A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Thursday, described Nigeria’s government structure as fragile.
Agbakoba, who stated this at a press conference held in his office in Lagos, insisted that Nigeria’s current governance structures are too weak and needed to be strengthened through critical laws and policies.
The senior lawyer stated that people cannot continue to assume that the component units in the country want to stay together without asking themselves the important questions of, ‘Do we want to be one? If the answer is yes, how will do so?”
According to him, Nigeria would not survive the ongoing security crisis if the country is not restructured and a new constitution enacted.
He, therefore, advocated for massive legislation and executive action on formulating a new constitution for the country if President Bola Tinubu is to achieve his ambitious goal of growing Nigeria’s GDP to $1 trillion in seven years.
The renowned constitutional lawyer urged the National Assembly to adopt the recommendation of the late Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze and invoke section 41 and section 44 of the Constitution and give the nation a new constitution that all would embrace.
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“All the National Assembly need to do is detach the schedule from the Act and replace it with the new Constitution, the matter resolved rather than every new Assembly discussing the same issue because we can’t make economic and political progress if we have a discussion that’s lasting 23 years,” he added.
The former NBA President maintained that the Tinubu administration has a unique opportunity to articulate and drive an uncommon agenda for development.
He added that the President needed to be specific and time-bound in his implementation plan; otherwise, it would be all talk and no progress.
Agbakoba, who noted that the National Assembly was in the best position to work on it, urged the 10th Assembly to address the problem of the survival of Nigeria immediately.
He further noted that Nigerians have not sat down to ask that question that Bola Ige asked long ago: ‘‘Do we want to be one country?’ Therefore, when that question is answered in the positive, then the second question will be: what kind of country do we want?’’
He maintained that nothing says Nigeria must be one country, adding that “it’s not sacrosanct that we must be one country. If, in being one country, you have all the killings you have in Jos, in Abuja, everywhere. What’s the point of being one country?
The Senor Advocate of Nigeria said, “So, governance is like someone who wants to build a 10-storey, 12-storey building. He will call an architect, and the architect will see a bungalow and advise the developer that I can’t put a structure on the bungalow. I need to have a new foundation. So, governance is about a foundation. As I said in that lecture, a country struggling with a foundation for 23 years cannot be a serious country.
”I can’t build this house. I can’t build Nigeria based on a weak government structure. It is the most fundamental process if you want the country to grow. So, Nigeria’s government structure is fragile. I’ll give about 10 examples of why this is so.
“If you have a wife fighting, you cannot have peace. And you cannot think about how to develop. So if today somebody is blowing up somebody’s head in Abuja, tomorrow it’s everywhere you go. And as I said in that lecture, we can learn lessons from history. Europe went through this process.
Agbakoba further stated that Nigeria cannot resolve her insecurity problems by military solution.
“Quote me. If we continue on this path to deploy military resources, and I don’t even know how much has been spent by the military in acquiring armaments, we can’t win. It’s a mistake. We cannot resolve our problem with a military solution. It will not happen.
“You know that the Americans did all they could, bombing Cambodia, Vietnam, but they lost. A ragtag Vietnamese army beat the world’s most powerful country. Why? Because the Viets fought an irregular war.
“So, military option will not give Nigeria peace that you can take from me. If it happens in two years, I’ll give you a free lunch. So the first thing we must do is to find a way to resolve our crisis.”
The former NBA President also called for the involvement of traditional rulers in the draft of a new constitution, adding that they are the people who will shift Nigeria and give the country political peace for development.
The legal icon, however, lamented that in his 45 years at the Bar, the nation’s judiciary had never been as low as this.
Agbakoba urged the National Assembly to break up what he called ‘the mafia in the Supreme Court by legislating that appointment to the Supreme Court could come from the Bench, the Bar and the academia.
”I think we have; what do you call legal failure? Many of you would realise that nothing works in this country. I mean, look at what happened in the elections. The judiciary has, in my 45 years, never been as low as this. Even the Supreme Court, Justice John Okoro, castigated the Appeal Court for a terrible judgment where they removed virtually everybody in the Plateau political system.
“We can’t grow if we have a weak judiciary. And therefore, the only way to succeed is to break up this mafia in the Supreme Court. It’s like saying, you know what, no woman in Nigeria shall be entitled to political office. That’s what they have done to us in the judiciary. No lawyer is entitled to attain to the Supreme Court. It’s only them. They created a mafia, blocked us out, and appointed themselves. Incestuous relationship! So, they can’t be their best.
“So, I recommended to the National Assembly to understand the difference between the administration of justice. That’s where judges take notes and write versus judicial administration. Concerning judicial administration, the National Assembly can intervene.
“There’s the Federal High Court Act, which sets out how judges should come to the court, how they should be composed. The Constitution only says you must be 15 years old to be a Supreme Court judge. Nothing else,’’ he said.
Agbakoba also stated that there should be a law governing the process of appointments of senior judges, adding that ‘we can’t leave it to the National Judicial Council.
The senior lawyer called for the unbundling of INEC and urged the 10th National Assembly presided over by its chairman, Senate President Akpabio to simply enact the recommendations of the Uwais Panel.
