Thread by @yinkanubi

One of the biggest misconceptions is this idea that the 1999 constitution was written by the military. Not True! No single military man was in the constitution drafting committee of 1975/1997 and the CA in 1977. Infact, the 1999 constitution was a replica of the 1979 constitution

The 1999 Constitution was drafted by a Constitution Debate Co-ordinating Committee headed by Justice Niki Tobi, with Dr. Suleiman Kurmo as deputy. They went round the country collecting memoranda through town hall meetings in Benin, Enugu, Jos, Phc, Kaduna, Kano, Ibadan, Lagos...

...Sokoto. They excluded military formations. After all the debates, the Chairman Tobi said, “In the light of the memoranda and the oral presentation on the 1995 Draft Constitution, it's clear that Nigerians basically opt for the 1979 Constitution with relevant amendments. They..

...want it, and they've copiously given their reasons for their choice in the different memoranda and oral presentations. So we've recommended the adoption of the 1979 Constitution with relevant amendments from the 1995 Draft Constitution.” Abdulsalami accepted the recommendation

It's important to unpack this statement. Tobi was saying that based on oral & written submissions, Nigerians preferred the 1979 constitution but with a few amendments extracted from Abacha's jettisoned 1995 draft constitution. Let's look at how the 1979 constitution was drafted.

In 1975, Gen Murtala Muhammed set up the constitution drafting committee headed by eminent jurist FRA Williams. The report of the committee formed the basis for discussions at the 1977 Constituent Assembly chaired by Justice Udo Udoma and had people like MKO Abiola, Bola Ige,

...Abraham Adesanya, Bisi Onabanjo among the 232 members. This 1977 CA gave us the 1979 constitution. This is the document the 1999 constitution was based ALMOST WORD FOR WORD. None of the characters involved in the drafting committee or CA in 1975-77 and 1998-99 were military.

According to @simonkolawole the 1999 constitution is "pure plagiarism of the 1979 constitution". Exactly as Niki Tobi told us. The only differences were; the 13% derivation, the number of states in the federation (19 States in 1979 & 36 in 1999) and changing of FEDECO to INEC.

The funny thing to this debate is that some of the characters that took part in the constitutional review and debates in 1998-99, who submitted memorandum to the Niki Tobi committee are going around today condemning the document they helped create. It is the nature of politics.

Like @simonkolawole said "The 1999 constitution was NOT written by the military. I also hasten to say that nobody can write a perfect constitution. Even if Prof. Ben Nwabueze, a well-respected constitutional expert, writes a new constitution today, loopholes will surface in a...

...matter of time. That is why laws are dynamic. As loopholes appear, you plug them". I agree with him. The 1999 constitution is not a perfect document. The point is not to throw it away (you can't) it's to fix it. But the fixing must start with the truth

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