Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria has pinpointed that the challenges of Nigeria are not essentially about the constitution, but about those who are entrusted with the responsibility of operating it.
President Obasanjo stated this in a letter sent to Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Chairman of the National Summit. He explained that he was more preoccupied with those operating the constitution rather than the drafting of a new constitution.
In his letter read on Wednesday at the ongoing National Summit on the Future of Nigeria’s Constitutional Democracy, taking place at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, Obasanjo emphasised that regardless of a constitution’s strengths or weaknesses, the key issue, in his view and experience, lies with those who operate it.
The former President said, “A nation’s Constitution as the fundamental law must reflect the history, the constituents and the aspirations of its people. It must be sacrosanct. From my experience in operating our Constitution, I will be the first to point out some areas of our Constitution that need amendment.
“However, for me, no Constitution can ever be regarded as perfect. But whatever the strength or weakness of a Constitution, the most important issue to my own understanding and experience is the operators of the Constitution.”
He explained that even the best crafted constitution can be subjected to manipulations by those in charges of its implementation.
“I am more concerned about the operators of the constitution to lead in good governance and promotion of welfare and well-being of the citizenry.
“No matter what you do to the Nigerian Constitution, if the operators of the Nigerian Constitution for the past one decade and a half remain unchanged and continue in the same manner, the welfare and well-being of Nigerians will continue to be sacrificed on the altar of selfishness, self-centredness, corruption, Impunity, and total disregard of the Constitution, decency, morality, integrity and honesty.
“At this crucial time, the operators matter more, and the searchlight should be on them. When we get the right operators, they will give us the amended or new Constitution close to what we need to make every Nigerian a proud stakeholder in the Project Nigeria.”
