A group of eminent citizens led by former Commonwealth Secretary, General Emeka Anyaoku, yesterday launched an agitation for a fresh constitution for the country with a call on President Bola Tinubu to convene a National Constituent Assembly.
The Patriots, as the group is called, was at the State House, Abuja to discuss the country’s state of affairs with the President.
They advocated a people-driven constitution to be midwifed by 109 Nigerians.
Tinubu assured them that he would do all within his power to put happiness and good governance in the hands of all Nigerians. But he said strengthening the nation’s economy remained his top priority.
Each of the 36 states, according to the group,will be represented at the constituent assembly by three persons and the Federal Capital Territory by one.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, Anyaoku urged the President to send an executive bill to the National Assembly to convene the proposed National Constituent Assembly.
He said, “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.
“One, the convening of a National Constituent Assembly to be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. And we suggested that such a National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on a non- party basis.
“We also talked about the current crisis of protests throughout the country. And we advised the President that in our view, the government at the federal and state levels should dialogue with the leaders of the protests.
“The government should take the initiative in dialoguing with the leaders of the protests. And secondly, we advised that the 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, people were killed because of the way the law enforcement agencies are managing the protests. So these were the points that we put to Mr. President.”
