Restructure Nigeria As You Advocated During Military Regime, Constitutional Lawyer Urges Tinubu

Former Head of Business Law, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Dr. Chijioke Agbo, Monday, tasked President Bola Tinubu to restructure Nigeria to save the country from its current economic challenges.

Dr Agbo spoke in Enugu during an interview. He said President Tinubu was in the best position to implement the reforms, having been an advocate of restructuring as an activist.

He said, “Nigerians should champion the restructuring of the country. It is an existential problem, and it has to be on the front-burner. Struggles succeed on the basis of consistency. If South Africans had relaxed during apartheid, there wouldn’t have been freedom for them by now. Not restructuring Nigeria has created an existential problem, and it is with us.

“This call becomes more germane now that Tinubu is in charge. Although it appears that he is overwhelmed by the economy, otherwise he was prominent in the NADECO movement against the military. That was during the regime of Gen Ibrahim Babangida, particularly after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

“He has been an advocate of restructuring in Nigeria. I think he should now work his talk and bring about the political will to drive the system. The Jonathan constitutional conference did not work because he did not back it up with any law.”

On the relevance of the National Assembly in the nation’s polity, Dr Agbo said, “With respect to the National Assembly, we can make the membership part-time. Alternatively, do we really need a bicameral legislature in Nigeria?

“In all honesty, Nigeria should consider going back to the 1963 Republic Constitution. This is to build the country again, otherwise we continue to be in motion without movement. It is an unfortunate situation.”

On the autonomy of local governments in Nigeria to make them more result-oriented, the legal luminary said local governments have no business being controlled by the federal government.

He said, “The constitution is faulty. It created a quagmire. Section 7 of the constitution guarantees democratically elected LG chairmen. But the states are empowered under that section to make laws for LGAs’ existence, composition, and finance, which implies totality of control.

“Local governments should be residual so that states that can create a thousand LGAs can do so provided states can carter to them. That was the case in the contention between the attorney general of Lagos State and the attorney general of the federation. Then Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State. Tinubu won at the Supreme Court.”