Former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Wole Olanipekun, SAN, on Wednesday, said ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo almost punched him when he advised him to amend the country’s constitution during his administration.

Olanipekun described the 1999 constitution as “fake” and lacking the required elements to address the various challenges confronting the country.

He called for the total overhauling of the constitution.

Olanipekun spoke delivering the 32nd and 33rd convocation lecture of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

He delivered a lecture titled: “Mass Exodus of Human Capital in Nigeria: An Anatomical Analysis of the Causes and Effects”.

He legal luminary blamed insecurity, faulty constitution, bad economy and “awkward” federalism for the mass exodus of young Nigerians abroad.

Olanipekun said as the President of NBA in 2002, he led a delegation of members of the association to meet Obasanjo where he advised him to commence the process of amending the constitution, but the former President not only rejected the advice, but almost “boxed” him.

He said “We need a constitution with a humane face. I’m a lawyer, but we are deceiving ourselves, our constitution is fake and I have said this over and over, but then you will ask we lawyers that, ‘if we say the constitution is fake, why are we practicing it’? Lawyers and judges apply the law as it is, not the law as it ought to be, so we apply the law as we have it now and we have been pleading that we should amend the constitution, let us overhaul it.

“I, as president of the NBA, I led a delegation of the association to president Obasanjo in 2002, he almost boxed me, I’m here in Ogun State and I’m saying this, he is still alive, he said ‘no you can’t change it’, I said Mr. President, let us seize this opportunity to do it.

“We also appeal to the powers that be now, to our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the time for us to restructure this country is now if we do not do it, these children that we have abroad might not return home, they won’t come here”, Olanipekun said.

He described previous alterations to the constitution as “charades and widow dressing” and called for the restructuring of the country.

HarryGleb:
If Thiefnubuu fails to restructure Nigeria then he will forever be remembered as a villain.

HarryGleb:
If Thiefnubuu fails to restructure Nigeria then he will forever be remembered as a villain.

seunmsg:


How exactly should the country be restructured? What’s the new structure you guys are proposing?

seunmsg:


How exactly should the country be restructured? What’s the new structure you guys are proposing?

seunmsg:


How exactly should the country be restructured? What’s the new structure you guys are proposing?

HarryGleb:
If Thiefnubuu fails to restructure Nigeria then he will forever be remembered as a villain.

LordIsaac:
If I were Jagaban, I will dissolve the country through regionalism. He can issue an executive order to devolve police and force the National Assembly to act. Those are the actual thieves holding this nation hostage. However, I know it will not be long anymore. Class consciousness is getting stronger and louder!

HarryGleb:
If Thiefnubuu fails to restructure Nigeria then he will forever be remembered as a villain.

seunmsg:


How exactly should the country be restructured? What’s the new structure you guys are proposing?

yarimo:
The constitution need serious amendment, in a way that it will reflect the reality of Nigeria and Nigerians of today

JasonScoolari:
Wole Olanikpekus shouldn't be taken serious.

blacknp:
You cannot help showing how myopic minded you really are, if no be ignorance dey worry you, na President dey restructure country, or The National Assembly with two third of the states houses of assembly in approval?

How can the President amend the constitution, what kind of nonsense?

blacknp:
You cannot help showing how myopic minded you really are, if no be ignorance dey worry you, na President dey restructure country, or The National Assembly with two third of the states houses of assembly in approval?

How can the President amend the constitution, what kind of nonsense?

blacknp:
Most times you kids baffle me, ordinary moving departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria to Lagos State, North done dey shout, Yet you have the audacity to narrate this nonsense?