The Patriots – a group of Nigerian statesmen led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku – has asked President Bola Tinubu to convene a Constituent Assembly to draft “a people democratic pluralistic constitution” for the country.
The group met with the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where they urged him to forward an executive bill to the national assembly to legislate on national referendum that will approve the draft constitution.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting with the president, Chief Anyaoku explained that Nigeria needs a pluralistic constitution to tackle its development problems.
The former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth observed that countries that have failed to manage their pluralism through a federal constitution have disintegrated citing the examples of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Sudan.
According to him, those with pluralistic constitutions such as India and Canada have remained strong.
He said the Constituent Assembly should be mandated to produce the draft constitution to be subjected to a referendum.
According to him, the referendum will give the new constitution the legitimacy it requires.
On the #EndBadGovernance protest, the group urged President Tinubu to dialogue with the leaders.
It also advised law enforcement agencies not to use lethal weapons in the management of the protest, to avoid deaths.