Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili argues why a single‑issue constitutional amendment can no longer wait
Nigeria is approaching a dangerous precipice. The insecurity that now defines daily life across vast stretches of our country is not merely a law‑and‑order problem; it is evidence of a Nation-state whose foundational architecture is no longer fit for purpose. Terrorists, bandits, and armed criminal networks have entrenched themselves so deeply that they now exercise a form of rival governance, openly contesting the sovereignty of the Nigerian state.
In a recent public memo on state police, I challenged the increasingly fashionable belief that decentralizing policing alone would resolve this crisis. State police is necessary, overdue, and ultimately unavoidable. But it is not sufficient. Our national dysfunction is structural, not episodic. No amount of administrative tinkering can repair a constitutional foundation that was defective from inception.
The 1999 Constitution – a document imposed on Nigerians without debate or consent – has trapped the country in a cycle of paralysis. It provides a pathway for amending itself, but none for replacing itself. Section 9 empowers the National Assembly to alter the Constitution, yet nowhere does it empower citizens to design a new one. For more than two decades, this contradiction has frozen Nigeria’s restructuring debate in place.
