A BRAND NEW CONSTITUTION IS PANCEA FOR AMICABLY RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 6. NO 220. 29th October, 2017.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

A BRAND NEW CONSTITUTION IS PANCEA FOR AMICABLY RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA!

NIGERIA, as the undisputable Giant of Africa in numerical strength, highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), economic/military strength, outstanding international peace-keeping records etc, and having celebrated 57 years as an independent nation, should not continue to be hood-winked with a bogus 1999 Military Document, which National Assembly Legislators still romance with great passion to their advantage!

This inherited martial laws have caused greater havoc in diversity instead of uniting the over 500 tribes, 250 languages/tongues and whereas, a concise, unambiguous, articulate, authentic, and more pragmatic brand new National Constitution should be highly beneficial and more advantageous for this great nation in order to maintain a convincing leadership role in all ramifications, over and above other countries in the Black African Continent!
But the present crop of Legislators of the National Assembly (NASS), who are constitutionally saddled with the duties of LAW-MAKING, think otherwise because they are procrastinating the urgent need for the inauguration of both the CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE AND CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY that would draft/craft a fresh and genuine constitutional document of "WE THE PEOPLE OF NIGERIA .......and not the 1999 FRAUD, which should have read, "WE THE MILITARY JUNTA OF NIGERIA... ; to replace, nullify and abrogate the booby-trap bequeathed to Nigerians! Though the legislators are pretentious to be disillusioned over this lingering and volatile debate, the advocacy, public outcry and demands for a BRAND NEW CONSTITUTION, by all CIVIL SOCIETY/NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS, (CSOs,&NGOs), in Nigeria and Diaspora, have taken the front burner before the Change Administration, for urgent implementation.
The cumbersome, tedious, fruitless and frustrating journey of "constitutional amendments" (beginning with a harmonized NASS version that must be  approved by two-thirds majority of both chambers; and on to the transmission of the proposed amendments to the 36 States Assemblies for the approval of each Assembly by two-thirds majority; and the eventual return journey of the approved document to NASS for a fresh harmonization; before a CLEAN COPY would be forwarded to the President for ASSENT; an exercise in futility that always ended in wastages of scarce funds is no longer acceptable by Nigerians!  

GLARING FLAWS OF THE UNITARY 1999 MILITARY CONSTITUTION!
(1) It is common knowledge that all military institutions organisation charts are vertically-integrated and unitary in nature and so is the 1999 Constitution handed over to the Nigerian people at their disengagement from partisan politics on 29th May, 1999 devoid of the impute of a National Conference, Plebiscite or even a Referendum!
(2) Greater powers are vested to the centre i.e. the Presidency, more that the Federating States;
(3) All lands in the country  were grabbed in the military fashion through the obnoxious LAND USE ACT, thereby depriving the citizens of decent/adequate accomodations and farm lands that could serve as colaterals;
(4) The social contracts which include human rights to potable water, food security/sufficiency, motorable roads, arable lands for massive agricultural diversification of the economy, employment opportunities, national living wages, pension facilities to the aged and retired workers etc,;
(5) The entire Constitution was written in the masculine gender to marginalize the women, who have greater figures in the national population of 170 million people and the pronoun, "he" is regarded as UNISEX;
(6) Other notable flaws can be found in the State Creation, the Electoral Organisers expected to be members of political parties, the Judiciary and Ministry of Finance where professional and political offices are merged into  one office to create more confusion; lack of a defined autonomous status of Local governments; ambiguous fiscal and revenue-sharing formula between Federal and State governments etc, many of these confusions have been re-defined at the apex court with very little reprieve!
THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER CONFLICTS IN THE 1999 CONSTITUTION THAT ARE FAR MORE THAN THOSE LISTED ABOVE AND CANNOT FIND SPACE IN THIS TREATISE!

LEGISLATORS DELIBERATE DERELICTION OF DUTY!
The National Assembly on assumption of office 1999 discovered these ambiguities, inadequacies, irregularities/shortcomings/lacunas which should have prompted quick intervention during the 4th and 5th Assemblies of ex-President Obasanjo's tenure, but delayed the evil day which has eventually reared its ugly head in the form of demands for diverse kinds of RESTRUCTURING, like DEVOLUTION OF POWER from the CENTRE to federating States, RESOURCE CONTROL by Crude Oil producing  States, reversal to REGIONAL system of the 1960s and even - SECESSION!

The Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009 through claims of marginalization by the SECT, while PRO-BIAFRA GROUPS also hinged their protests on a similar grouse, but instead of setting in motion necessary modalities for the crafting of a brand new constitution, to rectify all identified anomalies, these selfish legislators embarked on brain-washing the citizens with the doctrine of constitutional amendments as a way out of the quagmire because the labyrinth of similes, metaphors and innuendos with which the offending 1999 Constitution was laced, "favoured" them with immense financial benefits!

MAD RUSH FOR NIGERIA'S GOLD-MINE POLITICS!
The faulty military document created the stampede of new breed of mercenary "do-or-die" politicians between 1999 and 2015, and the desperados were quick to jump ship from one Party to another as long as they would gain relevance in the band wagon of money-monger gangs and no remarkable achievement was recorded in the direction of crafting a new Constitution!
In fact, the last exercise of the un-amendable jig-saw puzzles in the 1999 Constitution during ex-President Jonathan's administration, was thrown into the garbage bin while the present and ongoing attempt has hit a brick wall because, for very ambitious, selfish and greedy reasons both chambers are yet to harmonize all areas of discords among the 33 Major Bills which were voted on - an exact repetition of the 2014 document which Jonathan refused to sign into law because of selfish desires of the legislators to whittle down and eventually usurp Executive and presidential powers!

NASS INNOVATION OF "DOCTRINE OF NECESSITY"!
The late President Umaru Yar'Adua (2007-2010), left Nigeria for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia without fulfilling the constitutional "hand-over" provision (Section 145 of the 1999 constitution), to his Vice, Ebele Jonathan, and thus created a lacuna in the full throttle of day-to-day administration because the latter could not exercise full authority as Executive President/Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, in acting capacity!
Was Jonathan not embarrassed, restricted, hampered, and unable to administer the nation as the ailment of the incumbent president prolonged BECAUSE THE DUMMY 1999 CONSTITUTION DID NOT MAKE PROVISION FOR AN ALTERNATIVE ACTION TO REMEDY SUCH ABSENCE OF CHANGE OF GUARDS IF IT WAS OMITTED OR DELIBERATELY SIDE-LINED, as in that instance, until the Senate came up with the invention of a "DOCTRINE OF NECESSITY", which then gave Ebele Jonathan, the constitutional power of an Acting President?

THE URGENT COMMISSIONING OF A CONSTITUTION REVIEW COMMITTEE AND CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY BY APC IS IMPERATIVE!
The duty of a Constituent Assembly (CA), to be composed by representatives from the SIX GEO-POLITICAL ZONES CONSTITUENCIES will be to DELIBERATE upon a draft constitution to be produced by Constitution Review Committee (CRC), made up of TRUE, LEGITIMATE, & BONA-FIDE PEOPLE OF NIGERIA from all walks of life -  politicians, CSO's, NGO's, university youths/students, the ivory tower scholars, technocrats, professionals, industrialists, captains of industries, lawyers, judges, the aged, motor drivers, market women, traders, farmers, the physically disadvantaged, the rich and the poor, etc; from all the 774 Local Government Areas of the federation, and then PAINSTAKINGLY SIFT AND THOROUGHLY VET the document for Executive approval by the FEDERAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (FEC), as a brand new CONSTITUTION of the Federal Republic of Nigeria! This feat can be achieved before the next elections!
THE "ABRACADABRA" 2014 NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF EX-PRESIDENT JONATHAN (OF 492 DELEGATES AND WHICH GULPED ABOUT N18 BILLION OF THE TAX-PAYERS MONEY), IS STILL FRESH IN MEMORY OF NIGERIANS - THOUGH THE ENTIRE EXCERCISE WENT DOWN THE DRAIN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND DELEGATES WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN PROSECUTED FOR ECONOMIC SABOTAGE ARE WALKING FREE!
A BRAND NEW CONSTITUTION WILL TAKE CARE OF THE COMMON MAN'S NEEDS AND HE WOULD BEGIN TO ENJOY A BRAND NEW LIFE DEVOID OF RANCOUR AND ACRIMONY! It is written," When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn."(Prov 29:2 KJV)

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.