Waves of change hit Nigeria
2005-01-14 10:29
Lagos - Nigeria will hold a three-month national conference to draw up constitutional reforms aimed at breaking the nation out of recurring waves of political, ethnic and religious violence, a government spokesperson said on Thursday.
The holding of a national conference has been a key demand of civil rights and ethnic lobby groups since Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president of Africa's most populous nation in 1999 polls organised by the military. No date has been set, however.
The groups have been demanding that any conference have full powers to redraw Nigeria's 1999 constitution, drawn up under military rule - something Nigeria's government said it would not accept.
Presidential spokesperson Femi Fani-Kayode said groups calling for a conference that could change the constitution itself "are not really in touch with the complexities on the ground."
Fani-Kayode said the planned body will submit proposals to Obasanjo, who would then forward them to parliament and the assemblies of Nigeria's 36 states for approval. Any constitutional amendment needs to be approved by lawmakers and two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states.
The conference will make the constitution "far more reflective of the yearning and wishes of the Nigerian people," Fani-Kayode said. "Under no circumstances would this be in any way undermining the unity of the country."
Obasanjo's 1999 election ended 15 years of army rule in the continent's top oil exporter, but since then more than 10 000 have died in ethnic, political and religious violence - many in Christian-Muslim violence.
Many areas of the country are still volatile, including the poverty-stricken Niger Delta, in the south, where most of the country's 2.5-million-barrels-per-day oil output comes from. The region has been plagued by violence since a March 2003 armed revolt briefly shut off 40% of the country's oil output. - AP
- SAPA