A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Robert Clarke has described the 1999 Constitution as a “rotten egg” that must be discarded.
He noted that instead of continuing to amend the constitution, the National Assembly should immediately commence the process of giving the nation a fresh one.
Clarke, who spoke in an interview published by Sunday Punch, added that the nation must be restructured to experience accelerated development.
According to the octogenarian, the present 36-state structure of the country is unsustainable.
He said, “I have said it over 100 times that the 1999 Constitution is a rotten egg. You cannot build anything on it. Once an egg is rotten, it cannot bear any good result.
“We have to restructure Nigeria and get a new type of constitution. We cannot afford to have 36 states in Nigeria.
“We don’t have the money to maintain it and that is why, today, 80 percent of our earnings go into maintaining governance. Only 20 percent of it goes into capital project.
“Within the past 20 years of this democracy, except for Buhari, who among the former presidents built infrastructure? They frittered away Nigeria’s money with nothing to show for it.
“Today, people say we are borrowing but we are borrowing money that we are seeing what we are using the money for. We are borrowing from the Chinese to build the railway system. Dangote has gone into a massive venture and he’s going to revolutionise that sector.
“So, we have seen something better. Let us change the system of governance. Let us reduce the number of states to an appreciable number that we can manage.
“Why do we need to have 36 states’ chief judges; 36 Attorney Generals and commissioners and so on?” Clarke said.
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