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In a deeply reflective and uncompromising interview on the State of the Nation program on Peoples 105.5 FM Abuja, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, has issued a clarion call for Nigeria to discard its 1999 Constitution and adopt a truly people-driven document.

Speaking as a special guest and representative of The Patriots, an advocacy group of elder statesmen and professionals pushing for constitutional change, the 87-year-old former governor did not mince words in describing the current constitution as illegitimate, deceptive, and fundamentally flawed.

Attah opened the conversation by clarifying one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the advocacy for constitutional change. When asked whether The Patriots were pushing for an amendment or a complete rewrite, his answer was emphatic and direct: “We are quite clear on the issue of the constitution. We cannot amend what is so fundamentally bad. We need a completely new constitution.”

The elder statesman criticized the false premise on which the current constitution stands. Referring to the famous opening words of the 1999 Constitution, he remarked bitterly, “No Nigerian agreed to come together to be poor. No Nigerians agreed to come together to be massacred because of insecurity. No Nigerians agreed to come together to put up with the kind of suffering that we’re going through now… But I don’t want to blame it on this government because it started right from the beginning.”

Drawing from his personal political journey, Attah recalled the early years of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. As one of the founding members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he reminisced about the high hopes of the G34 and the struggles to build a national platform that could offer credible leadership. Yet, according to him, what unfolded instead was a degeneration into party instability and opportunistic politics. “We went and pitched Senator Wahab Dosumu from the AD, thought we had done something great… We went and took Vincent Obolafo, who gave Oji Kalu the toughest run in the governorship election in Abia. First, we made him a minister, then national secretary, then national chairman of the party. It shows that the parties don’t even know what they’re doing.”

He didn’t hold back in admitting that he no longer belongs to any political party. “No, no, no, I’m not a member of any party at all. I’m too old to belong to any party. I’m an elder statesman. I’m prepared to serve this country as a person who has experienced quite a bit of what is bad and what could be corrected, and therefore I have a good opinion on certain things—but not from any political platform.”

Attah then turned his attention to the prevailing instability within Nigeria’s political parties, pointing to frequent defections, lack of ideological consistency, and the absence of internal democracy. He cited President Bola Tinubu’s own observation, referencing the President’s description of Nigeria’s current political landscape as being dominated by “IDPs—internally displaced politicians from various parties.” Attah extended the criticism, noting, “But even his own party is made of IDPs. Look at all the people that were not so long ago in PDP that are now in APC and holding forth and being the people directing the affairs in APC.”

In Attah’s view, the absence of independent candidacy further compounds the problem. “Why should we refuse to have independent candidature?” he asked, tying it directly to Nigeria’s leadership recruitment crisis. Comparing Nigeria’s present system to the parliamentary system that existed pre-1966, he recalled, “When we had a parliamentary system, leadership recruitment meant you grew within the party. The party recognizes that you are in a position to implement their philosophy and their principles and be able to serve the people according to how they think the people should be served.”

But today, he lamented, parties have become mere election platforms. “You can jump from there and form a coalition somewhere, so long as then you become the leader of that party. That is not what a party should be. That is not a party at all. It’s just a platform for getting a ticket to contest an election.”

Attah’s criticism extended to how parties are run, describing a chronic lack of internal organization: “The parties don’t even know who their chairman is, or who their secretary is, and so on. How can that be?”

Reiterating The Patriots’ position, Attah emphasized that the new constitution they seek will include strong institutional safeguards. “We want a completely new commission made by the people that will bring in certain safeguards, and those safeguards will make sure, particularly, that the sovereignty returns to the people, they’re able to elect freely who they want, and there is productivity.”

He pointed to Nigeria’s current economic structure as a hindrance to growth, decrying the so-called “feeding bottle federalism” that rewards states for dependence rather than production. “So long as there’s no competition, and we’re doing this feeding bottle method… there can be no growth. Because you just know every month, a certain amount of money must come to you, just by being a state. Whether you produce or you don’t produce, it does not matter.”

Attah stressed that without productivity and competition, Nigeria would remain stagnant. “If it is not large enough, you make do with it. If it is large enough, you try and do something with it. But there’s no incentive for you to, in any way, produce.”

When asked about the repeated failures of past national conferences, Attah pointedly explained why previous efforts failed. Referring to the constitutional conference organized under Abacha, he said, “It was a military edict. It was not what the people decided.” On Jonathan’s 2014 National Conference, Attah said, “Jonathan did it, and nothing at all came out of it because he left it too late. When Buhari came, he totally threw away what Jonathan did because he said it was a Jonathan conference.”

A core problem, according to Attah, has been the lack of legal backing and sovereign authority for such conferences. “They were saying the National Assembly, who are the elected representatives of the people, must pass a bill to have this, convoke this conference. Because without that… there cannot be two sovereign bodies.”

But Attah and The Patriots believe there’s a way forward. Their proposal is clear: the National Assembly should pass a bill authorizing the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference whose resolutions will carry binding force.

“They should pass a bill to convoke this conference. And when that happens, that conference will have the sovereign right to sit down and prepare a proper constitution. And it must have representation from all the ethnic nationalities and all the socio-cultural groups so that it is a Nigerian constitution,” he said.

The elder statesman called out the deceptive nature of the current 1999 Constitution, noting its origins as a military edict. “At the end of this edict, there’s an addendum that can be cited as the Nigerian constitution,” he said. “But when you now open the convention and say, ‘We the people of Nigeria,’ why, that’s a blatant lie. The people of Nigeria never sat down… and now we know the history.”

Attah spoke of the country’s military era mindset, where centralization of power was prioritized over democracy. “Some people were asked to help the military write this edict and decided that if we have a strong person that can hold the country together, maybe there’ll be peace. That is wrong.”

When asked about the potential for achieving restructuring through constitutional amendments or piecemeal legislative actions, Attah firmly rejected the idea. “It cannot be piecemeal. That’s my position. Today they are shouting for state police. How long ago did I not shout for state police? We cannot think, oh, this one in nursery today, we’ll do it today. The other one in nursery tomorrow… Let’s do a comprehensive rewrite of this constitution that will bring in certain safeguards that don’t exist in the present constitution.”

Attah confidently declared that the process would not take long if political will existed. “It will not be a big conference. In fact, in six months this can be done, even including the referendum… All the parameters, all the framework has been discussed and agreed over time. It’s just a matter of the implementation that’s just lacking.”

Pressed further about whether a referendum could even happen given that it’s not currently provided for in the 1999 Constitution, Attah was dismissive of that obstacle: “In six months it can be done.”

According to him, the people’s will must be tested through a referendum: “If we can just create a small college of people to do this, then we subject it to a referendum. That’s where the will of the people will be exercised. That referendum will give us a Nigerian constitution for Nigeria. The way the present constitution is just a blatant lie.”

Touching on political advocacy, Attah reflected on The Patriots’ audience with President Tinubu last year where the group presented its demands for a new constitution. Attah described Tinubu’s response as “noncommittal.”

When asked what The Patriots would do if the president refuses to act, Attah insisted that the ultimate solution rests with the people’s voice. “If the people say this is what he should do, the president—if he’s not a dictator, if he’s not going against the will of the people—he should do what the people want him to do.”

More pointedly, Attah suggested that Tinubu is the best person to oversee the constitutional transition, precisely because of his own experiences with constitutional injustice. “This particular president is in the best position to do it because he suffered the consequences of the type of thing that this constitution allows to happen.”

Attah added a stark warning: “If he doesn’t do it, he will have left a worse Nigeria than he made it.”

The conversation turned to electoral politics and the possibility of The Patriots supporting a particular candidate or party platform in the future. While Attah said that The Patriots are non-partisan and include people from various political backgrounds, he left the door slightly open: “We’re not bound to any particular party… The important thing is that we have a common goal of changing Nigeria and making it a better place.”

When pressed on his personal preference for Nigeria’s governance model, Attah did not hesitate: “I feel that the parliamentary system served us better, quite honestly.”

Explaining further, he said the parliamentary model ensured that local communities had real power to determine their representatives and leaders. “That is the fundamental—the right for you to exercise your sovereignty and decide who should represent you. We don’t have it today. And that’s what killed everything because all the groups that call themselves parties have been captured by cliques. And these cliques determine who even gets the ticket, who goes on to contest election.”

Attah did not spare the judiciary from criticism, recounting his dissatisfaction with a past Supreme Court ruling on the onshore-offshore oil revenue dispute. Quoting the former Chief Justice of the Federation, he said, “There can be no dispute between federating units and the federation because it is the aggregate boundaries of the federating units that form the boundary of the federation.” Yet, Attah noted, “The Supreme Court went and decided that Nigeria can have two boundaries… That is the kind of influence that a president can have even over something like the Supreme Court that should be Supreme in its decision.”

In closing, Attah warned against concentrating too much power at the federal level, pointing to the lopsided exclusive legislative list. “Out of 96 items in the schedule, 63 are exclusive to the federal government. Only 30 are concurrent and concurrency means if what you want to do does not conform with what the federal government wants, the federal government overrides it. So it is just handing a whole country like Nigeria to one person to a minister. It cannot work.”

Looking ahead, Attah revealed that The Patriots will hold a major national conference from July 15th to 17th to build public momentum for the constitutional change they seek. While not certain whether the conference would be open to the general public, he made its purpose clear: “To mobilize, to prick the conscience of the people, to say that you are not getting what you should get. You are not being governed the way you should be governed. Rise up and say so. And if there’s a strong enough voice of the people saying we want change, then the government, even if it was reluctant, would have to succumb.”

As the interview concluded, Attah expressed gratitude for the platform, promising to remain committed to the cause. Nigeria, he argued, is at a crossroads—and this time, the people must decide.

StreetReporters.ng

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