the President, who would nominate one to the National Assembly for confirmation. Such an AGF could only be removed by a Presidential request supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate.”
Pity, Jonathan denied us all these. We are afraid. The worst is yet to come. It has been one festival of constitution review or another. We have turned it into a viable jamboree. An unprofitable expedition, bearing no fruit, no benefit. Our lawmakers have diversified it into a junket. Sad!
They are cruising all over; home and abroad. Making pleasurable voyages. Invariably groping in the dark endlessly. No clear direction, lacking deep understanding of their mission. They goof, fumble, stumble, crumble all the way.
Constitutional review has a disturbing, stinking history to its credit. Specifically in this dispensation. It spans through two and a half chequered decades. We have been toying and toiling with it at the same time. And for such a long period, unending. Isn’t it nauseating, appalling? Of course, it is!
So far, so disheartening. All amendment adventures ended in colossal wastes. Both in depth and breadth. It was designed and destined to be. It couldn’t have been otherwise. We frittered away quality opportunities. We squandered resources and fortunes on round-tripping constitutional reviews. All the while, it has been essentially motions with no single movement.
The quantum of wastage was alarming. It far overweighs the slim, minute gains they claim. Much less than a drop in the ocean. Each National Assembly feasted lavishly on it with relish. Each strived to outdo and surpass its predecessor in reckless spending.
They flung the door of our treasury open. And emptied our commonwealth on review that was structured to rupture. Every year, they launched ferocious attacks on our collective purse. And literally milked us dry. All in the name of constitution review.
They hid behind one finger. Boasting all over that they were doing our bidding. Preying on constitutional amendments. And turning it into a lucrative cash cow of all times. This is utterly sordid and despicable. And we’re not getting anywhere better.
Perhaps. The Obasanjo attempt would have prevented all these recklessness and imprudence. May be, it would have been one slim, thin way forward. But he allowed his avarice to overwhelm him. His insatiable desire for raw power. And it ended in a harrowing experience for him. It hurts and haunts for life.
For sure! No system is wholly bad or good. The operators of our system are the chief culprits. They are our albatross. The excruciating pain on our fragile necks.
They have destroyed the institutions that ought to hold our presidential system. None is strong enough to sustain and see us through. Their varied, hideous ambitions collapsed the system on our heads. We are the ones carrying their cans of worms.
Every precinct of our lives is affected. We are speedily losing ground. Yielding to tyrants and godfathers. That dastard tribe is growing in our midst astronomically. Their territory expands every second. They are bent in consuming us outright.
Empathise with us! We are internally grieved. We are caving in with the speed of lightning thunder. Our core values are endangered. They’re crashing before our very eyes. We’re edged out of control.
Our operators won’t mind if the system collapses on us all. They care less. They won’t blink an eye. That will make their crooked paths smoother for them. With no strong institution to check and balance their deeds and misdeeds. They are good to go. They can have their deadly way unhindered, unrestrained.
The Eminent Patriots of Nigeria (EPN) attempted to put a determined stop to this. It must not slip away unchecked. Its July 17, 2025 summit was strategic and tactical. It happened at the very time NASS was holding public hearings on constitution review.
The patriots were blunt and unyielding. EPN was clear in its mind. It sought a complete jettisoning of the presidential system. And opted for a full-fledged parliamentary government. Sound reasoning: The current system is “too expensive, prone to abuse and a hindrance to people’s welfare.”
Quite on spot! A genuinely run intentional parliamentary system will cut cost of governance, at least, by half. So also wastes, loopholes and abuses. That’s huge and monumental!
Our eminent patriots are convinced it’s achievable. It’s not a rocket science. It proposed a Constituent Assembly for the Herculean task: “The assembly will rewrite a People’s Democratic Constitution that will be subjected to a referendum of the Nigerian people before it is presented to the National Assembly.
“The assembly, in formulating the Constitution, will take into full consideration the 1960, 1963 and 1999 constitutions, the 2014 National Conference recommendations and orders for a return to genuine federalism.”
The greatest obstacle remains the National Assembly. More so as presently constituted! And given its awful pedigree so far! We have our sincere and honest fears. They’re authentic, real. We ask loudly with great trembling: Can a better constitution come out of this National Assembly?
Do we still want to live together as a people? Is this the type of country we really want? Are we satisfied, comfortable the manner Nigeria is being run? How did we come this far, deep down? What’s the way out of the woods?
Parliamentary system of government will confront these our predicaments one touch! That’s my fervent belief. How about you? Shout out your thought!
Stop these unprofitable round-tripping constitutional reviews.
