Let’s Return to 1963 Constitution- Muoma, Former Ohanaeze Legal Adviser

The immediate past legal adviser of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, Chief Chuka Muoma, has joined the growing number of voices canvassing for the country to return to the 1963 Federal constitution, saying returning to the constitution would solve the multitude of challenges the country is currently facing.

Muoma, a legal luminary and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who spoke exclusively to True Vision, was emphatic in his submissions that the 1963 constitution hold the best option for Nigeria in the present circumstances it found itself. This is even as he further argued that restructuring the country remains a better option to the rising agitations for separation among some of the ethnic groups that made up the country.

He stated that the 1963 constitution had all the trappings that engendered true federalism as the federating units as at that time were in healthy completion with each other, pointing out that the constitution then “encouraged positive efforts in self-development among the regions”

“We have to go back to the 1963 Constitution, so that the regions will go back to what they were. They had healthy competition in development and made contributions to the federal government to take care of national institutions like foreign affairs, currency, the defense and others”, he declared.

The legal icon regretted the type of federalism practiced in Nigeria is different from what is obtainable in other parts of the world, submitting that “what we have in Nigeria is a masquerade in the name of federalism. Inside, it is centralism, dictatorship and oppression. The system does not encourage individual or regional enterprise”.

According to him, returning to the 1963 constitution would make for the flourishing of true federalism in the country, adding that such a move would check the political imbalance affecting the unity of the country.

Muoma, a titled chief in Oraifite, Anambra state expressed total disbelief at the level Nigeria has sunk in the past few years, declaring that “Nigeria as it is today was not the one we dreamt to have in 1960. Certainly not the one we welcomed on October 1960”. He blamed the ugly trend on the door steps of politicians whom he accused of allowing greed and materialism to drive their quest for public office in the country.

His words: Greed and materialism are driving the quest for holding public and political offices in Nigeria. Our politicians do not have any agenda or manifesto, except self and material interest to become billionaires and trillionaires overnight. There are no ideologies propelling the life of Nigeria. It is all about self-interest and to make it worse, ethnicity and the ambition of the ethnic groups in rivalry, to control the country and her resources”.

“Those who produce by working so hard and offering their resources are hungry while those who do not produce sufficiently are very, very well fed, and well looked after. So there is societal imbalance. Nigeria is a country where mere hard work will not put food on one’s table”, the former Ohanaeze Legal Adviser further lamented.

He regretted that a great majority of Nigerians seek public office for reasons other than to serve the larger public good. According to him, Nigerian politicians not only do not measure up to international best practices, but also “do not have any agenda or manifesto, except self and material interest”

Muoma noted there are “no altruism, no selflessness in sacrifice. Everyone serves to enrich himself, his family, associates and partners in the crime of embezzling the treasury”, adding that politicians “are prepared to commit all manner of atrocities, including shedding blood, to win election and enter into positions where others will work very hard to bring in the money and they themselves, will do the looting”

He further regretted the widening societal imbalance existing in the country where “mere hard work can no longer put food on the table”. The elder Statesman attributed the sorry state the country found itself to corruption, dishonesty and insincerity in public service.

On the current insecurity being experienced in the South Eastern part of the country, Muoma was quick to declare that “the current problems facing the Southeast, are being perpetrated and fanned by some people from outside Igbo land”. He said that the South East is also bedeviled with poor governance that is not different from what is obtained in other parts of the country.

He noted that the civil war altered the leadership pattern and threw up leaders he described as suffering from “poverty consciousness”, a situation he defined as “the fear of the poor to remain poor and the fear of rich to become poor. Both the rich and the poor are equally afraid of poverty. Poverty is a situation that leads to desperation”.

According to him, “the problems came along after the civil war. Our leadership before the civil war, was correct, selfless, and focused on positive orientation. All our leaders – Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, did not amass wealth. They were focused on making Nigeria great. We attained the giant of Africa stance during their time. The madness for materialism started after the civil war”.