A former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Wole Olanipekun (SAN), on Monday, requested the Nationwide Meeting to “keep motion” on the continued modification to the 1999 Structure, citing the necessity for a model new individuals structure as his motive.
Mr Olanipekun stated this whereas delivering a lecture on the thirteenth convocation ceremony of the Afe Babalola College Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Ekiti State.
The lecture was titled: “Nigeria – Yesterday, Right now and Tomorrow: Crucial of a Sober And Definitive Recalibration,”.
The Senate and the Home of the Representatives are at the moment within the means of amnding the structure, which can finish in December forward of the 2027 basic election.
Two weeks in the past, the Home Committee on Structure Reivew met with the management of the 18 registered political events to take their strategies on the train.
Nevertheless, Mr Olanipekun, who’s the Chancellor of the Ekiti State owned Bamidele Olumilua College of Schooling, Science and Know-how, stated slightly than a mere modification train which can not obtain the specified outcomes, the Structure wanted a a totally new rebranding, an entire general, and a substitution, altogether.
“Name it autochthonous Structure, or some other identify, it needs to be a renegotiated doc that can tempo the best way for a brand new social order. We cannot proceed to dwell by the 1999 Structure, which haunts us as a army albatross.
“Allow us to borrow a golden leaf from different nations of the world and decide to dwell collectively, an considerable phrases and circumstances,” he stated.
In response to him, “By suggesting to the Nationwide Meeting to remain motion on any constitutional modification for now, one will not be advocating a state of anomie, or normlessness. Reasonably, I’m proposing a transition interval, of between now and 2031, a part that can give us ample time, to replicate on the ills, plaguing, or which have plagued our earlier constitutions up to now.”
Mr Olanipekun, who’s the pro-Chancellor and Chairperson of the Governing Council of the College of Lagos, declared {that a} nationwide referendum has turn into clearly inevitable and overdue.
He regretted that as a nation, Nigeria, within the final years, had been enmeshed within the disaster of lopsided alternatives and shared prospects among the many areas, particularly relating to unequal native authorities distribution, throughout the areas.
“I want to submit that within the circumstance of my earlier suggestions, i want to submit {that a} referendum has turn into overdue.
“Over the centuries, such had been deployed to find out points, as elementary as independence, territorial belonging, constitutional reordering, and the Recalibration of political unions, it represents the voice of the Dena’s, I imply unfiltered and undiluted, talking louder than the same old rhetorics of politicians, or the manoeuvers of the elites,” he stated.
On the problem of nationwide safety, the previous chairman of the Physique of Benchers, stated with out prejudice to his submission that the Nationwide Meeting ought to keep motion on the modification to 1999 Structure, State, Group, Provincial and Zonal police formations ought to be established now, and at once.
He acknowledged the function performed by President Bola Tinubu to stop a one-party state regardless of pressures from the then ruling social gathering to make him rethink his principled dedication to stay in opposition.
He praised the president’s resilience throughout his years in opposition, noting that his steadfastness in opposition to the then-ruling PDP preserved Nigeria’s multiparty democracy.
“Had Tinubu succumbed to harassment and intimidation, Nigeria may need turn into a one-party state way back,” he stated, recalling his personal function as Tinubu’s lead counsel throughout his trial earlier than the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Mr Olanipekun urged politicians to embrace constancy to social gathering ideology and warned in opposition to cross-carpeting from one political social gathering to the opposite, saying it undermines democratic progress.
The authorized luminary additional advocated a reconfiguration of Nigeria’s federal construction by way of the geopolitical zones, which he stated ought to be empowered to drive the nation’s renaissance and recalibration.
He famous that the six-zone association, launched underneath Normal Sani Abacha, has now gained sensible expression underneath President Tinubu by way of creation of regional improvement commissions.
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Mr Olanipekun maintained that it’s the federating models, not the federal authorities, that ought to decide the construction and governance framework of the nation.
“It’s the states that give start to the centre, not the opposite method spherical,” he stated. “Nigeria wants therapeutic, reconciliation, and rebirth and it’s by way of the engagement of the zones that this renaissance can start.”
Additionally talking, ABUAD proprietor, Afe Babalola urged President Tinubu, the 2 chambers of the Nationwide Meeting and NBA to urgently contemplate Mr Olanipekun’s submission and act on it for the sake of the nation.
