Constitution review: We must restore confidence in public institutions- Akpabio
Constitution review: We must restore confidence in public institutions- Akpabio
By Idun Maximus
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has said there is need to restore citizens confidence in public institutions.
Akpabio stated this, yesterday, while speaking at a consultative session organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review for political parties.
This is as the deputy speaker, Benjamin Kalu, said the country needs a Constitution that enables democracy, noting that the country’s democracy has been surviving on the goodwill of a few committed leaders since 1999.
The Senate President, who was represented by Senate Whip, Tahir Monguno, said issues before the parliament in the ongoing constitution review exercise, which include judicial and electoral reforms, local government autonomy, special seats for women, state policing, human rights are very crucial.
He said “Each one of them speaks to a larger question: how do we make democracy not only endure but deliver?
An election is not a ceremony; it is the soul of democracy. And justice is not a luxury; it is the backbone of peace. When elections fail, trust dies. When justice delays, faith decays. That is why we must renew both – our ballots and our benches.
“We must strengthen INEC, shield our courts from corruption, and restore the people’s confidence in their institutions. In India, reforms made voting accessible even in the remotest villages. In South Africa, the Constitution enshrines judicial independence as sacred. We can do the same – not by copying others, but by perfecting ourselves.
“True federalism begins at the grassroots. If government does not work in the village, it has failed in the capital. We must free our local governments from the chains of dependency. Development must have a human face — and that face must be visible in every ward, every street, every home.
“And what of the women of Nigeria
– the pillars of every family, the architects of every community? A democracy that sidelines its women weakens itself. Across the world, the evidence is clear: in Rwanda, women lead more than sixty percent of parliament; in Finland, women shape policy and governance with distinction. Where women rise, nations thrive. It is time for Nigeria to move from the language of sympathy to the policy of inclusion.
“Security, too, must evolve. It must be local before it can be national. A nation as vast as ours cannot be protected from a single command post. The call for state policing is not rebellion; it is realism.
“In the United States, in India, and even in Brazil, local policing works side by side with national forces – coordinated, not conflicting. But in seeking safety, we must not sacrifice freedom. The hand that guards must not gag. The shield of the state must never become a sword against its citizens.”
Kalu, while stating that the country needs strong institutions, posited that the Nigerian democracy cannot continue to survive on goodwill.
The deputy speaker added that 26 years after the inception of the current democratic dispensation, democracy has been deepened in the country. Nonetheless, he explained many Nigerians, especially women are still under-represented, just as local government administration remain, with electoral disputes lingering for too long.
According to him, “the cooperative democracy we imagined twenty-six years ago has not fully materialized. Instead, we find ourselves in a moment of reckoning. A moment where we must ask: is our Constitution still fit for purpose? Does it reflect the Nigeria we are today, or is it anchored to the Nigeria of a bygone era?
“As leaders of Nigeria’s political parties, you face this question every day.You see the gaps. You feel the frustrations. You hear the voices of ordinary Nigerians demanding more from their democracy.And that is precisely why you are here today.”
He added: “in the last twenty-six years, Nigeria’s democracy has relied on the goodwill of a few committed leaders to survive. But goodwill alone is not enough.We need strong institutions. We need clear rules. We need a constitution that does not just permit democracy, but actively enables it.This is our moment to get it right.”
Consequently, the deputy speaker explained that the parliament is considering proposed legislations seeking to alter the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to create special legislative seats for women, reduce endless post election litigation, grant autonomy to local government among others.
“Nigeria will remain a democracy. But to sustain our democracy in a changing world, we must change the way it operates.We must give women their rightful place in governance.We must empower local governments to serve their people.We must make our elections credible and our courts efficient.This is the work before us. And it is work we cannot do without you, ” he stated.
