THE SUN newspaper reports that a former national vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has faulted conversations over Nigeria’s next general election even without the determination of the true winner of the last presidential election.
Chief Olabode George (photo credit: THE SUN)
Speaking at the fifth annual lecture organised by Freedom Online, with the theme: “2023-2027: Nigerians, Elected Leaders and Expectations” in Lagos, yesterday, the former military governor of old Ondo State, stressed the need to review the Nigerian Constitution, saying the Constitution is military in the setting and unlike in a true democratic setting where power is derived from the people, the Constitution allows for orders to be issued from top to bottom.
The Constitution, George described as copied from America, saying it will not turn around the fortunes of the country.
He lamented that former President Muhammadu Buhari jettisoned the plan by his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, to review the constitution, saying it has led to the current mess where Nigerians quickly move on to discuss the next election even when the legality of those in office is yet to be established.
His words: “I served for a long in the military, I can authoritatively confirm to you that the Nigerian constitution is absolutely military in the setting. In the military, orders come from top to bottom. But in a democratic dispensation, powers come from the people to the top. But we have copied the American constitution, and that is why things are not working. We must be deceiving ourselves if we think that this constitution will take us to the Promised Land.
“During former president Goodluck Jonathan’s time, a conference was set up for the first time to look at the constitution but immediately former President Muhammadu Buhari came, he put the documents of that conference in the archives and that is where we are today. We are already talking about the next elections when we haven’t even concluded on the decision of whom the president is. If we keep waiting for all our resources to be taken to Abuja, it would never work.”
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