LET us hope that the recently inaugurated Justice Belgore Committee on Constitution Review does not end up as another merry-go-round, like its countless predecessors.There is no doubt that Nigeria's fake Constitution is littered with loopholes, ridiculous inconsistencies, and overall incoherence. In the short 12 years since we resumed our romance with civilian rulership, the inferiority and illegitimacy of that document have already caused a litany of easily avoidable constitutional disasters.The presidential succession crisis of last year, the seeming impracticability of creating new local governments and states, the chronic stealing of local government funds by top state government officials, the successively bogus but redundant federal cabinet, the minimum wage palaver, and the structural entrenchment and growth of public corruption caused by grave constitutional lapses are just a few symptoms of the constitutional disease that Nigeria continues to bear and burnish in self denial, perhaps, in pathetic ignorance.In the final analysis, even our security epidemics such as militant rebellions in the Niger Delta, the genocidal Jos killings and the Boko Haram apocalypse are consequences of our ignorant refusal to heed the injunction that prevention is better than cure, and to, therefore, endeavour to amicably agree the articles of our association as Nigeria.There are, of course, many 'good' provisions in the so-called 1999 Constitution, but they are inorganic and inanimate. It is the active and participatory consent of the people that breathes life into the dead letters in a constitution.The 1999 Constitution lacks this oxygen. It is founded on nothing, and one of the best known morals of law is that something founded on nothing is itself nothing. The Constitution is merely the Schedule to Decree No. 24 of 1999.Like any other decree, the decree, which the Constitution is part of and schedule to is at best merely equivalent to an ordinary Act of the current National Assembly; such an Act being so ordinary that it is passable by a simple majority of that Assembly.Although the schedule to a decree or law is equally a part of that law, other provisions of that law may be interpreted to supercede the provisions in the schedule in the event of a conflict between the respective provisions. So ordinary and subordinate is the real status of the document that parades as our Constitution: a schedule to a military decree! Yet, a constitution is supposed to be the grundnorm, the supreme law of the land.Most importantly, the document was signed by and imposed upon us by one man, General Abdulsalami Abubakar. It was simply the General's personally preferred draft for a constitution. He is entitled to the preference but not to the imposition.The simplest name and definition of a constitution is that it is 'an agreement between people(s) on how to govern themselves.' The parties or their representatives sign every agreement. Only one person cannot sign an agreement between two or more parties.This is why the American Constitution is signed by representatives of the original 13 States of America, and not just by the chairman of the constitutional congress or whoever considered himself the wisest or most powerful American at the time.What is necessary, therefore, is a Nigerian Constitutional Congress (by whatever name called) to produce a draft constitution. All Nigerians of voting age would then ratify that draft via a referendum. That is when we can say, 'We, the people, have given unto ourselves a Constitution.We need not amend a fake Constitution. The amendment we need is for the Belgore Committee's terms of reference to be amended into one main item: the drawing up of modalities for the smooth convening of a constitutional congress.History still has ample room for President Goodluck Jonathan, but it is not indefinite. With this suggested amendment to Belgore's mandate, the committee could present its report within the first quarter of 2012 and by July/August next year, the constitutional congress can be convened, mostly via elections.The draft Constitution can be ready in the first or second quarter of 2014 and ratified by the people shortly after, in good time to allow for concentration on the final preparations towards the 2015 general elections. The new and genuine Constitution can then take effect from May 29, 2015, with the newly elected federal and state administrations.Fostering the first authentic Constitution for Nigeria would be a permanent distinction to guarantee President Jonathan a primacy of place in the pantheon of true Nigerian heroes. It would be a most historic first birthday present to a great and grateful nation (for we would then start being a nation) in Nigeria's new centenary that begins in 2014. In the annals, historians would have no choice than to call it The Jonathan Constitution.Mr. Wills is a Human Rights lawyer based in Port Harcourt.
Click here to read full news..
