Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to give Nigeria a new constitution.

During his virtual address at the 18th Daily Trust Dialogue holding in Abuja with the theme: “Restructuring: Why? How?, the elder statement described current document “fraudulent.”

He flayed those clamouring for 2023 elections as being selfish and lacking the interest of the nation at heart.

Adebanjo said what was uppermost was keeping the country united through a new and more representative constitution.

The Afenifere chieftain insisted that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is not working and would not work because it was the one agreed upon by the nation’s founding fathers.

He called for the replacement of the lawbook with a “truly federal constitution, which gives each region of the country freedom and autonomy.”

According to him, the current form of government and constitution cannot work because of the multiethnic and multicultural nature of Nigeria.

Adebanjo added that a “truly federal constitution would give power to the federating units and propel their development.”

He said: “Anybody opposing restructuring or a federal constitution wants to break the country. We are worse than we were before the civil war. The only thing that can bring us back is to scrap this constitution, which is skewed against the South.

“This constitution must be changed now. Let us persuade President Buhari to restructure the country now. The way we are going, I don’t believe in 2023. The question should be how to keep the country together. Something must be done now.”

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