The Pro National Conference Organisation on Wednesday in Lagos, again, warned the National Assembly not to incur the wrath of the Nigerian stakeholders for opposing the desire of the Nigerian people to give to themselves a brand new peoples’ constitution.
The Senate on Tuesday, through its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya abaribe, said the convocation of a SNC will lead to anarchy.
It, therefore, said it was against it.
Speaking through its spokesperson, Veteran Olawale Okunniyi, PRONACO said by the provisions of Sections 8 and 9 of the subsisting 1999 Constitution and as amended in 2011, the National Assembly has no powers to give the country its desired popular constitution but can only make laws via legislative motions to amend or tinker with the subsisting Decree 24, tagged the 1999 Constitution, for the day-to-day governance of Nigeria.
Okunniyi said: “The position of the National Assembly on the national question and the peoples’ constitution is deeply flawed and smacks of ignorance and undue arrogance as they do not have the mandate of the people (sovereigns) either legally or conventionally to replace the 1999 military constitution as overwhelmingly desired by the Nigerian people.”
PRONACO advised the senate to take a cue from a former the former President of the Senate, Chief Ken Nnamani, who, recently in Lagos, asked the National Assembly not to continue to treat the Nigerian constitution as a village minutes book, which can be tinkered with every now and then but to urgently make a law as empowered by Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution to convene a Constituent Assembly conventionally responsible for giving a country a popular constitution.
Okunniyi said the peoples’ desire to have the 1999 Constitution replaced has got nothing to do with the present mandate given or stolen by current office holders as the constitution has already provided a lee way to the legal convention of a national conference within Sections 8 and 9 of the constitution.
He said that the National Consensus Group, under the leadership of Prof. Ben Nwabueze, will be willing to send a prepared note to the National Assembly on how a peoples’ national conference can be attained legally within the ambience of the 1999 Constitution
He said Nigeria is already in an emergency situation given the horrendous bloodletting and bombings in the country, adding: “We hope our legislators are not saying they are waiting for a personal feel of the dose of bombings on innocent and defenceless Nigerians before they can yield to the overwhelming demands of Nigerians for popular restructuring,”