Human rights activist, Femi
Falana (SAN), has said former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s rejection of the
Minority Report of the Constitutional Drafting Committee of 1976, co-authored
by Drs. Segun Osoba and Yusufu Bala Usman, is one of the major causes of
Nigeria’s woes.
He spoke at the public
presentation of the Minority Report and Draft Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria (1976) at the University of Lagos auditorium on Tuesday.
The event had in attendance
dignitaries such as Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, former President of Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC); Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu; Dr. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed,
Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training
(CEDDERT), and Omoba Tunde Ajibulu, a chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress (APC).
Going down memory lane, Falana,
who reviewed the draft constitution, said majority of the problems being
experienced in Nigeria today such as the raging insecurity, kidnappings, youth
unemployment would have been addressed if the minority report had been adopted.
Falana, who said the military
government headed by Obasanjo rejected the report in a hostile manner, added
that “Nigeria could possibly have avoided the current obstacles to genuine
democracy and sustainable human development if some of the questions posed and
the answers provided by Osoba and Usman, two leading lights of the Nigerian
left, in their unambiguously progressive Report and Draft of 1976 had been
considered.
“As part of the initial steps
towards the transition to civil rule in 1975, the regime of General Murtala
Mohammed gave a committee of 49 eminent Nigerians the job of producing a draft
constitution for the Second Republic, which was scheduled to begin on October
1, 1979.
“Two members of the Constitution
Drafting Committee (CDC) fundamentally disagreed on ideological grounds with
the report supported by the majority of 47 others.
“On the question of human
progress, the philosophical divergence between the minority and the majority
within the CDC was too wide to expect a compromise. Hence, the minority came up
with the document under review today.
“By the time the report was
ready, Murtala had been killed in an abortive coup and his second-in-command,
General Olusegun Obasanjo, was now in charge.
“Regrettably, the Obasanjo regime
rejected, in a most hostile manner, the Minority Report, as it is now known in
Nigeria’s political history.
“The report of the majority was
decreed into the 1979 constitution, the basic content of which has formed the
nucleus of the subsequent constitutions including the Decree 24 of 1999,
otherwise called the 1999 constitution.
“Let us quickly dispense with the
regrets, as the actual spirit of this occasion is to engender hope about the
future of Nigeria.
“A critical reading of the
publication being presented today would bring to the fore the radical diagnosis
and the extraordinary prescience in the prescriptions for the Nigerian
condition made by the authors.
“This is despite the fact that
the authors, Dr. Olusegun Osoba and Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman, both radical
historians, wrote 43 years ago that they never pretended to put forward ‘a
perfect document’.
“In the true tradition of
self-criticism that is the hallmark of leftist thinkers, they readily admitted
‘faults and inadequacies’ in the document.”
Falana also said the Minority
Report was pro-masses as it addressed majority of the challenges being faced by
the average Nigerian as well as accountability by public officials.
“Other similarly remarkable
provisions encapsulated in the draft, but were regrettably rejected by the
Obasanjo regime, include those on accountability by those in power; the purpose
and management of political parties, as well as the appointment of a prime
minister by the elected president for the purpose of diffusing power.
“In fact, given the progressive
ferments of the 1970s, these two progressive constitution writers could not have
imagined the current crisis of the economy, society and politics,” he said.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com