Former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Emeka Anyaoku, has urged President Bola Tinubu to convene a national constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for the country.
Anyaoku, who also chairs The Patriots, stated that this recommendation was among the proposals presented during a meeting with the President at the State House in Abuja.
“We submitted some proposals to Mr. President and urged him to send an executive bill to the National Assembly, a bill that would call for two essential actions,” Anyaoku explained.
He proposed that the National Constituent Assembly should be composed of individuals elected by the people on a non-party basis, with three representatives from each state and one from the Federal Capital Territory.
“One of the key recommendations is to convene a National Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution. We suggested that the assembly be comprised of individuals elected on a non-party basis, for instance, three from each of the 36 states and one from the FCT, with a clear mandate to draft a new constitution. We also proposed that the bill include a provision for the National Assembly to legislate for a national referendum, as current laws do not provide for such a process.
“We emphasized that the draft constitution produced by the assembly should be subjected to a national referendum, allowing the people of Nigeria to have a say in the adoption of the new constitution.”
Anyaoku also addressed the ongoing protests across the country, advising the President that federal and state governments should engage in dialogue with the protest leaders.
“The government should take the initiative to dialogue with the leaders of the protests. Furthermore, we recommended that law enforcement agencies, particularly the police and army, refrain from using lethal force in managing the protests to prevent casualties,” he added.