 The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said the National Assembly holds no predetermined position on any of the issues of interest to Nigerians ahead of the moves to amend the 1999 constitution. And some of the issues of restructuring, according to the Attorney General of Nigeria, the President does not entertain the issue of restructuring. He has condemned the resolution of the Southern Governors Forum, calling for restructuring for the country. He said the Southern Governors have no moral justification to make the call, adding that if they want the country to work, they should start from their states. Well, joining me to discuss this briefly is Biyadu Shawmi, a political analyst and Tungi Abdulameed, a legal practitioner. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us. It's my pleasure. All right. I'm going to start with Tungi. Thank you for having me. Tungi, you are obviously a legal practitioner, so you, when we talk about a constitutional review here, it obviously means that Nigerians are allowed to make imputes, and this is split into different states and regions. But then, of course, we know that one of the biggest issues on the lips of Nigerians is the issue of restructuring. But if the Attorney General of the Federation, who is an aide to the President, has come out to openly say that the President does not entertain the issue of restructuring. Why are we having a constitutional review? Are we going to have another confab with no-go areas? What is the essence? The comment from the Minister is unfortunate, and it's sad that it's coming from the Minister of Justice of the country. The Minister, by that comment, the Minister made the President to be the owner of the country because he's saying the President cannot or will not entertain restructuring. The country does not belong to the President. If the people are willing to have restructuring, the President has no choice. He has to go with what they are looking for. So telling us that that's the confirmation of the mindset of those in government. They see the government, their position where they are holding, as they are half an omega and they are the owner of the country, or what they can do and not do. So I think that statement from the Minister is unfortunate. The restructuring is a very serious issue that everybody has to complain of. When you say restructuring, you are talking about doing things differently. That does not mean if you are doing something that people are not satisfied with, or if there are a lot of agitation, we need to be addressed. And the issue of restructuring is part of it. So we have to look into it. The President has no choice. If it is the choice of the people, if the will of the people to have restructuring. It is not for the President to determine whether or not we are going to have restructuring or not to have restructuring. So as far as I'm concerned, that statement from the Minister is unfortunate and sad. Let me come to you, Mr. Shoomi. The Attorney General has openly spoken about this issue. It was everywhere. It was the most trending issue after the governor of cross-strait states defection to the APC. And he emphatically said that the President isn't interested in the most important issue on the lips of Nigerians. And again, I want to ask, how do you try to open a door that the key has been thrown away or even thrown into the bottom of the sea? If you want that door open, you obviously have to get a bulldozer or a hammer or something. The key to that door has been shot or rather thrown away. So even if the National Assembly is going ahead with this constitutional review, we have agitations across the regions of the country. We have iPop in the southeast. We have the militants in the south-south. We have in the southwest the banditry. And we also have Boko Haram. I mean, there's a lot of issues. And they have ethnic tensions as they're on the tone. If we do not talk about restructuring, how do we get a new constitution or review the constitution and make it something that can accommodate all of the concerns of Nigerians? Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that we have an atomic general defederation who obviously is trying to portray our president as if he's a pharaoh, you know, as if he's a king pharaoh. That is a king pharaoh, but I will not listen to the cries of the subject. I will not listen to the fine voice that set my people free. We are in a situation where many people are so worried about the rising tensions in the country. Nothing is on the increase. We've seen the mindless killing of innocent farmers, you know, by cattle herders of same structure as the president, and the tension is so high that many people are now worried that country can break if it is not taking. We have had calls for cessation, not only from the southeast, this time around. We now have it from the southwest. We have tension in the Middle East, and people are profiling solution in order to avoid cessation. You see, look, we need to talk and restructure the country in line with the spirits of true federalism as established by the founding fathers of our country. Now, we have an attorney general today who is now saying to the whole country that the issue of restructuring is a noble area. That is, you cannot stamp out the structure which currently is about to collapse. So I think he's living in Parkourland. I'm not sure the attorney general is of this planet, he's probably living in the moon. And I think he will rise up to the situation when events take shape as things goes on. But it's quite unfortunate that the attorney general, if indeed he actually said so, it's quite a very, very unfortunate, it's regrettable, it shows his lack of appreciation of the security situation of the country. It shows his lack of feeling of the cries of so many millions of Nigerians today. And therefore you ask yourself which kind of leadership you have in the country. This time around you ask yourself, what are the people around the president? I cannot blame the SACs, all the SACs and governors, had the cries of their people and they rose up gallantly and decided to say it as it is. So it is unfortunate that the attorney general is going against the wishes of half of the country. What else does he want? If you don't discuss restructuring then there's no point in noting any national conference. And restructuring, it simply means that he will be hating those who are held then on secession. I am not for secession, I am for ill-structured agrarian, where everybody can be staked with us in their country, where we all can realize our aspirations. But not at the extent of I being the second class citizen of our country. And the position of the attorney general is actually saying that I will remain the second class, which is part of the country. Okay. Back to you, Tundri, before we wrap this up, because we are out of time. There are a lot of people who are saying that the problem of Nigeria is the 1999 constitution. Why are we reviewing it? Because there are people who seem to think that we should be drawing up a totally different constitution that reflects the Nigerian people starting with we the people. And of course they are making reference to, you know, Sena Climes where the constitution reflects the will of the people. A lot of people have said that this constitution was not drawn for democracy. So reviewing it, is it really going to cut it for Nigerians in closing? Why I agree that the constitution is one of the problems of the country. Because like you said, the constitution is a lie against itself by saying we, we never met and discussed and drawn that constitution, it was drawn for us by the military, not imposed on us. So why I agree that we have a problem with the constitution, we have some area like Kunas or missions in the constitution. I don't want to believe that changing the constitution or amended constitution will sort our problems. Our problem is not only about the constitution, it's about the implementation of the constitution. Those who enforce the constitution, if we are genuine enough as bad as this constitution is, if we want to be sincere with ourselves, we want to be clear with ourselves, we can still implement this constitution and achieve results. The one we have today is that people are not at service interest above the national interest. Personal interest above the national interest. You see, remember the last time we went to amend the electoral act, we were told it cannot be amended now. Since that time now, have you had anything about it? Has it been brought again to say, look, now that we have four years or three years before the election, let's quickly do what we have to do. So I want to say that it is not about the constitution, it is about us. If we are not sincere in implementing the constitution as bad as it is, if we are sincere in implementing the way it is now, we will achieve results. Those in government see themselves as loyal to themselves. We need to go now. Unfortunately, we are out of time. I am so sorry. I am so sorry we have to go. Speaker is a legal practitioner and be able to show me as a political analyst. Unfortunately, time is not our friend tonight, but I want to appreciate you for being part of the conversation. Thank you. Well, thank you all for staying with us and being part of this broadcast. Well, we want to thank everybody for being here. We will see you tomorrow on Plus Politics. I am Mary Anacol.