‘Why president must implement report before 2015 elections’

Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, lawyer, activist and founder of the Nigerian Advance Party (NAP), was an elder statesman delegate to the 2014 National Conference in Abuja. As reactions continue to pour in on the recommendations of the conference submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan, Braithwaite has urged expeditious implementation of the report before the 2015 general elections to avoid confusion and chaos in the polity. What has informed this opinion? He spoke to Karls Tsokar on this and much more.

WHAT is your reaction to the decision of the President to subject the conference report to the National Council of State and the National Assembly?
IT is rather unfortunate that President Jonathan appears to be shifting ground on a matter that is profound and very relevant to the direction of this country, like the product of the national conference.
He said in his inaugural speech that the option of subjecting the outcome of the conference to a referendum was available. Now, I’m rather surprised that he is telling Nigerians that the recommendations may be looked at by the National Assembly and worse still by the Council of State.
Sovereignty must have a say in the direction that they want this country to go. It is on that premise that many of us agreed to attended the conference in the first place.
I did say in the earlier days of the conference that if the discussion was not going to be referred to a referendum, I was not going to subscribe to it. So, I can only advise the President to consider this volte-face.
It is fundamental to note that we have proposed some drastic and structural changes in the entire configuration of Nigeria. I do not see how we can go to the next elections without implementing the structural changes.
For instance, are we going to go to the next elections whilst still retaining the Immunity Clause for corrupt and roguish people in office? Is the next dispensation going to retain the Immunity?
What about the Local Government system in our Constitution that is so disproportionate? What about the question of unnecessary over-powerful Centre that has held down development in the country? What about the very contentious issue of Devolution of Power? What about the issue of Fiscal Federalism?
All these and more must be addressed before we go to the next elections; otherwise, this administration would be courting serious problems and they would have themselves to be blame.
I think that pressure was mounted on the President to do what he is trying to do. And I think that the sovereign people of this country would want the President to revert to the original understanding and he should be bold enough to ignore the self-serving advice that some people might be giving him.
Coming to the National Assembly, to my point of view, it is a product of the defective and corrupt Constitution. So, obviously, they would not want anything that would remove the status quo that benefits just a few of them.
I certainly would advise the President to reconsider his position for the benefits of Nigerians.

HASN’T the President changed his mind on his initial pronouncement on the possibility of subjecting the recommendations of the conference to a referendum because of the inability of the National Assembly to amend the Constitution to accommodate it?
The 1999 Constitution that he is relaying on is the very bone of contention. There would have been no need to convoke the National Conference if the Decree 24, aka, 1999 Constitution had been a satisfactory document for the progress of this country.
Right from that year, 1999, the Nigerian people had been complaining about the military-decreed Constitution that makes nonsense of all of us.
The national conference was going to be convoked by the people of this country anyway, but it was a good idea that he (President Goodluck Jonathan) bought into the idea, as people were ready to convoke it on their own.
So, the argument about the provision of a referendum in the Constitution is nonsense; it is to be ignored because power lies with the people, not with the legislators.
That is why a referendum will give the Constitution legitimacy that supersedes the National Assembly. It is recognised all over the world.
Those who hold the view that the National Assembly members are the representatives of the people are in error. The Constitution has never been in line with the aspirations of the people. The Constitution was accepted in the first instance to kick-start the process of democracy.
Based on the journey of this democratic process, it is quite clear that the institutions that are meant to strengthen democratic governance in Nigeria are very weak. That is why the National Conference was convoked to strengthen the defects in the Constitution.
You can’t go to the next elections under the 1999 Constitution; you will have chaos. Two things need to be done: The product of the National Conference must be implemented; a new Constitution must come on stream before any election can be conducted in this country, if we want to avert chaos.
Would it be a brand new Constitution or it would be an amendment to the 1999 Constitution (as amended)?
It is an academic issue whether it is an amendment or otherwise. But like I said earlier, there has been some drastic fundamental recommendations made, like the issue of local government, devolution of power, and an over-burdened centre, which makes nonsense of federalism.
These are structural matters that the people of this country wanted. Whether you call it a brand new Constitution or an amendment, the point is that there are factors that held this country down for a long time that we have tried to resolve.