Thread by @Atiku4Nigeria_

STATEMENT BY #ATIKU FOR #NIGERIA ON THE JUST CONCLUDED PUBLIC HEARING ON CONSTITUTION REVIEW.

#Atikukawai #AtikuForNigeria2023
#GNWA

The Atiku for Nigeria wishes to commend the 9th National Assembly for the recently-held zonal public hearings on the review of the 1999 Constitution; an exercise whose importance cannot be overemphasized particularly given the current circumstances of our dear Nation.

However the AFN states that for the objectives of this exercise to be achieved, all stakeholders involved in the process, particularly the National Assembly must show its bona fides so that the divergent sentiments of the different interest groups will be articulated in...

...what it is hoped will be a People-driven Constitution which is the aspiration of a great majority of Nigerians.

While the AFN notes the intractable debate between those who favour a total overhaul of the Constitution in the form of a New Constitution; & those who advocate an amendment/alteration of the extant document to incorporate emergent demands & feelings in and around the Country...

...which is what the just concluded Public Hearing is geared at, it is our view that both objectives can be achieved in a fair and honest constitutional review process, shorn of preconceived notions, ideas and/or interests.

We are convinced in this regard by the fact that the 17-items proposed for review in the current review process cuts across the resurgent agitations and pressure-points of our national experience such as Electoral Reform, devolution of power, fiscal federalism, amongst others.

The global accepted practice of bringing Constitutions in tune with modern realities is no doubt through a process of amendment, which however must be anchored on truth, fairness & justice so as to gain the needed acceptance to confer the process and its outcome with legitimacy.

Thus, we hope that the ongoing process will elicit an outcome that addresses the numerous concerns which continues to set our Nation on edge.

To this end, we call on President @MBuhari to give the National Assembly the needed support to midwife the process in record time; particularly the portion dealing with Electoral Reforms which has been in the front burner for too long.

On their part, we call on the Senator Ahmed-Lawan led National Assembly to rise up to the occasion, and see this exercise as another rare opportunity to save our Nation and set it in the path of progress.

They must see this as a rare opportunity in state-reconstruction, and how they discharge the assignment will go a long way in dictating how they'll be remembered by posterity.

Inspite of the mass disaffection that has greeted the process in the public, we call on Nigerians to give this National Assembly the benefit of doubt, and thus, give the needed support, by exercising their agency rights as citizens to actively engage the process....

...so as to elicit the right feedbacks which is often an invaluable asset in the Constitution-making process.

In the end, we have no other country but Nigeria, and saving it, is the greatest legacy we owe to ourselves and the future generation.

Signed:

Chief Barr. (Hon.) Sunday Umeha
Director-General, Atiku For Nigeria
28/05/21

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