National Assembly Lacks Political Will To Amend The Constitution — Adegboruwa SAN

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a human rights activist and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says the proposed amendment of the 1999 constitution is a waste of time.

He said the current national assembly does not have the capacity or political will to effect the necessary review.

The legal practitioner spoke in reaction to the public hearings on the review of the constitution.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Friday, Adegboruwa said there is a need for a national conference so that Nigerians can “formulate and agree upon the means for mutual coexistence”.

He also faulted Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy senate president, on his position that the constitution does not make provision for the national assembly to develop a new constitution.

“The process of amending constitution to satisfy the desires and yearnings of Nigerians cannot be achieved by the current national assembly either due to self-interest, lack of capacity and the political will or purely due to the fact that they know themselves that even if they try such amendment, the president will not assent it,” Adegboruwa said.

“I don’t think anybody would want to amend a system that would consume it, that is the way I see the present national assembly. If we go by the view of the senate president, he doesn’t believe in restructuring in the first place.

“So the exercise of the purported amendment is purely a waste of people’s time. It is a response to the agitations of Nigerians, that’s what this government does all the time.”

In reaction, Abdulrasak Namdas, member, special committee on the constitution amendment, said the national assembly has no selfish interest, noting that the constitution is defective and needs to be worked on.

“This document was handed to us by the military and that is why we believe it is not a perfect document and we have to work on it,” he said.