Why Nigeria Cannot Get New Constitution – Senator Omo-Agege

The Deputy Senate President, Ovvie Omo Agege, says the 1999 constitution cannot be set aside totally for a new one as against agitations from some stakeholders.

Commenting on the ongoing constitution review, Ayo Adebajo, the leader of Afenifere, a socio-cultural group, canvassed for the enactment of a new constitution.

Adebanjo, who appeared on Channels TV Politics Today on Wednesday, described the 1999 constitution as a fraud. “The 1999 Constitution that was handed over to us by the military, is fraudulent and we are rejecting it because it is not the people’s constitution and it does not represent the interest of the people. We cannot review a constitution that is not made by the people.”

“This government must either give Nigerians the 1963 Constitution that was written by civilians for Nigerians or allow the country to develop a new constitution because Nigerians can no longer accept the constitution that was forced on Nigerians by the military,” he said on the TV programme.”

But Omo-Agege said Mr Adebanjo’s request is nearly impossible based on existing constitutional provisions.

“What section 9 of the Constitution say is that we can alter any provision of the Constitution. It doesn’t say we can alter all of the provisions of the Constitution. We can alter any provision and it proceed to set out the methodology.”

For you to be able to do a total rewrite of the constitution, you need to amend section 9, first, the lawmaker said on the same programme aired Thursday night.

Explaining why it is difficult to review the section 9, Mr Omo-Agege said: “For you to set aside section 9 of the Constitution. You require 4/5 vote in the Senate, which is about eighty eight Senators at 109. And you require about 288 out of the 360 members of House of Representatives just for you to change that section 9 itself.