A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Robert Clark has warned that there is no need to amend the 1999 constitution, describing it as a rotten egg.
He stated this while addressing the clamour for restructuring which has remained on the nation’s front burner, on Channels TV’s programme ‘Politics Today’, Sunday night.
According to him, instead of amending the 1999 constitution, the Federal Government should quickly organise a process for a people constitution.
He said: “The 1999 Constitution is a rotten egg in Nigeria. It is a constitution that has allowed both the executives operating it and the legislators operating it to feed themselves.
“So, I believe that if we want to amend, there is no need to amend a rotten egg.
“We ask ourselves, what do we mean by restructuring, are you restructuring Nigeria as an entity or are you restructuring the system of governance.
“We cannot restructure Nigeria as an entity that has to be clear to all of us. It is not negotiable; what we can negotiate is to restructure on the basis of governance and what drags the governance is the constitution.
“We ask ourselves, this 1999 constitution, does it help this country in the restructuring or do we jettison it. Go by way of a referendum, ask the people, what system of government do you want for this country?
“When the referendum says this is what we want, then a constituent assembly, one member from each local government will now come to the centre in Abuja and sit down to now see what form of system of governance we will now enjoy under what you and I, under a referendum have asked the leaders to do,” he added.
See video below:
