A former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Dumebi Kachikwu, has urged President Bola Tinubu to resist pressure from former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku and other elder statesmen to amend the 1999 Constitution.
Kachikwu made this appeal during a press conference in Abuja on Saturday. His remarks follow a meeting between The Patriots, led by Anyaoku, and President Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa the previous day.
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After the Friday meeting, Anyaoku called on the president to submit an executive bill to the National Assembly for a national referendum aimed at approving a draft of a new ‘pluralistic constitution.’
He proposed that a 109-member constituent assembly be tasked with drafting the new constitution, which would then be put to a public vote.
Kachikwu, however, disagreed with this approach. He argued that the current constitution has not been fully utilized and can be amended as needed, rather than creating an entirely new one.
He said, “This is what a lot of people from the old order always say. Our biggest problem is that we have not done enough with the current constitution available to us. There is so much we can do. Every year or in every legislative agenda, they always introduce constitutional amendments and in more cases than one, we have seen where the constitution has been amended.
“Whatever we have to do with our constitution, let us take it through that channel. But the first job of our president is to understand that most Nigerians don’t believe we have a country or that we are one people. It is what he must start selling so that when we see the green-white-green of our flag, we see it as meaning the same thing to us. He needs to start selling a charter and a new order that speaks to us as a people and brings us together.
“It is not a change of (national) anthem that is our problem. The problem is that the anthem must resonate and mean something to us. We need to start talking about solutions. In this country, we are big on the blame game, big on identifying problems but low on proffering solutions. Why? Solutions are logical and not emotionally appealing. We also can’t score political points with solutions.”
