Bisi Akande Faults Nigerian Constitution, Says It Contributes To Present Hardship

The former acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bisi Akande has attributed the current economic predicament and other national inadequacies to deficiency in the Nigerian constitution.

Akande who faulted Nigerian constitution, said Nigeria would have grown to zenith if not hampered by constitutional details suit the system.

He disclosed this at event of the 2017 Distinguished Role Model Award of The Wings Schools, Iwo in honour of Late Ben Adisa Akinola, an educationist cum administrator.

Akande who was the chairman of the event while delivering his speech faulted Nigerian constitution (1999), saying the nation’s constitution had creating unwarranted challenges not only to the Nigeria but to its federating components.

The APC chieftain said there are many aspects in the Nigerian constitution that were never workable to Nigerian socio-economic and political structures.

According to him, there are anomalies, lapses and imbalance posing serious challenges to the nation’s constitution as this can lead Nigeria back to greater poverty.

“The constitution that can move Nigeria forward is the constitution that recognizes the culture of the people in relation to their occupation”, he added.

The former Governor of Osun State added that the background of economic life of any community should be the type of his own culture.

He said no nation practising federalism develops in a circumstance where all or larger percentage of existing power is being concentrated into a single hand as case of unitary system of government.

“For instance in Osun State today one can’t drive five kilometres of roads anywhere without pothole. In other words, all roads in Osun State today are bad roads, not only that, Osun is not connected to any other states.

“The same applies other states of the federation as many of them have been rendered subservient to the power that be at federal level”, Akande lamented.

He noted that until constitution is passionately and circunstantially reviewed in consonance with the nation’s need, the nation would remain stagnant.

Akande added that it is high time for those at the helm of affairs to do the needful as concerns the Nigerian constitution, saying power must be properly distributed and devolved from the central to the federating  units as being practised in other countries of the world.

“Nigeria constitution(1999) which serves as a platform for social economic inequality and now constitutes the major obstacle to peace among various generating country.

“Those who wrote the constitution did not realize that political denomination and subjugation breed revolt, community disharmony and national insecurity.

“The bad constitution of 1999 has now begun to stimulate demand for ethnic self determination and economic security otherwise being called “resource control” or “restructuring”. Whatever name you call it, community disharmony is a burden on national security and it is dangerous for economics development and peace.

“What we are saying, for instance, is that the constitution which (according to 1999 census ) gave Lagos State (with 5,725,153 population) 20 local governments,  also gave Kano State (with 5,810,494 population) 44 local government.

“The same constitution, which gave Anambra (with 2, 796,510 population) 21 local governments, also gave Jigawa (with 2, 875,559 population) 27 local governments.

“Such constitutional provisions seem capable of dying the federating components of Nigeria most importantly on their equal opportunity for accessing the national revenue allocations.

“Such agitations may not be healthy for community harmony, national security to influence the change for the better”, he stated.

Akande, therefore charged the people of Iwo and entire Nigerians at large on the need to emulate the good deeds of the late Ben Adisa Akinola.

The Guess Speakers, Prof. Olasupo Akano and Prof Lai Olurode, former Dean, Faculty of School Sciences, University of Lagos, described late Akiola as a patriotic son of Iwo who during his life time strived towards the development of the town.

The duo urged the people of the ancient community to emulate the good deeds of the deceased, saying roles played by the deceased in the growth and development of humanity.

Echoing a similar view, the Secretary to the State government of Osun, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti said the legacy the late Akinola left behind in the education sector would not be forgotten.