National confab delegates to meet over report

Call for constituent assembly on new constitution

THE National Conference delegates are to meet and perfect strategy to pressurise President Goodluck Jonathan to set up a constituent assembly to write a new constitution for the country based on the recommendations of the conference, according to former President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and delegate to the conference, Prof. Kimse Okoko.

  Okoko told The Guardian in Port Harcourt that some committed delegates are to meet soon to press on their case for implementation of the report of the conference by President Jonathan who had promised to do so.

  He said though the President had during one his re-election 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 up a constituent assembly comprising Nigerians of impeccable character to prepare a new constitution for the country based on the conference report.

  Okoko said 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, adding that 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.

  Okoko said the delegates are hopeful that if the constituent assembly draws up a new constitution for the country, the National Assembly will merely usher it in just as the case with the 1963 Constitution, saying 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 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.