Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has advocated for a new Nigerian constitution.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Ondo State Governor, South-West, Nigeria, Rotimi Akeredolu has called for a new Nigerian Constitution that will reflect the yearnings and aspirations of the people and take care of the interests of the various ethnic groups in the country.
Akeredolu noted that the current agitations in the country are a pointer to the necessity and exigency of fundamental adjustments to the constitution of the country.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Richard Olatunde in a statement said Akeredolu gave the advice at the annual reunion of the Loyola College Ibadan Old Boys Association (LOCOBA) held at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
Akeredolu also called on the constitution review committee of the National Assembly to ensure that all submissions on the proposed constitutional amendments are scrutinised and analysed with a view to coming up with useful suggestions.
Akeredolu said, “Democracy operates, presumably, on the principles of freedom to choose representative leadership, reflective of political alignments as dictated by current exigencies, a group’s exercise of considerable control on socio-economic activities and preservation of its identity as a component unit within a broader political entity.
“It is permissive, on a liberal scale of the rights of individual citizens. It also imposes duties and places checks on propensities towards licentiousness.
“A democratic system can only be effective to the extent to which the legal processes driving it are structured.
“The constitution of a country is the basic law. The aspirations, anxieties and expectations of a political entity must be well captured in the document.
“All other laws must flow from this legal fount. It is not important for a constitution to be voluminous. It should be concise and written in simple but elegant prose. It should leave no section of the country, for which it is designed, in doubt as regards inclusivity. All component units must participate as equal partners.
“We operate a constitution daubed federal with all trappings of pretension. Ours is about the only federalism which allows the central authority to control virtually all aspects of existence which give identities to the federating units.
“And now that we are faced with serious security challenges, we must be bold to consolidate on the initiatives undertaken by the states to complement the efforts of the security agencies at the centre.”
He asked the National Assembly to repeal the many laws establishing many agencies whose functions overlap or appear to compete with those of the states of the federation.
