Anyaoku-led group urges Tinubu to establish new constitution drafting committee

A group of Nigerian statesmen, The Patriots, has urged President Bola Tinubu to convene a constituent assembly to draft “a people democratic pluralistic constitution” for the country.

This came as the group, led by former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku met with the president at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on Friday.

Anyaoku, who addressed State House correspondents after Friday’s meeting, urged the president to forward an executive bill to the National Assembly to legislate on a national referendum that will approve the draft constitution.

He said the 109-member constituent assembly should be mandated to produce the draft constitution to be subjected to a referendum.

This referendum, he argued, will give legitimacy to the new constitution.

“We put some proposals to Mr. President and we urged him to send a president’s executive bill to the National Assembly, a bill that will call for two essential measures.

“One, the convening of a National Constituent Assembly, to be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. We suggested that such a National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on a non-party basis.

“Say, for example, three individuals per state, per each of the 36 states and one from the Federal Capital Territory and they should be mandated to produce a new draft constitution,” he explained.

Anyaoku premised this proposal on the argument that Nigeria needs a pluralistic constitution to tackle its development challenges.

Citing Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Sudan, he noted that countries that failed to manage their pluralism through a federal constitution are on course for eventual disintegration.

He said countries such as India and Canada, with pluralistic constitutions, have remained resilient.

The former Commonwealth helmsman explained, “Nigeria, we affirmed to Mr. President, is a pluralistic country. And you all know that pluralistic countries exist all over the world.

“Those of them who addressed their pluralism by having true federal constitutions have survived. An example is India and Canada.

“But pluralistic countries that failed to address their basic challenge of pluralism through a federal Constitution have ended up disintegrating. Examples of that are Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan, here in Africa.”

On the #EndBadGovernance protest, The Patriots urged Tinubu to dialogue with the leaders.

They also advised law enforcement agencies to avoid using lethal weapons on protesting civilians.