"we've been missing the road, we've not been self ruled, we've been dependent, we're not industrialised and there is no self sustained growth in the economy, and we don't have a constitution that allows free and fare elections"
In a bid to ensure that a people's Constitution is in place ahead of 2011 general election, pro-democracy activists have regrouped in Lagos under the aegis of the Platform for Peoples Constitution (PLACON).
At the unveiling the new coalition ahead of its planned mass action to ensure the replacement of the 1999 Constitution with a new constitution that can guarantee free and fair election as well as equal access to the country's resources, the group said that for Nigeria to work, there is no alternative to a true federal structure.
The PLACON coordinator, Dr. Baba Omojola, a renowned political economists and an activist said at a media presentation of the group held at the Centre For Constitutional Governance (CCG), Ilupeju the birth of organisation became necessary because Nigeria is currently at crossroads and does not know where it is heading.
Present at the event were some PRONACO chieftains and other human and socio-political rights activists, including the Executive Director of CCG, Dr. Adewale Balogun who is the secretary of the body.
According to Dr. Omojola the regrouping is because as a nation, "we have been missing the road. We've not been self-ruled, we are not industrialised and we don't have a constitution that allows for free and fair elections. And there is no equal access to resources in this country.
"The position of our founding fathers was realistic; it might have lacked some comprehensive vital elements but agreeing to build a federal state was a right step”, the group said.
The body added: “We believe fervently that the constitution drafted in the country by PRONACO is a platform, it’s a good draft for what the people want in a new country”.
He advocated for federal restructuring, that would guarantee ethnic autonomy, free education and shelter, saying that with the PRONACO draft constitution, which divided the country into 18 regions is ideal for a new Nigeria “so that people will not be used to ferment political trouble and agonies in this country. And most important of all, the security services will be territorial-based so that one ethnic group does not oppress another one”.
On 2011 elections, the group said: “PLACON sees the controversy over whether not President Goodluck Jonathan can contest the 2011 presidential election or not as a distraction which is making a complex issue out of a simple matter. Since May 29, 1962 when the central government started to dilute the federal principle on which Nigeria’s independence struggle was fought and the intervention in 1966 of the military in the polity, the unitarian presidential system has proved to be a burden, a torment and an anguish on Nigerians”.
The group then dismissed May 29 as democracy day, saying that there is nothing historically significant about the day as it was on May 29, 1962 the central government declared state of emergency in western Nigeria and when the then highest court in the land, the Privy Council declared the action unconstitutional, the central government went ahead to reverse the judgment by retroactive act of the parliament.
The group also recall that it was on May 29, 1966 that the pogrom against Ndigbo started in Northern Nigeria, arguing that only October 1 should be declared a Public Holiday.
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