Nigeria Needs Fresh Constitution, Not Amendment

-By Zik Gbemre

Does Nigeria need amendment or review of constitution? The answer is obviously no.

Nigeria doesn’t need a review of constitution as being canvassed by Senators and Reps. Nigeria needs a brand new constitution with a new system of democracy and not presidential system of democracy as it were today, though it is believed that those operating the presidential system of governments in Nigeria at all levels have deviated.

Nigerians must sit down from all States and LGAs and tribes to decide the government they need and not by imposition as 1999 constitution written by few privileged individuals.

All we need is to remove dusts from past confab reports being kept in archives and adopt a fresh system and Nigeria must decide what we need and how the country should be governed to provide checks and balances.

How do you expect House of Reps and Senate to perform same roles? Is that not waste of money? The two houses make laws. The only difference is that Senate approves appointment of political office holders.

Too many wastage in Nigerian government. Too many duplications of functions. In US presidential system of government there is no Secretary To Government because the roles of chief of staff and secretary to government are same functions.

There is nothing like executive governor or executive president but both governors and president have executive functions. Nigeria needs to do away with presidential system of government I consider too expensive to bankrolled by the government of the day.

We need to sit and dialogue on the best democracy that suits the needs of the people. The 1999 constitution won’t improve on Nigerian populace. The 1999 election was better than 2003 election. 2003 election was better than 2007 election. Elections are getting worse as time goes on in Nigeria.

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It is absolute waste of time to review the 1999 constitution. Buhari, Tinubu, Jonathan were/are not problems of Nigeria. The problem is bigger than the leaders. 99.9% of Nigerians crave for ‘kpaje’ money.

Almost every Nigerian elite wants to be public office holders. How do you expect that kind of country to develop? Every sector is corrupt. Those waiting for opportunity to steal are more than leaders of today.

The few persons who are upright are labelled trouble makers. Everybody does eye services to get favour from public office holders. Nigerian medical doctors in UK and US that are excellently doing well in their professions, if you ask them to return to Nigerian with better salaries and allowances you will see their true colours.

They will run the medical facilities aground and steal. Some years ago we were asked by Shell to verify some of their projects in Eku leprosy centre. What we saw was alarming. The medical director then stole N500,000 naira donated to leprosy centre by Shell.

At that time N500,000 was more than N100M because a brand new mercedes-benz car was not up to N500,000. We shamed him but we couldn’t collect the money from him. These are the medical doctors travelling to UK and US now.

An educated medical doctor to have stolen money meant for leprosy patients is the hight of corruption. Tell me which sector is working in Nigeria? The constitutional review and election for 2027 have been concluded by powerful politicians and they are just waiting for 2027 to officially release election results.

The entire system is rotten with corruption and tribalism. The judiciary down to the market women by the roadside are corrupt. If you are not mindful the vulcaniser will demand for payment for extra holes.

The mechanic will loose your good vehicle parts and replace with bad ones or collude with motor spare parts traders. The garri sellers will load papers under the cup she will use to sell garri. Those who are aspiring to be in government are worse than those already holding public offices.

The constitutional review won’t produce any good result. It is pouring old wine in new bottles.

Zik Gbemre
August 2,2025

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