Restructuring: Ex-APC National Chairman wants 1999 Constitution scrapped

A former National Chairman of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bisi Akande, has stirred the hornet’s nest by calling for the scrapping of the 1999 Constitution which should be ‘temporarily’ replaced with the 1963 Republican Constitution.

Mr. Akande, a former governor of Osun State, said this would be a way out of the nation’s ‘political and economic jigsaw.’

He said the 1999 Constitution was “the greatest misadventure” for the country and it would not help the country make progress in the right direction.

Mr. Akande spoke on Tuesday at the launching of the book, “Nigeria: the Path We Refused to Take,” written by Afenifere’s General Secretary, Basorun Arogbofa, an event which held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure.

Mr. Akande called for the replacement to enable a transition to the writing of a suitable constitution.

“The Constitution (1999) puts emphasis on spending rather than making money, thereby intensifying the battles for supremacy between the legislature and the executive while the judiciary is being corruptly tainted and discredited.

“The Constitution breeds and protects corrupt practices and criminal impunities in governance. The 1999 Constitution can never be beneficially reviewed and the ongoing piecemeal adjustments or amendments can only totally blot the essence of national values and accelerate the de-amalgamation of Nigeria.

“All the angels coming from heavens cannot make that Constitution work for the progress of Nigeria. It should only be scrapped as a bad relic of military mentality, and it ought to be temporarily replaced with the 1963 Republican Constitution to enable a transition to the writing of a suitable constitution,’’ Mr Akande said.

Also, according to him, the incursion of the military in Nigeria’s politics for 29 out of 57 years of independence had drawn back and blighted the sense of democracy and good governance among Nigerian political leaders.

Mr. Arogbofa, the author of the book, said it was the third in the series of intellectual discourse on Nigeria and her political survival.

He said he had used the medium to call Nigeria’s attention to the issue of true federalism and restructuring without which there could not be meaningful development.

Recently, Mr. Akande’s party, the ruling APC, set up a committee headed by the Kaduna State governor to look at the concept of restructuring which has gained momentum in the face of equally mounting secessionist movements across the country.

Source: Premium Time