Former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, yesterday declared that the way forward for Nigeria is a new Constitution if the country truly desires to end the unprecedented level of divisiveness and declining sense of national unity among its people.
The former Commonwealth scribe made the call in Ekiti State while delivering the 2023 Convocation Lecture of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, titled: Management of Diversity: A Major Challenge to Governance in Pluralistic Countries.
Anyaoku said to achieve the desired transformation for the better, the country needs a system of government that not only addresses Nigerias diversity but is also based on a constitution that can correctly be described as the Nigerian peoples Constitution.
According to him, under the Constitution, before military intervention, there was security of life and property, and there was a faster pace of economic development in the regions, adding that healthy competition among the regions facilitated rapid development across the country.
Anyaoku said, In contrast, today if truth be told, the situation in our country is lamentable. There is an unprecedented level of divisiveness and a declining sense of national unity; the economy is in the doldrums, with 133 million of our population in multi-dimensional poverty.
To arrest the ongoing deterioration of the situation in the country and to achieve the desired transformation for the better, we need a system of government that not only addresses our diversity but is also based on a Constitution that can correctly be described as a Nigerian peoples Constitution.
Accordingly, I call on the Presidency, in consultation with the National Assembly, instead of continuing to tinker with the 1999 Constitution, to acknowledge the urgent necessity of a new Constitution to be made by the people of Nigeria.
To this end, Anyaoku advised the Federal Government to immediately convene a National Constituent Assembly of directly elected representatives on a non-party basis whose task would be to discuss and agree on a new Constitution, taking into account the 1963 and the 1999 Constitutions and the recommendations of the 2014 national conference.
I believe that Nigeria is still salvageable. The country can still be restored to greater peace, greater security, a renewed sense of national unity, greater political stability, and a more assured pace of economic development, he stated.
