Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has called for the constitution to be redesigned.
The Ondo State Governor said that is the only way the yearnings and aspirations of the people must be met.
He said a redesigned constitution will reflect the interests of the various ethnic groups in the country well taken care of.
The Governor, who spoke at the 67th Anniversary and Annual Reunion of the Loyola College Ibadan Old Boys Association (LOCOBA), observed that the current agitations in the country were a pointer to the necessity and exigency of fundamental adjustments in the constitution of the country.
Arakunrin Akeredolu, an alumnus of Loyola College, was the Guest Speaker at the event.
He delivered a lecture titled “Redesigning The Nigerian Constitution For National Development And Inclusiveness.”
While urging the constitution review committee of the National Assembly to ensure that all submissions on the proposed constitutional amendments were well scrutinised and analysed, Akredolu maintained that such move should be taken in order for the committee to come up with useful suggestions on the way forward.
“Democracy operates, presumably, on the principles of freedom to choose representative leadership, reflective of political alignments as dictated by current exigencies, a group’s exercise of considerable control on socio-economic activities and preservation of its identity as a component unit within a broader political entity.
“It is permissive, on a liberal scale, of the rights of individual citizens. It also imposes duties and places checks on propensities towards licentiousness.
“The Constitution of a country is the basic law. The aspirations, anxieties and expectations of a political entity must be well captured in the document.
“All other laws must flow from this legal fount. It is not important for a constitution to be voluminous. It should be concise and written in a simple but elegant prose. It should leave no section of the country, for which it is designed, in doubt as regards inclusivity. All component units must participate as equal partners,” he said.
Akeredolu further stressed that it was an indictment on the members of the elite class to have allowed the current situation to endure, saying it mirrored the depth of understanding of politics and political processes of the ruling class.
