TheCable

Olusegun Osoba, a member of the 1976 constitution drafting committee, says the clamour for restructuring has compounded Nigeria’s problems.

Osoba said restructuring campaign has been used as a means to loot the nation’s treasury.

He asked the masses not to relent in their struggle for a better country, adding that Nigeria needs to adopt a constitution that is progressive and beneficial to all.

Osoba spoke during the public presentation of “Minority Report and Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1976,” which he co-authored with the late Yusufu Bala Usman.

The event, organised by the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training (CEDDERT), Zaria, held at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Balarabe Musa, former governor of Kaduna; Femi Falana, human rights lawyer;, Ayuba Wabba, president of NLC, and other dignitaries holding copies of the book

“Restructuring is considered as the panacea to the countries woes; what we need to cure all our political, economic and social ills and I think unless we understand that restructuring as proposed by some members of the elite is a lie!” he said.

“When they say restructuring, they never really define what it is and when you watch their body language and their general behaviour, you can guess that what they mean by restructuring is either creation of more states so that they can exploit.

“If people have vested interest in change; the classes that are short changed by the present regime have to find a way of coming together, developing a common strategy, if the truth must be said, by overthrowing the existing order; there’s no other way. In fact, all great nations today at one point or the other have undergone a revolutionary transformation and they have removed the hands of looters from their treasury and put themselves in the hands of reliable and honest-working people.

“So, there is no ambiguity about it, a continuous struggle is the only solution to our problems, not restructuring.”

Abubakar Mohammed, director of CEDDERT, said many of the problems confronting Nigeria have been addressed in the minority report that was “jettisoned 42 years ago”.

“Forty-two years ago, Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman and Dr. Segun Osoba disagreed with members of the constitution drafting committee on some issues,” he said.

“The issue of fundamental human right, social justice and some others. According to the two writers, people have the right to education, health, security and so forth. And if you don’t make them justifiable in the constitution, you will have leaders that pay lip-service to that and you can’t take them to court.

“And all what they have said, we’ve seen it happening in Nigeria. So we feel that Nigerians should know, Nigerians should think, who have actually examined their problems and proffered solutions to it. So they should read, know those solutions and clamour for it as the new constitution.”

Femi Falana, human right activist and reviewer of the report, said if the political economy had been informed by such a constitutional provision in the last 40 years, the “scandalous social inequality plaguing the Nigerian society could not have arisen.”

“As Osoba and Usman rightly put it, the 1979 constitution is a deliberate effort at mystification for the selfish interests of the  bourgeoisie,” he said.

“So it is clear that with this publication, CEDDERT is illuminating the discussions about the future of Nigeria from a most credible vantage.”

Attahiru Bala Usman, son of the co-author of the report, asked Nigerians to fight for a constitution that protects them.

“We are convinced that the issue of nation building are generational. Each generation must discover its own mission and try and fulfill it,” he said.

“I think our generation’s responsibility is to improve this democracy. Not just democracy by the visual act of voting every four years but democracy that involves the people, a constitution that they agree with; a constitution that protects them, not the leaders alone.

“That is basically our reason for presenting this report because we believe that it will add value.”