Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo; Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Hassan Kukah, and constitutional lawyer, Femi Falana, have lamented state of affairs in the country, blaming leadership deficiency.
The trio spoke in Ado Ekiti at a colloquium celebrating 60 years of legal icon, Afe Babalola, at the Bar. The event was held at the campus of Afe Babalola University.
The former president lamented that operators of the law undermine the law, citing the National Assembly and its salary package, which he described as immoral and unconstitutional.
Obasanjo said nobody will appreciate democracy until it impacts positively on the life of the ordinary man. Stressing that democracy is a journey and not a destination, he said the mode of governance can only be strengthened if players respect and implement the constitution to the letter.
“Democracy doesn’t mean anything to any man who is hungry, whose life is in danger or whose property is being destroyed,” he said. He added: “According to the Nigerian constitution, the revenue mobilisation and fiscal commission is supposed to fix salaries and emoluments of members of the National Assembly. But they set the constitution aside and decided to fix their salaries. Even, if it is constitutional, it is not moral.”
Kukah, in his keynote paper, titled: ‘The Future of Constitutional Democracy in Nigeria: Imperative of a New Constitutional Order’, noted that the country’s judiciary is in crisis, stressing that the federation witnessed its worst phase of corruption under the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Our sovereignty is under assault and nobody is excited about being a Nigerian because we have been held hostage. We should not assume we are in a democracy after the mess the last administration put us. How do you run a country and you are unable to manage its diversity?
“We have an opportunity to rebuild the country, irrespective of the outcome of the decision of the Supreme Court. I want an Executive Order against those who are killing on the basis of religion. Every federal institution must provide places of worship for Christians and Muslims. To make Nigeria develop, we must democratise development,” Kukah said.
Falana, who was a panelist, warned that the nation has not put its ugly past behind, because corruption remains unprecedented. He said: “They steal ecological money meant for the control of erosion. The President must show leadership. I am urging Tinubu to lead an anti-corruption crusade, so that Nigeria can take its rightful place in the comity of nations.”
Dignitaries at the event included: former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon; former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku and Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kayode Ariwoola.
In his remarks, Babalola noted that the 1999 Constitution cannot produce good governance, because it is fatally flawed, adding that the way forward is the enactment of a new constitution.
