Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku has called on President Bola Tinubu to establish a National Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution for Nigeria.
This proposal was presented during a meeting between Anyaoku, who also chairs the Patriots, and President Tinubu at the State House in Abuja on Friday.
Anyaoku outlined the key points of their proposal, stating, “We put some proposals to Mr. President and we urged him to send a president’s executive bill to the National Assembly, a bill that will call for two essential measures.”
The first measure involves the formation of a National Constituent Assembly.
Anyaoku explained, “We also suggested that such a National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on a non-party basis. Say, for example, three individuals per state, per each of the 36 states and one from the Federal Capital Territory and they should be mandated to produce a new draft constitution.”
The second measure calls for legislation enabling a national referendum.
“We concluded by saying that the Draft Constitution to emerge from the constituent assembly should be subjected to the national referendum to give the people of Nigeria a chance to determine the new constitution,” Anyaoku added.
In addition to constitutional reform, the delegation addressed the ongoing protests across the country.
Anyaoku advised, “The government at the federal and state levels should dialogue with the leaders of the protests. The government should take the initiative in dialogue with the leaders of the protests.”
He also emphasized the importance of non-violent crowd control, stating, “We advised that law enforcement agencies, namely the police and the army, should avoid using lethal weapons in the management of the protests, so that we do not have casualties, or people killed because law and order enforcement agencies are managing the protests.”
