7) Constitutional Reform
The 1999 constitution is widely seen as a military constitution and this document is one of the causes of ethnic conflict in Nigeria. To replace it, Nigerians are asking for a true constitution prepared by the people and for the people. Civil society and opinion leaders have repeatedly called on various governments to convene a sovereign national conference to discuss thorny issues in the federal system of government, and make a new constitution, but this has not happened.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s government organized a constitutional conference in 2014 i.e. the CONFAB to discuss issues that cause ethnic wrangling and disunity, and came out with far-reaching resolutions for restructuring the Federal system of government. Now, government is studying it while the National Assembly has started amending some parts of the 1999 constitution. The house of Assembly should amend the constitution to deal with the following issues.
To resolve request for true federalism, resource control, rights and privileges of citizens, remove state of origin from our forms, revisit federal character and educationally disadvantaged states quota, review lopsided division of the country into states and unequal creation of local government and states in the six geopolitical zones.
The new constitution should devolve power over resource development and distribution from the central government, to states and local governments to make sure of economic justice and equity. In addition, the new constitution should define rights and privileges of citizens by the place they live in not by place of origin, and remove bad influence of religion in politics and deal with religious intolerance.
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