Ozekhome: Nigeria won’t make progress without a people-driven constitution

Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says Nigeria’s problems would linger without a “people-driven” constitution.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Sunday, Ozekhome said the country is embarking on a journey of no destination with a “military-imposed” 1999 constitution (as amended).

On Friday, the Emeka Anyaoku-led ‘The Patriots’, a group of elder statesmen, held a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

During the meeting, Anyaoku, former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, urged Tinubu to convene a constituent assembly to draft a people-centred constitution for the country.

Speaking during the interview, Ozekhome said Nigeria is currently too divided and yet to attain nationhood.

“I have heard people talk and say ‘why are we talking about a new constitution, is that our problem?,” Ozekhome said.

“I say to them that is the beginning and end of our problem because a nation without an acceptable and legitimate constitution, which is indigenous and people-driven, can never attain nationhood.

“The constitution is the birth certificate of a country.”

Ozekhome said Tinubu must muster the political will to initiate the process for the drafting of a new indigenous constitution.

“Well, he (Tinubu) should have the political will because these problems will not go away until we tackle it headlong,” he added.

“The killings you are seeing, the poverty, the corruption, they are all symptoms of a larger problem which is the basis of what we are talking about. When you solve the problem, other things will fall in place.”