National conference delegates to push for setting up constituent assembly

NATIONAL conference delegates are to meet and perfect strategy to pressurize President Goodluck Jonathan to set up a constituent assembly to write  a new constitution for the country based on the recommendations of the conference.

The Guardian gathered that fear of distorting the report was one of the primary reason why delegates of the national conference and the presidency did not deem it appropriate to submit the report to the present National Assembly.

Former President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and delegate to the conference, Professor Kimse Okoko, told The Guardian in Port Harcourt that some  committed delegates are to meet soon to press on their case for the implementation of the report of the conference by President Jonathan who had promised to do so.

Okoko said though the President had during one his reelection campaigns recently made an entreaty to Nigerians  to elect people that will be amenable to the implementation of the works of the national conference, the delegates would mount pressure on the federal government to set a constituent assembly compromising of Nigerians of impeccable character to prepare a new constitution for the country based on the conference report.

He revealed that the President is disposed to setting a constituent assembly to draw up the constitution for the country. He  observed that if the recommendations of the conference had been sent to the National Assembly, the members would not implement the report because of the partisan disposition of the federal lawmakers. And based on this possibility, some committed members of the conference have decided to constitute a pressure group outside government that would push for the writing of a new constitution for the country and full  implementation of the report submitted to the president.

“I am sure he (the president)  is aware that if he sends the report to the National Assembly as it is today, it will not pass and our own pressure group from the national conference, we are fully aware of that possibility and that is why we will plan the tactics and strategy that we will adopt to assist the president in the implementation process.  We know the National Assembly handwork. If you see the amendments they have passed so far, it is mere self serving amendments. Can you imagine any National Assembly, if they take themselves serious, talking about impunity for the National Assembly members, but no impunity for president and governors. Most of them are there for themselves. That is the lack of seriousness  in the National Assembly. We in the conference knew that if this document is sent to them, they will kill it” he said.

Okoko said the delegates are hopeful that if the constituent assembly draw up a new constitution for the country, the National Assembly merely  usher it in just as the case with the 1963 constitution. He argued that the National Assembly will not be able to produce a new constitution for the country because they are partisan politicians who would most probably not be concerned about national interest. According to him, the beauty of the national conference is that even though they had politicians among the delegates, there were many non-politicians at the conference which explains why it was easy to reach consensus on many issues.

“I believe the president will implement the report, because he himself has accepted the fact that Nigeria needs a new constitution. We the delegates  will try to ensure that the President will have the support of the nation to implement the report. we believe the pressure should be mounted from outside government to assist him in the implementation process and for most of us, implementation cannot be short of drawing up a new constitution based on the work of the national conference,” he said.