Constitutional amendment: Proposals by Southern Solidarity Alliance

The Southern Solidarity Alliance(SSA), a pan-Southern Nigeria group, hereby proposes the following provisions for inclusion in the constitution of the Federal Republic under review, in line with its resolutions on all relevant issues as they concern Southern Nigeria and Nigeria as a whole:

1. True federalism

i. Nigeria should operate a true federal system, following strictly the tenets of a real federal structure and its modus operandi.

ii The states shall be the federating units.

iii. There shall be an equal number of States amongst the 6 geopolitical zones in Nigeria, i.e, seven states apiece in North Central, North East, North West, South East, South South, and South West.

iv. There shall be devolution of powers from the center to the federating units (states) and from there to the Local Governments.

v. There shall be fiscal federalism whereby the federating units shall generate revenue and pay an agreed percentage to the central government for the running of the common services.

vi. The LGs shall be under their States and should not be co-federating units with their states.

2 . Legislature

The legislature shall:

i. Remain bicameral

ii. Shall operate on a part-time basis.

3. Corruption

i. It should be seriously tackled using constitutional means.

ii. Special courts should be set up to handle corruption cases with the promptness that they deserve.

iii. Corruption includes electoral fraud, financial malpractices, abuse of office, and power.

iv. Penalties should be very serious and far-reaching. There shall be death penalties, life imprisonment, and and life ban from public office for severe offences of corruption like embezzlement and diversion of public funds as well as election rigging.

Furthermore, a candidate for any office found guilty of rigging an election will be banned for life from seeking any elective position and banned from holding any appointment in government.

4. Appointment of certain sensitive Federal or State offices should not be left solely in the hands of the President or the Governor, but should be handled by independent, neutral, responsible bodies.

i. The following officials shall be appointed by very neutral independent bodies:

a. Justices, judges, and magistrates.

b. Chairman and Commissioners of INEC and State electoral commissions.

c. Inspector General of Police.

5. Judiciary

i. There shall be a full complement of the judicial system in every state of the federation, from the High Court to the Supreme Court.

This is to enable each state to try the violation of its laws in its High Court, Appeal Court, and Supreme Court. The Federal High Court, the Appeal Court, and the Supreme Court shall try violations of the federal laws.

6. Conduct of Elections

i. Election results must be electronically transmitted in real time.

ii. Courts must dispose of all election litigations before swearing in of elected leaders.

iii. INEC should not have the exclusive powers of collation and announcement of final election results. Credible Independent establishments that collated results announced by INEC at different levels could publish their results, so long as those results have earlier been announced at different levels.

iv. Independent candidates shall be allowed to participate in elections.

v. Diaspora voting shall be allowed.

vi. Elected leaders on the platform of a political party must not defect to a different political party without relinquishing the mandate of the party that gave them the electoral victory.

7. Policing

Multilevel policing should be constitutionally used to check prevailing insecurity.

i. Federal police, as presently constituted, shall enforce federal laws.

Ii. State police should be constitutionalised to enforce state laws.

iii. Local Government police should be constitutionalised to enforce LG laws.

8. Rotational Presidency

i. Run a 5-year single tenure system; the system of reelection should be abolished.

ii. The office of the president should be rotated between the North and the South, on a 5-year tenure basis. Each geopolitical zone shall take turns on North and South, and South and North bases, depending on where it took off.

iii. Notwithstanding the above, the zones that already took turns from 1999 to date shall be counted up to the number of years they have already occupied the presidency. In other words, such zones shall be deemed to have already taken their turns and should queue behind those zones that were yet to produce a president. This is for equity and fairness.

9. Theocracy or secularity?

i. Nigeria shall remain a secular state, and there shall be no State religion.

ii. Federal, State, and Local Governments shall not be involved in any religious activity, e.g., sponsorship of pilgrimages, etc.

10. Truth and Reconciliation Committee

This shall be periodically constituted to address the fundamental injustices in Nigeria.

11. Referendum: Major decisions in the constitution shall be subject to referenda.

12. Referendum clause

This shall be inserted in the constitution to ensure renewals of the tenets of and practice of true federalism.

Ndubuisi Okafor, National Coordinator

Success Ikpasa, Deputy National Secretary

Barr. (Sir)Aaron Nwachukwu, Deputy National Coordinator SE

Engr. Ajibola Lawson, Deputy National Coordinator, SW