As the National Assembly gears to undertake the fourth amendment of the 1999 Constitution, elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark, has enjoined the legislators to hold on for suggestions from a National Conference before going ahead with the task.
The Ijaw leader made this known on Wednesday in Abuja, where he was the guest lecturer of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies’ (NIALS) annual lecture on the State of the Federation.
On what to do with the 1999 Constitution, whether to amend or re-write a brand new Constitution, Chief Clark stated that “a Constitution must be written by the people”, adding that “but it is only an amendment of the Constitution that will be keep this country together because if a new Constitution is written it will only benefit the devils-the politicians.”
Speaking on the call for a Sovereign National Conference, the 85 year old stated that “what we need is a National Conference and not a Sovereign National Conference because the result of the sovereign national conference can go anyway.”
He welcomed the conveying of a National Conference “to and discuss the basis of our existence as a nation.” “We have never done this since Lord Luggard put us together in 1914 and a fiat Floral Shaw gave us the name Nigeria” he said.
According to the veteran politician “only a national conference can provide the basis for Nigeria’s unity.”
He appealed to the federal government to “convene a National Conference where we (Nigerians) can discuss the basis of our country, where we can discuss corruption, marginalisation and every other thing.”
“The suggestions of this conference will then be submitted to the National Assembly before the Constitution Amendment is carried out. This is the only way we can have a People’s Constitution”