Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Kenya, Fidelis Tapgun, has said the ongoing constitution review by the National Assembly should revisit the issues of political cum economic restructuring of the country.
 
He noted that a return to the parliamentary system of government, as well as the 1963 Republican Constitution, which guaranteed the quasi-autonomy of regions, would address the issues of impunity among elected officials and indiscipline among Nigerian politicians.
 
Tapgun, who is also a former governor of Plateau State, decried the penchant of some desperate politicians to criss-cross political parties in search of access to political power, noting that such defections do not augur well for the country’s democracy.
 
He recalled how political leaders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) left in droves after the party lost the 2015 general elections, lamenting that instead of sitting down to re-examine its strategies and modus operandi, the party continued to live in denial.
  
Tapgun, who is also a former Minister of Industries, pooh-poohed the recent mass movement of politicians from various parties, saying he does not see any useful purpose for the conglomeration of strange political bedfellows on a common platform.
 
He stated: “I cannot see anything in that (coalition). For me, I don’t subscribe to it at all. This coalition thing I don’t know. People that say they are in the coalition, in ADC, and some are still in APC, some are still in PDP, what sort of system are we running?”

On the likely antidote to political peregrination, Tapgun, who equally served as Director General of Obasanjo/Atiku Campaign Organisation, urged President Bola Tinubu to listen to the Patriots, whom he said are eager to solve the constitutional conundrum confronting the country.