The Senate has ruled out the possibility of a brand new Constitution for Nigeria.
According to them,the 1999 Constitution did not include a clause on how to produce a fresh document.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Ovie Omo-Agege, on Thursday, explained why the National Assembly is incapacitated without a clause to produce a new Constitution for the country.
While giving his welcome address at the National Public Hearing on the review of the Constitution in Abuja, Omo-Agege said as much as the lawmakers would like to acquiesce to the demands of Nigerians for a new constitution, it would be practically impossible at the moment.
He said: “Some of our compatriots have urged that rather than amend the Constitution, we should make a new one altogether”
“We respect this opinion, and we believe it is a most desirable proposition,he stated.
To embark on any process without prior alteration of Section 9 of the Constitution to provide the mode through which an entirely new Constitution could be made would amount to gross violation of our oath of allegiance to the Constitution. So it will take a new constitutional amendment to be able to give Nigerians a most desired new constitution and It would be unconstitutional to do otherwise.
