Few hours after the national assembly commenced debates on the amendments to the 1999 constitution, former interim Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande said no amount of tinkering would cure defects on the document.
Akande said, the ongoing efforts of the National Assembly to review the constitution is a mere waste of time as no amount of amendment would make it work.
He advocated for total scrapping of the constitution which is currently the working document guiding governance and general conduct of the Nigerian nation suggesting that a new one be drafted in its stead, rather than wasting efforts on amendment.
The former governor of Osun State stated this, yesterday, at the launch of a book titled “Nigeria: The path we refused to take” written by the Afinefer scribe, Bashorun Seinde Arogbofa, held at the main auditorium of the Federal University of Technology, Akure.
He said, the constitution should be scrapped and new one written for the benefit of the Nigerian people rather than amending it just as he advised that the nation resort to using the 1963 constitution pending the drafting of a new.
Akande who was the chairman of the occasion said “The 1999 constitution is the greatest Nigeria misadventure since Lord Lugard amalgamation of 1914.”
According to him, Nigerians must be prepared to discard the 1999 constitution and on time too or risk living with its negative consequences which included the fact that it would continue to dwarf Nigerian economy and stifle the country’s social structure ending in a disastrous and catastrophic bankruptcy.
“The constitution put emphasis on spending money rather than making it, thereby intensify the battles for the supremacy between the legislature and the executive while the judiciary is been corruptly tainted and discredited.
“The constitution breeds and protects practices and criminal impunity in governance. The constitution can never be beneficially reviewed and the ongoing adjustment or amendment can only totally bloat the essence of national values and accelerate the amalgamation of Nigeria. All the angels coming from the heaven cannot make that constitution work for the progress of Nigeria” he enthused.
In a thought provoking speech, AKande said “Today Nigeria is at a stage of what we can call criminal revolution. We gathered here today to present a book titled Nigeria: the path we refuse to take by Basorun Sehinde Arogbofa. I choose to talk not on the path we refuse to take but on the path of misadventure that led Nigeria to the present cross road.
“The military involvement in politics for 29 years out of Nigeria 57 years of independence has done badly to the sense of democracy and good governance among Nigeria political leaders, so much, that political discussions are no longer issue based and are no longer interesting.
In his remark, the author, Basorun Sehinde Arogbofa urged the Federal Government to start the implementation of 2014 National Conference in phases in order to douse the tension in the country stressing that restructuring is the only panacea to the myriads of problems bedeviling the country.
Dignitaries present at the book launch included Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, Osun state deputy governor, Titi Laoye Tomori and former Kano state governor Ibrahim Shekarau.
leadership.