From: TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and Institute for Strategic and Development Studies (ISDS), have called for the review of the country, saying that Nigeria is operating under “dilapidated and illegitimate” constitution handed down by military dictatorship.
NADECO and ISDS maintained that the nation had no constitution, pointing out that it was the absence of the right legal framework that give birth to the numerous ethnic agitations, truncating the current political dispensation.
Speaking for NADECO United States of America and ISDS, on Monday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, ahead of proposed November 13-18, 2017, national conference, in Washington DC, Dr. Miller Melford and Uyi Meshack, lamented that the country is at crossroads, where Nigerians should decide their future.
Miller and Meshack, in a statement jointly signed on behalf of NADECO and ISDS, noted that Nigeria’s plethora of issues, particularly in the present political dispensation, caused the upsurge of regional agitations witnessed across the country.
They noted: “In 1994, after the June 12, 1993 crisis, Nigeria faced a serious political crossroads. NADECO rose to the occasion and fought tirelessly to usher in the democratic dispensation that Nigerians have today.
“Today, 23 years later, Nigeria is at another political crossroads. Again, NADECO is rising to the occasion. Unlike in 1994, when NADECO’s mission was pro-democracy, its current mission is to facilitate good governance and economic development of Nigeria’s political dispensation consistent with international practice and self-determination and decolonization resolutions of the United Nations.
“A consensus seems to have emerged among the political titans that Nigeria urgently needs a wholesale review to prevent any political faction from oppression or persecution; and, that the review must take place outside Nigeria’s governing institutions, which have a vested interest in maintaining the corrupt and dictatorial status quo.
“In light of the ongoing convulsions and strife in Nigeria, we, the people of Nigeria have agreed that a Nigerian conference held in Washington DC, would be necessary to insure the necessary candour and safety among the participants.
“At present, Nigeria is governed by a constitution decreed by a military dictatorship that has long outlasted its usefulness. Nigerians desperately need a new birth of freedom. The Nigerian conference is where it will begin”, the groups declared.