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Senior lawyer describes Nigeria’s constitution as illegitimate
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Says amendments to current document are futile
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Calls for a fresh, people-driven constitution
Renowned constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, has declared that the 1999 Constitution, no matter the amendments, cannot take Nigeria forward.
Ozekhome, speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, described the document as a bad and illegitimate foundation imposed by military dictatorship, insisting that only a brand-new constitution created through a popular referendum can reflect the nation’s diversity and aspirations.
“The issue is not about amending the constitution. You cannot amend a bad document,” Ozekhome said. “A bad, illegitimate document that never proceeded from the people through a plebiscite or referendum can never be the product of the people.”
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He argued that the 1999 Constitution entrenches a unitary system of government rather than true federalism, dispossessing Nigerians of their economic, social, political and cultural rights.
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“What we need is a total beginning, a fresh beginning, like from a tabula rasa,” he said.
Ozekhome urged stakeholders to focus on drafting a new constitution that reflects Nigeria’s multi-religious and multi-ethnic reality rather than patching what he termed an inherently flawed document.
