The song from Chile •Lessons Nigeria’s rulers need to learn The song from Chile •Lessons Nigeria’s rulers need to learn
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KUNLE ODEREMI reflects on some similarities between Nigeria and Chile beyond the shared vestiges of military autocracy.
At the bottom of the multifaceted challenges confronting Nigeria is the legitimacy of the existing 1999 Constitution. In spite of the series of efforts to amend the document, the preponderance of stakeholders in the Nigerian project believe the constitution does not represent and reflect the genuine wishes and aspirations of the ethnic nationalities making up the country. Thus, the clarion call by many has been for a new constitution that to be drafted by the people through their representatives.
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THERE seems to be consensus among all political divides on the desirability and inevitability of a fundamental reform of our governance framework. It is also agreed that the 1979 and 1999 editions of our constitution are fundamentally defective regarding this most basic requirement for consensual self-government by the ethnic nationalities of Nigeria. Mere amendments as have been undertaken at about N10 billion per iteration since 1999 by the National Assembly seems not to have doused the clamour for restructuring of the Nigerian polity. Virtually all civil society bodies drawn from the six geopolitical zones have, in recent months, been quite strident in calling for the country to be restructured.