By Uzor Odigbo
Former presiden, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Lagos chapter, Barrister Monday Ubani, has aligned his thoughts with the Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on the scrapping of Senate chamber of the national assembly.
Ubani who also favours bi-camera legislative chamber, said in an interview with Nigeria Info on Wednesday, June 2, that the Senate chamber needs to be scraped as its no longer benefits the common man its originally meant to serve.
“Governor Akeredolu was right, the Senate has become a non strategic organ of the legislative arm and in order to reduce cost, the chamber ‘must go.
“On the way forward, Barrister Ubani said instead of wasting time trying to amend the 1999 constitution, efforts should be made to reintroduce the 1963 constitution which recognize Nigeria’s diversity than 1999 constitution which reduced the abilities of all regions in Nigeria to be self sufficient.
“I don’t think the current exercise on 1999 amendment would lead us anywhere, because the document landed us in the present state we are now, economically and otherwise. Look at the countries we started together are far ahead of us because everything is centrally placed with all regions begging for a share of national wealth, Instead of developing separately.”
He noted that the 1963 constitution will serve Nigeria better with little amendment to suit our reality. According to him, it’s the only document that fits our situation, with one lawmaking chamber, every region would have to develop at its own pace than always coming to the center.
“States supposed to have it’s own infrastructure like power, water, network of roads, railways, airlines etc. The1999 constitution didn’t give such freedom to develop at own pace.”