Olanipekun urges N’Assembly to stop constitution amendment, calls for referendum

A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Wole Olanipekun SAN, has urged the National Assembly to suspend further amendments to the 1999 Constitution.

The legal luminary said that the country required a new homegrown constitution that would genuinely reflect the collective will of Nigerians and their uniqueness, instead of another round of patchwork reform.

He said, “The National Assembly should, for the time being, stay action on the ongoing amendment or any further amendment to the 1999 Constitution.

“This constitution needs a new rebranding, a complete overhaul, a substitution altogether. It has to be a negotiated document that will pave the way for a new social order.:

Olanipekun, who spoke on Monday while delivering the 13th Convocation Lecture of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, titled “Nigeria yesterday, today and tomorrow: Imperative of a sober and definitive recalibration,” also expressed concern about the lack of ideology among the country’s politicians and the wave of defections from one political party to other.

The senior advocate said, “To calibrate our democratic system, a note of caution should be sounded against the wave of cross-carpeting from one political party to the other, soon or later, inflict implosion and explosion of their host political parties.

“Membership of a political party should not be a tea party or picnic, but a serious business.

“There should be fidelity to policies, ideas, programmes, manifestos, philosophy, principles and ideology. That is what operates in stabilised democracies in the world.”

Olanipekun urged Nigerian politicians to take a cue from President Bola Tinubu, who remained in his party, refused to defect despite being in opposition for years and built the party to winning ways.

He said, “Aside from him (Tinubu) and a few tiny minority, most politicians in Nigeria have, since 1999, been migrating and shifting grounds along political parties and divided with ease and convenience, to be liberal with them.

“Even as a sole opposition governor, he challenged and withstood the onslaught of the then party in power at the centre, the Peoples Democratic Party, and has since remained within the phylum of what is styled ‘the progressives’ in Nigeria. Several others have done otherwise”.

Olanipekun, who said Nigeria must stop parading people but strive to produce citizens, lauded Tinubu for “reintroducing the old national anthem”, adding that to reconcile the differences in the tribe and tongue in the country, “we have to be deliberate, sober and reflective and take steps that will lead to a recalibration of our country”.

Speaking on the imperatives for a new constitution, Olanipekun said that the 1999 Constitution, which he described as a “military albatross”imposed on Nigerians, without consultation or consent, had outlived its usefulness and legitimacy.

According to him, the country’s foundational challenges stemmed from a faulty constitutional structure that concentrated power at the centre, emasculated the states, and perpetuated inequality in all its entirety.