Constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, says constitution amendment will not be able to tackle Nigeria’s foundational problems.
Ozekhome, who said this on Friday, when he appeared on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television, described the document as a curse to national development.
The senior lawyer emphasized that only a brand-new, people-oriented constitution can rescue Nigeria from its political, economic, and security crises.
“What we need is a brand-new constitution that is people-driven. You can’t amend a bad document. A document that is already afflicted with an ailment cannot be amended.
“If you have a problem in your house — the building is cracking — how do you solve it? Some people say, ‘Let’s amend the present constitution.’ Amendment, one million times, cannot solve the problem,” he said.
According to him, the current constitution, handed down by the military in 1999, was not created by the people and has continued to promote over-centralisation of power in Abuja, crippling regional growth and autonomy.
The legal luminary faulted the existing presidential system modelled after the United States, calling it too costly and unsustainable.
He, therefore, called for a return to the parliamentary system practised before 1966, with regional governments controlling their resources and security.