A legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has urged President Bola Tinubu to follow the step he used to return Nigeria to the old National Anthem and get the country back to 1963 constitution time.
For context, since 1978 “Arise, O Compatriots” was the national anthem until May 2024 when the reigning President returned the country back to “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”, which was in use from 1960 to 1978.
Speaking while the Prestige Sisters League paid him a courtesy visit, Babalola expressed displeasure at the state of the nation and tore into the food intervention programme of the federal government, saying, “It is wrong for the government to be sharing garri, beans and rice as palliatives. They are turning the people into beggars. The government that is giving the people rice and beans is leading us to poverty.
“The government is discouraging people from working, whereas, the government must provide an enabling environment for people to work and feed themselves.”
The 94-year old went on to lend his voice to the call for a new constitution far removed from the present one urging Tinubu to employ the method he used to return the country to old National Anthem and bring the 1963 constitution back.
According to him, “I read the publication of the Patriots visiting President Tinubu and I am in full agreement with them. We need a new Constitution. But I do not agree that we should go through any constitutional conference.
“Recently, you are aware that President Bola Tinubu asked us to go back to the old National Anthem; there was no conference for it before it was passed by the National Assembly and assented by the President.
“The 1963 Constitution was the one made by all of us. By the same token, the parliament should bring back the 1963 (constitution) and reenact it.”
