Moghalu disagrees with Tinubu, wants urgent constitutional reform

A former presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) in the 2019 general elections, Kingsley Moghalu, has expressed his disagreement with President Bola Tinubu’s response to The Patriots call for urgent constitutional reform in Nigeria.

The Patriots, led by former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, recently paid a visit to President Tinubu to advocate for a new constitution.

After acknowledging the call made by The Patriots, Tinubu said that his main priority is the country’s economic reform.

Reacting to the visit, Moghalu, a member of The Patriots group, argued that economic transformation is linked to constitutional reform.

“I respectfully disagree with President Tinubu’s response to the visit to him by The Patriots, led by former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, during which the group (of which I am a member) pressed for a new Constitution for Nigeria as a matter of urgency, and recommending specific steps to achieve this,” Moghalu wrote on his X handle.

“While PBAT received the eminent elder statesman and his colleagues with the appropriate dignity and protocols (“this is a group I cannot ignore”, Tinubu noted), the President asserted that economic reform (and the crisis that it has created in the country) is his priority right now, but that his government would of course study the recommendations of The Patriots and respond (hopefully with action and not merely words).

“What Nigeria’s leaders fail to understand is that it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bring a fundamental fix to Nigeria’s economy in the absence of a new constitution that is anchored on real federalism, and preferably anchored on a regional structure of 6-12 regions. The reason is that Nigeria is a country but not yet a nation.

“There is no unity of purpose, no cohering worldview. And this is because the country means different things to different groups. The very essence of Nigeria, what it is in reality (as opposed to the “one indivisible entity” parroted by its leaders for decades) is fundamentally contested.

“As examples of economically successful nations all over the world show, real nationhood is a fundamental requirement for an economic rise based on productivity-driven transformation. I have stressed this in many of my writings, speeches, and other interventions. The longer this matter is delayed (presumably because it is a sensitive and politically challenging matter) the more we will continue to struggle.”

Moghalu added:”Even more fundamentally, as the eminent diplomat reminded President Tinubu (essentially), Nigeria as a pluralistic country that refuses to turn its plurality into a workable nationhood through an appropriate federal constitution, runs the risk of disintegration in the medium to long term. This is not “alarmism” (for those who have not studied the history of nations). It is a historical fact.“