A former Nigerian Presidential Candidate Professor Kingsley Moghalu has said the country needs a new constitution that has a well-articulated social contract between the government and the people and one that devolves power, saying the present constitution of Nigeria so long as it’s operated will never transform the country’s economy
Moghalu was a guest on ARISE News and believes a restructuring of Nigeria is yet to happen and said there is a need for a new constitution whose whole idea of Nigeria should be re-engineered in a way that is acceptable to all the component parts of the federation.
“For example, police powers are still completely exclusively federal powers, but they should be regional powers or state powers so that security can come closer to the people.
“Nigeria has a Police Force of 350,000 for 200 million people, that’s a joke, is it any wonder that in the state, people are not secured,” he said.
He stated further that; “restructuring is still yet to happen and I think there should be some sort of constitutional conference.
“I think the whole idea of Nigeria should be re-engineered in a way that is acceptable to all the component parts of the federation so that we can know that this is what we agreed on and make it possible for that agreement to be executed in our lives on a daily basis.
“So I am calling for a new constitution, not tinkering with this 1999 constitution, I think it’s going to have a very minimal impact. There are so many issues that are foundational to Nigeria that are just being glossed over and until we address those issues we are not going to have the kind of cohesion as a country that will need to be able to run our economy effectively and productively.
“The present constitution of Nigeria so long as we operate it, Nigeria will never be able to transform its economy, it is just impossible because the constitution as it is now is geared towards sharing and is not geared towards producing. You cannot be sharing a cake that you have not baked. We need a new constitution to help us bake a cake that we can actually share.”
By Abel Ejikeme
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