Chief Mike Ozekhome, a human right activist and pro-democracy campaigner has stated that the 1999 Constitution has many ambiguities
Ozekhome added that the constitution came into being via a military decree 24 of 1999 noting that the procedure by which a constitution comes into being is not only important but is actually more important than the content of the constitution itself.
Ozekhome stated this in Lagos, on Monday, at the National Constitutional Dialogue organised by The Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians and elders in honour of late legal luminary, Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN.
Ozekhome noted that the 1963 constitution was the best so far and recalling what the regions did because they had control of their resources and contributed 50 per cent to the centre from which they also shared 30 per cent, he stressed the need for a new grundnorm along that line.
“The 1999 Constitution was imposed on you and I, militarily, by a military junta led by General Abulsalami Abubakar, 28 members of the Provisional Ruling Council. It was never subjected to any referendum of the people. And guess what?
“The present constitution was attached as a mere schedule… Nigerians must own their own constitution through a popular referendum of the people like was done to the Midwest constitution on the 10th of August 1963 when it separated from the Western region. Without that, we will just be on the journey to no destination.”
Ozekhome continued: “Professor Nwabueze gave us very beautiful tit-bits as to how we can bring about a people’s constitution.In his seminal paper, Legal Authority for the convening and holding of a national conference and for the making of a people’s constitution.
”The learned Prof. said that the present National Assembly is already in place because your fears have always been that in trying to bring about a people’s constitution, we are going to sideline the National Assembly It is not possible
“It is a reality because the National Assembly itself came into being, elections were held in 1999, even before the 1989 Constitution, so the elections were held, so the emergence of the National Assembly, therefore, was based on the will of the people, what we call salut populi supremalis. Ozekhome said.
“The will of the people is supreme, so Professor Nwabueze therefore theorized that because the National Assembly is in place, they have the power to convene and conduct a National Conference and that what they should do is that
they should look at their powers beyond the power to alter the constitution in sections 8 and 9 and go to section and go to section 315, which makes the present constitution as an existing law, being a document attached as a schedule to decree number 24, and that the National Assembly should yank off the constitution from that schedule, other than using section 1, subsection 1 And then simultaneously replace it with a brand new constitution, doing away with the schedule, with the military dictatorship aura.”