Senior advocate and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado
Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, has called on necessary stakeholders to ensure that a
new truly federal constitution with provision for parliamentary government to
replace the 1999 constitution must be in place before the 2023 general
elections.
Babalola said that anything to the contrary would result in
“recycling the same failed leaders that have brought Nigeria to where it is
today”.
The legal luminary, according to a statement made available
by ABUAD, spoke in a goodwill message as the special guest of honour at the
Fifth Ife Institute of Advanced Studies, Summer Institute Programme held on
July 26.
He lamented that the 1999 constitution “allows Nigeria to be
running the most expensive democracy in the world with government functionaries
earning exorbitant salaries and allowances in a country riddled with
unemployment, poverty, insurgencies, kidnapping, ferocious terrorist acts,
killings, murder, robbery and widespread destruction of properties”.
He said one of the reasons why a new truly federal
constitution must be in place is that the 1999 constitution “breeds
transactional leaders instead of transformational leaders. It is the same
constitution that makes the opinions of those outside government to be
irrelevant to those in government.”
Babalola urged participants at the summer programme to come
out with meaningful and relevant recommendations that would be useful to the
government including that “those who wish this country to remain an indivisible
entity must unite to ensure that we replace the present 1999 constitution with
a truly federal constitution and a parliamentary system of government which is
more involving and less expensive.
“The proposed constitution will spell out the number of
political parties and percentage of women representation, among others. It will
also enable knowledgeable, selfless, patriotic and non-tribalistic Nigerians to
emerge as leaders and make governance less expensive. In addition, it will
discourage politics from being the most lucrative business in Nigeria.
“It is common
knowledge that money plays a dominant role in winning elections in Nigeria
today. Hence no salary earner such as medical doctors, engineers, bankers,
lawyers or lecturers can dare contest an election unless he/she embraces an
all-powerful deep-pocket Godfather in Nigerian politics.
“The constitution must prevent transactional businessmen
from contesting elections. The constitution must make provision for independent
candidates to contest and win elections,” Babalola said.
The ABUAD founder also said that in considering the new
constitution, “priority attention must be accorded to the multi-religious,
multi-cultural, multi-linguistic nature of the country made up of over 400
ethnic groups speaking over 295 dialects.
“Particular attention must be paid to the issue of poverty,
reduction of population by limiting the number of children per couple. This
will prevent the present untoward situation where the offer of a mere N5,000
could induce poor Nigerians to vote against the dictates of their conscience,”
he said.
The senior advocate also suggested that the new constitution
must provide that the National Assembly should consist of 60 per cent of
Nigerians elected by professional bodies while the remaining 40 per cent should
be contested by all qualified voters.
He said, “This way, we will have a parliament consisting of
60 per cent of elected members by professionals and opinion leaders whose
election will not be affected with votes bought with as little as N5,000.
“Nigeria does not need two houses in the National Assembly.
All we need is one house with the number of Legislators reduced to 50 per cent
of what it is today,” Babalola said.
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