President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, elder statesman and Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo and former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, have asked the federal government to take advantage of coronavirus pandemic to restructure the country, saying Nigeria was currently operating an illegal constitution foisted on the people by the military.
Speaking at the opening session of a video conference organised by Governance Index, Sunday night tagged, “Coronavirus Pandemic: is it time to reevaluate the political structure of the country,” Nwodo said the constitution was given to Nigerians by the military government, which was not elected by the people.
He noted that in 1999, politicians went into the general election without knowing the parameters that will guide the democratic process.
According to him, “The military wrote the present constitution for the country after abandoning the agreement the nation’s forefathers had with the British before the independence, which was to operate a regional government,” Nwodo said.
Nwodo added Nigeria’s political parties operate like companies owned by shareholders where there is no freedom to choose the candidates of your choice, stressing that the Nigerian electoral system was the most corrupt and the judiciary the most compromised.
On his part, Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo, disagreed with Nwodo, but also stressed that if Nigerians were serious about keeping the country together, it was time to restructure and embrace true federalism.
Adebanjo added that the present constitution is an imposed constitution by the Muslim military in the North which nobody contributed to it, stressing that even the then head of state, Abubakar Abdulsalami said he did not know what is in the constitution before he swore in former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to him, “I will say without any hesitation we are all deceiving ourselves. President Buhari is not interested in keeping this country together, that is why we are having this problem, that is why we are putting square pegs in round holes, and that is why we tell him to keep to the constitution by the appointments he is making, but he said no.
‘’I can only work with people I have confidence in, which is against the federal character principle that the whole country is talking about. Buhari simply turns deaf ears to the agitation for restructuring that has been on for over five years.
“Buhari ignored the recommendations of the 2014 constitutional conference, he ignored the manifesto of his own party, and even ignored the recommendations of his own party, that is why I say we are not practising democracy in this country,” he said.
Adebanjo further accused elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, of hypocrisy for saying proponents of restructuring had not explained to Nigerians what restructuring entailed.
Recall that during last week’s 4th edition of the video conference also organised by Governance Index, Yakasai had said the agitators of restructuring should come up with modalities for their proposal for proper scrutiny.
But Adebanjo said that Yakassai was at the 2014 constitutional conference where the case for restructuring was carefully marshaled out, adding that what they were asking for was a country where everybody there would be equity and justice.
In his contribution, former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, concurred with both Nwodo and Adebanjo, saying if the country must be kept together, there was need to restructure.
“I associate myself with the positions of former speakers, and whether we like it or not in this country, restructuring is an idea whose time has come,’’ Mimiko said.
