Archbishop Henry Ndakuba, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, said Nigeria needs a new Constitution, which he stressed must be drafted by the sovereign assembly of the people of the nation to replace the current 1999 Constitution with its amendments.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Archbishop Ndakuba, who said this on Thursday while opening a meeting of the Church's standing committee, stressed that the new Constitution, which he urged to be people-oriented, is needed to address the persistent problems plaguing the country.
Ndakuba said the National Assembly (NASS) had done a good job with the various constitutional amendments and that Nigeria needed a new Constitution that would take into consideration the concerns already expressed at the Sovereign National Conferences.
The cleric said the various calls for restructuring Nigeria should also be considered as refraining from doing so does not help the nation.
No government can stop hungry people from protesting – Ndukuba
Speaking further, Archbishop Ndakuba said the recent #EndBadGovernance protest was a clear indication that people were tired of the government’s unfulfilled promises to curb the rising cost of living, which had imposed severe hardships on most households in the country.
Ndakuba said the protest was a call to governments at all levels, especially the Federal Government, to heed the cry of the people. According to him, the government should not victimize anyone as no government can legislate or stop hungry people from protesting.
He said the epileptic power supply, despite privatisation of the power sector and tariff revisions, and the astronomical rise in the cost of petroleum products have made life much more difficult.
Primate calls for state of emergency in matters of social welfare
Archbishop Ndakuba on Thursday also called for a state of emergency to be declared on social welfare matters in the country, while urging the National Assembly to criminalise delay in payment of pensions. He said there was an urgent need for special programmes for the most vulnerable segments of society, particularly the unemployed and the elderly.
The cleric decried the continuous verification of pensioners and failure to comply with the provision of the Constitution mandating the review of pensions every five years. He congratulated President Bola Tinubu and all Nigerian workers for the passage of the new N70,000 minimum wage law.
However, Ndakuba called on the government to extend the scheme to cover pensioners, many of whom live on starvation wages.
“We urge the National Assembly to criminalise the failure to pay pensions to those entitled to them in a timely manner. Attention should also be paid to the most vulnerable segments of society, in particular the unemployed, the elderly, unemployed youth or educated adults of both sexes.
“The latter is the driving force of every society. Therefore, there is an urgent need to articulate appropriate policies and programmes to address this often forgotten segment of the population, otherwise the future of the country will be jeopardized.
“When you see the numbers on our streets, you will agree that the need is urgent. A declaration of emergency on social welfare in Nigeria would not be out of place,” he said.
The cleric urged the Federal Government to prioritise the interest of Nigerians in the ongoing engagements between the Dangote Refinery and NNPCL.
Ndakuba hailed the Supreme Court's pronouncement on local government autonomy, saying there would be a multiplier effect on education, health and food security across all local government areas in the country.
He said it should also be able to stop rural-urban migration, and called for a society-wide approach to oversee its implementation as the project should not be left to politicians alone.
