Keep Moving On

Here they come again. According to a Vanguard Report, the nation's National Think Tank "has selected 56 prominent Nigerians" to review a constitution that has long been overdue considering the fact that the said constitution was enacted in a hurry, having not much effect to the population; thus a fabricated document by a military machinery.

First, the brouhaha became part of a big deal when the Fourth Republic came into being with calls for a Sovereign National Conference. That idea died a natural dirth because it had no base and the callers for such projects weren't serious about the whole issue. How long has the country gone through the mandate of reviewing the constitution from the first initiative? Well, after the idea was killed by a sitting president, the tune changed as it favored the callers who did not feel threatened as it was in the past when they thought the nation was slipping away from their hands.

Now that Professor Steve Azaiki has disclosed the gathering of a constitutional review committee and PRONACO as its blood bank, would there be another call for a sovereign national conference whereby indicated that the entire nation would have a sense of purpose in which a sovereign national conference would be the main focus of the constitution review committee? The National Think Tank made it clear where it will be getting all of its materials for reviewing the constitution. They include National Political Reform Conference, Presidential Technical Committee, National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Reform and the National Conference which has been PRONACO's doing from day 1.

We've seen all these before and hopefully if it becomes just blowing another hot air, there will be no other choice than to be moving on. Whatever it is, I think the constitution of 1999 should be entirely rewritten which should include people from all walks of life from around which the nation has been shaped. That would make sense, or else, we should keep moving on.

Whatever happened to that call for a Sovereign National Conference? Did the callers change their minds or they perhaps want to keep moving on? Time will tell.