2023: Nigeria Needs Interim Government, Not Election – Ex-Envoy

A former Nigerian Ambassador to The Philippines, Dr Yemi Farounbi, has said Nigeria needs a new constitution which will be used to birth a new nation that will become the envy of many other nations.

Farounbi said this in the speech he delivered on Sunday at a forum of Gabriel Victoria Foundation in Ibadan.

He said a new constitution was needed to reposition the country on the path to peace and development, saying the 1999 Constitution could not be used to effect a positive change which Nigerians desired.

To get the new constitution, Farounbi said an interim arrangement to make it possible could probably be worked out.

He said, “We must show a determination to wipe out those who destroy our banks, industry, economy, our well being and our country.

“But then you will say, ‘thank God there will be elections in 2023’. And I will say, very sadly, that, based on the present peculiar 1999 Constitution, not a product of our negotiated consensus, I’m not excited.

“Perhaps we need an interim arrangement that will birth a new constitution, based on a negotiated consensus.

“Would we have the courage to do the right thing? Or would we continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results?

“Our situation today demands for a new beginning, a spiritual rebirth, a new identity, indeed a renewal of our country based on negotiated consensus. Our situation needs men of vision, not men of experience.

“It’s obvious that we can no longer relying our past structure, systems, formulas, methodology and actors.
We need those imbued with vision and idealism of a greater, better alternative tomorrow that the 1999 Constitution cannot deliver.”

The septuagenarian said Nigeria needed desperately a new set of leaders who would be committed to change the situation in favour of the masses.

He said despite the abundant resources which Nigeria was blessed with, Nigerians were still suffering but said the new set of leaders must be visionary and ready to restructure the imbalance to reposition the country for a prosperous future.

“We need those committed to the five essential freedoms… Freedom of speech, expression and press …. Freedom of every Nigerian to worship god in his/her way and convenience…. Freedom from want, need, disease and poverty…. Freedom from fear, insecurity, banditry, and criminality…. Freedom from tyranny at all levels.

“We need those who are not led by the mobs, but who will offer leadership to the people while also recognizing the genuine religious and ethnic fears and tears of the people.

“We need those patriotic enough to challenge the future and challenge the centralised federal presidential structure that the Muritala administration imposed as a ‘No go area through the 1977 Constituent Assembly.

“We need certainly not men of experience…. because the experience either maltreated or misled us…. the experience humiliated, marginalized, brutalized, factionalized, fractionalized and misdirected us.

“We have the ability to change, to move forward, to chart a course towards a future of greater possibilities and opportunities. We must not be afraid to march on until every ghetto of socioeconomic depression is wiped off.

“We must struggle until all the traces of inferior or poor education are dissolved. We must march on with all energy at our disposal on poverty until no hungry man walks our streets, looking for jobs that are no longer there.

“We must march on until all industries are revitalized, new SMEs established and our currency strengthened. We must show a commitment to empower the needy, the oppressed and the poor,” he added