APC must give youths, women constitutional reason to join party

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has urged the All Progressive Congress constitutional review committee to come forward with an all inclusive constitution that would give Nigerian youths, women the tangible reason to join the Party.

The Governor Stated this on Tuesday at the opening of the APC North Central constitutional review town hall meeting held in Lokoja the state capital.

Governor Bello stressed that recent events and demographic spreads indicated that the youths were ready to speak up and take up the mantle of leadership in order to participate directly in nation building

He also alluded that with nearly 80% percent of eligible and registered voters between the ages of 18 – 50years , it was also clear that the youth have posses a huge electoral advantage if their numbers are plausibly leveraged.

He noted that the timely exercise and current amendment would take the party to a greater heights than it was currently hence the need for diligence as the constitution remained a grand norm of any democratic society.

The Governor noted that the APC must ensure that its constitution was a living and evolving organism noting that as the current custodian of the Nigeria constitution, the party would be able to assure Nigerians of a new constitution yarned for since the military dumped the 1999 constitution on the country.

He recalled that since the formation of the party in 2013, it has conducted constitutional review only ones in 2014, asserting that although the constitution had helped the party to several victories and withstand the test of time but has also been found susceptible with loopholes which has caused some grievances within the party structure.

Governor Bello expressed that in a rapidly changing world, it was only natural for laws to be reviewed at regular intervals to catch up with novel exigencies while they remain a catalyst to societal development.

In his opening remark, Chairman of the Constitution review committee, Prof. Tahir Mamman, SAN thanked the State Governor for the reception given to the committee members which has helped in ensuring that their assignment was made easy.

He noted that the pace at which their work needed to be delivered necessitated that the meeting was held at Geo Political zones to ensure that the grass root were effectively reached and their opinions harnessed as inputs into the new party constitution.

Prof. Tahir Mamman stressed that the APC was deeply rooted in the grass root as its successes in time past have been largely influenced by people in the grass root and since its first constitution of the did not put their inputs in consideration it was a mandate that the subsequent one effectively carry them along.