FOR A SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONSTITUTION

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: There shall be a Unicameral Legislature. One Single Chamber (for emphasis) that shall be called The National Assembly. There shall be no Senate and no House of Representatives. Representatives shall be elected from every one million population, to the nearest million. Therefore, using the still-relevant 2006 Census of 140 million Nigerians (www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/nbsapps/Connections/Pop2006.pdf), […]

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: There shall be a Unicameral Legislature. One Single Chamber (for emphasis) that shall be called The National Assembly. There shall be no Senate and no House of Representatives.

Representatives shall be elected from every one million population, to the nearest million. Therefore, using the still-relevant 2006 Census of 140 million Nigerians (www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/nbsapps/Connections/Pop2006.pdf), there shall be a National Assembly of 140 members (for example, nine members each from Kano and Lagos states, two each from Bayelsa and Nasarawa states). All members shall have to be honourable. They shall not include those types a former President claimed there are in the present Chambers. There shall be no member coming from being ‘unemployed’; and no member below forty; no unmarried male (for females, marriage should be an added advantage, not a barrier). Each member shall be entitled to a three-year single term and, and thence return to their place of work from where they took leave-of-absence. They shall assemble Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and return to their constituencies Fridays Saturdays and Sundays, worship with constituents in the local mosques and churches, and return to Abuja Mondays. Constituency contact shall be part of the legislative calendar. Members shall be entitled to the salary of a Director in the Federal Civil Service, plus incidentals such as transport and accommodation. They can travel abroad once a year, no more. They can choose Mecca or Jerusalem, not both.

THE NATIONAL JUDICIARY: There shall be a National Judiciary of honourable people, not, as alleged again just this week by the same former President and a State Governor to boot, some of the dishonourable types we may have at present. There shall be no repeat of the trial of the fugitive Dubai-London ex-Governor, or plea-bargains, or trial of The Bankers (six months’ sentences or discharge and acquittal for ‘lack of diligent prosecution’). Any judicial officer found wanting (you know, ‘wanting’) must be shown the way out (and there are some ‘wanters’, if we are to believe what the media quoted the Top Judge and a former Top Judge saying recently). When shown the way out, allow no gratuity, no pension, no MON. Let alone add ‘EY’. And people learned in religion, both Muslim and Christian, should be appointed among judges. So are people known and adjudged to be honest (two retired military Generals come to mind).

THE NATIONAL PRESIDENCY: There shall be a National Presidency of six members, one each from each Geo-Political Zone. Each Member of the Presidential Council shall be elected from within the Zone and sent to the Natiaonal Capital for a single three-year term. The member’s qualification shall be a degree higher (no, not MSc) than a member of The National Assembly. For example, this member shall be at least fifty years old and known all-round to be honourable. Chairmanship of this Council (earning, therefore, the title His Excellency Mr. President) shall be in rotation alphabetically by Zone (NC, SE, NE, SS, NW, SW) and by region (North, South) for a period of a single six-month term. Should a Member of this exalted Council become otherwise incapacitated, a bye-election shall be held for replacement in the particular Zone. And if by that time the Zone is Mr. President, it will go to the next Zone and return to the bye-electee at the end of the tenure, to conclude their Zonal term. All other conditions shall remain as obtained in The National Assembly, except that the pay shall be equivalent to a Federal Permanent Secretary. And all Villa cutleries shall be ‘Made in Nigeria’.

NATIONAL STRUCTURE: States and Local Governments shall be abrogated, and the six GEO-POLITICAL ZONES shall be the new Federating Units. Zonal Capitals shall be situated at a present state capital which approximates the geographical centre of the Zone (for example, Gusau for the North West and Gombe for the North East). Then, every two million chunk of the population, to the nearest two millions, shall constitute a PROVINCE. Therefore, while the present Nasarawa and Bayelsa states shall become Provinces automatically, the present Lagos and Kano states shall have four Provinces each (having over nine million population), and then they shall negotiate away (or in) their extra half-a-Province or one million people (1.3 million in the case of Kano) with their neighbours, say Ogun (for Lagos) and Jigawa (for Kano). Geo-political zones shall have Premiership Councils and Zonal Assemblies (one representative per 500,000 people) with significantly lower salaries than those at the National Level. Provinces shall have Provincial Councils and Provincial Assemblies (one representative per 200,000 people), with still lower pays. Because of fractions, there may more than the 70 Provinces our 140 million population will allow, but that can also be negotiated. All political office holders shall be honourable people. Tested and trusted. And there shall be no immunity impunity. And let there be border adjustment. Whichever group feels unhappy with their present geographical location, let them negotiate and join others. (For example, even though Auchi is perfectly situated in the South South, I would love to have those people over here. Some may want Kabba over there too). And let there be permanent settlements for the Fulani for us to enjoy peace, meat, milk, cow-tail, cow-leg, ganda/ponmo.

NATIONAL RESOURCES: “Dangote: Made in Kano, Enjoyed Around the Nation”. By all means let there be Fiscal Federalism. And Fiscal Regionalism. And Fiscal Provincialism. Let there be Resource Control. Let them have their oil wealth. God gave them. So let them have it. Kano shall then, for example, claim The Dangote Resource. Plus the GCON. All taxes and revenues and collectables from any Dangote venture (or Dantata and Sawoe, for that matter) shall be shared between the geographical location of the venture and Kano State, which produced the Entrepreneurship Resource. God gave her. As God gave Borno State cattle. And onions to Kebbi. And carrots and sugarcane to Zaria Province. And yams to Benue. And cassava flour to Nasarawa. And tomatoes to the whole North. And kilishi to Bauchi. And wahala to others. Let them all have it.

NATIONAL IMAGE: Any criminal Hausaman arrested in Saudi Arabia for pick-pocketing or black-magic-ing, let them announce his name, his father’s name, his village, his province. Name him and shame him. Similarly, let us know the names of the Ibos on death row in Indonesia. Shame their villages. Or the Edo girls prostituting in Italy. Or the 419 Yorubaman in London. Name them, shame them. At the end of every year, in the spirit of Federal Character, let the National Bureau of Statistics publish our country’s National Foreign Crime Scorecard. Let high-crime Zones and Provinces be fined heavily and the funds put in the National Kitty (CBN and Defence shall continue to be Federal, lest we forget).

You think these ideas are preposterous? It can’t be worse than our present situation. And, if we have to have a Sovereign National Conference in order to get a Sovereign National Constitution, so be it. Better divorce than unhappy marriage. We, the People say so!