Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro has dismissed calls for replacing Nigeria’s current constitution entirely, arguing that targeted amendments remain the best option.
The Peoples Democratic Party chieftain said the idea of refining the existing legal framework offers more stability than drafting a new document from scratch.
He pointed out that past administrations, including that of former President Goodluck Jonathan, had already recommended key reforms such as power devolution, yet those proposals remain unimplemented.
He said, “Well, first of all, if you’re talking about the military fostering the Constitution of Nigeria, we want to ask what gave rise to military intervention in the first place?
“We had a constitution, and it was executed in breach, rather than in implementation, and that gave rise to the series of crises that gave rise to military interregnum and aberration on constitutionalism.
“And here we are forging a path towards stability and we are not in debt of conferences and recommendations. You recall that the government of Dr. Ebele Goodluck Jonathan, the 2014 confab, the high point of the recommendations in that confab was power devolution.
“That beautiful document was not implemented. Up to today, we’re having another series of conferences now and gatherings of patriots with virtually the same recommendations.
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“And I insist that the constitution of a country, a written constitution of a country, is a live document. And as we move on, certain elements that were ordinarily supposed to be there, that are not there need to be included, need to be amended.
“Some aspects that offend even the basic rights of human beings are there that have to be removed. And so I think that as long as we develop the necessary political will to continue to tinker with the Constitution and moving gradually towards a perfect document for this country is a better pathway than the call for a complete overhaul.
“If you want to ask me how many people were in the so-called conference that is calling for a complete overhaul and overturn of the Constitution. Who do they represent? They were there in the 2014 constitutional conference.
“We are here again, this time around, I can say boldly that the President, then, Goodluck Jonathan appointed some persons, some persons were nominated by various constituencies. But here, who can you tell me, has nominated or appointed this group of persons that are coming up now with a complete overhaul of the Constitution, and must we go on like this as a nation?
“I think a point arrives in our lives that we must agree to accept what we have and possibly like they say, thinker with it, to arrive at the perfection that we are looking for.”