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A GROUP CALLED THE PATRIOTS PROPOSES THE DRAFTING OF WHAT THEY TERM AS THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION     

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A GROUP CALLED THE PATRIOTS PROPOSES THE DRAFTING OF WHAT THEY TERM AS THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION                                                                       09-08-24

By Sadiq Aminu                                                                A group of Nigerians calling themselves The Patriots have proposed the drafting of what they term as the people’s democratic constitution to replace the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The group, led by Chief Emeka Anyakou, paid a visit to President Tinubu in Abuja, during which they put forward their proposition.

The group, which said they had a constructive meeting with the President, argued that Nigeria was ripe for a new constitution that would meet the aspirations of her pluralistic nature.

“Pluralistic countries that have addressed their pluralism by having true federal constitutions have survived, but those pluralistic countries that failed to address their basic challenge of pluralism through federal Constitution have ended up disintegrating”, the group maintained.

The group said they had also urged President Tinubu to send an executive bill to the National Assembly to convene a National Constituent Assembly to produce a draft of their proposed constitution.

“And we suggested that such National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non-party basis. Say for example, three individuals per each of the 36 states and one from the Federal Capital Territory to produce it”, they said.

Their second proposition, according to the group, was the insertion in the suggested executive bill a clause on national referendum, which is absent in the 1999 Constitution.

“And we concluded by saying that the draft constitution to emerge from the constituent assembly should be subjected to the national referendum in order to give the peoples of Nigeria a chance to determine the new constitution” the group explained.

On the nationwide protest, the group advised Federal and State Governments to initiate a dialogue with leaders of the protest, and that law enforcement agencies should avoid using lethal weapons in the management of the protest.

When reminded that it would rather be economically unwise to produce a new draft constitution instead of legislating the previous ones initiated by past administrations, the group argued that those ones would not effectively satisfy the country’s current socio-economic dynamics.

“I do not believe that with the challenges facing this country, the challenge of national unity, challenge of insecurity, the challenges of poverty and hunger are appropriately captured in those draft constitutions”, they stressed.

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