Mr Olawale Okunniyi, Head of the National Secretariat of the Movement for Credible Elections, has categorically stated that Nigeria will never attain true democracy because the foundation upon which the Constitution was formulated is flawed, News.ng reports.
Okunniyi, who made this known during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise programme on Wednesday, explained that the 1999 Constitution, largely accepted as a law, was originally a decree (Decree 24 of 1999).
According to him, the economic reforms initiated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not achieve their intended aim because the foundation is faulty.
He said: “The constitution that we have, we have today; it is not democratic. And you want to build democracy on it, you will never get democracy. That is the flaw of the Nigerian state.
“Because that constitution was imposed as a law, decree 24 of 1999. And if the foundation, according to the Bible, is faulty, what can the righteous do? All the righteousness of economic reform we are doing will never work. And we told the president that.”
He stressed that Tinubu’s economic reforms will not have a positive impact on the Nigerian people.
He buttressed his argument, saying that the people were forced into accepting the Constitution; hence, the celebration of June 12 should be a sober reflection on the country’s past and future.
As the country marks 27 years of uninterrupted democracy, the policy analyst claimed that elected officials get into office by bribing and forcing their way in.
“When the Patriot visited him in Aso Villa, there will never be any economics that will have impact on the Nigerian, because the foundation upon which the country is seated is flawed. And we have seen that there is no way if there is no agreement of the people on how they want to run their life, and they have this imposition that National Assembly continue to doctor every time, and so to serve the political class, we are going nowhere. Therefore, it should be a day where we do re-sober, solemn reflection on the past and the future of Nigeria.
“And then we come out with some resolution to say, look, one, two, three resolutions. We need to do A, B, C. But unfortunately, people who go to government didn’t get there by democracy in any case. They go there through their money and through the force.
And therefore, they’re careless about democracy. Because what we have today is, it cannot be; it is not; and it will never be, because the foundation of it is decree number 24 of 1999. So we need to come together on that day,” he noted.
He proposed that for a change to occur, the right people ought to be in the right places.
“Not selective, not just bring balloon politician into Abuja and then begin to masturbate politically. No, you bring the right set of people with principles, people who have fought for people; I mean, you can check. The president himself can check, and then we become one and reflect, irrespective of partisanship.
“There shouldn’t be partisanship in building our democracy because today, you have very huge, frightening, heightening insecurity. And you continue to have it. Play here will not solve it for you,” he added.
Watch the clip:
