I do not envy reporters who have to follow news as they break here. This is so because news breaks here with such rapidity that before you are done with one, multiple others have fallen on the pack.

As I was ruminating on The Patriots and their visit to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to canvas their own propositions on how to cure the country’s malaise, other issues emerged to struggle with it for space.

Three of our presidential aircraft – how many do we have now? – were reportedly seized in France over contract disagreement between Ogun State and some Chinese businessmen. What has the FG got to do with it?

While we were on that, Prof. Pat Utomi and former Gov. Ibikuble Amosun tugged at each other over the same issue. The back-and-forth between the two men left the entire issue more confusing than throwing light on it.

Before we could separate the “two fighting”, news came in rapid succession of the arrival of the president’s new customised aircraft and bulletproof limousine! Is this country really broke?

Are you sure? Or we should, henceforth, describe such stories as cock-and-bull which are best told to the marines? Are the president’s latest acquisitions a “good buy”, as they say, or are they sheer profligacy, especially in these austere times?

While I was still trying to take that in, the sleeping dog of the Nigerian Labour Congress was rudely awakened from its slumber by the police with their malevolent invitation to the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, on allegations – or is it suspicion? – of criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrime!

What a mouthful! If this is a joke, it is a cruel one and the police should stop it! But if it has got anything to do with the recent #EndBadGovernance protests, I will simply advise the authorities to let a sleeping dog lie!

While I am not a fan of Ajaero and his leadership style, it does not take too much intellect to see through the police’s subterfuge. This is most likely a straightforward case of calling a dog a bad name to hang it.

And if they succeed with Ajaero, expect more suspected leaders of the #EndBadGovernance protests to take their turn. Once they get confident as they deal with those and we do nothing, no one can be sure who will be next.

Dictatorship creeps! One innocuous step after another – and so did Adolf HItler’s fascism envelop the whole of unsuspecting Europe. Under no condition should we let anyone muzzle the voice of dissent here.

Back to The Patriots. In the middle of the #EndBadGovernance protests, an assemblage of eminent Nigerians visited President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja with propositions on how to move the country forward.

Quite expectedly, they were well received by the president who acceded to their request for a visit, flung the doors of the seat of power open to them, welcomed them warmly, and then excitedly responded to their bouquet of requests.

A man in the cold, like Tinubu was weathering the #EndBadGovernance storm, wouldn’t reject warm clothing extended to him from any quarters. Besides, The Patriots were led to the meeting by one of the few respectable elder-citizens living, Emeka Anya – oku, one-time Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.

He gathered the other members of the delegation under his wings. There is a trend nowadays of younger elements queuing behind nonagenarians and octogenarians who, in the murky and muddy waters of Nigeria’s politics, have managed to keep their image unsoiled and their integrity intact.

I dare to say that the younger elements do this not out of love or as a show of affection for the elders concerned but for their own selfish interest of maintaining a semblance of relevance in the scheme of things.

Some of them leverage this cover to repair the damage already done to their reputation by past misdemean – or. Hiding here, they lie low as they bid their time, ready to pounce at any opportunity that comes their way.

Many who ought to work and bring food to the elder are those eating from the elder’s hand. Not allowing these “living ancestors”, as someone described them, to enjoy their welldeserved retirement does not speak well of the younger generations.

The Patriots said nothing new to Tinubu. In other words, none of the suggestions they put forward was original to them. They asked for a National Constituent Assembly to produce a people’s constitution for the country.

Since the 1960 Independence constitution and the 1963 Republican constitution, we have had the 1979, 1989 and 1999 constitutions.

There was a Constituent Assembly which approved a constitution for the Second Republic (1979 – 1983).

On January 13, 1986, military president Ibrahim Babangida set up a 17-member Political Bureau to make recommendations for the country’s political future, after which a constituent assembly of 566 members worked on the Political Bureau recommendations and delivered a draft constitution to Babangida’s military council on April 5, 1989.

The council produced a final draft on May 3, 1989 and promulgated it into law two days later on May 5. 1989. Even General Sani Abacha set up a constitutional conference in 1994; it turned in its report the next year.

Of course, there is the 2014 National Conference popularly known as 2014 Confab set up by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. So, constituent assemblies are not new to us here.

Where The Patriots are different is their emphasis that their own constituent assembly should come up with what they described as “a people’s democratic constitution”. What this means is that all the constitutions we have had since after 1963 are not people’s constitutions and they are also not democratic.

I agree. Although the preambles of those constitutions allege that “We the people of Nigeria” made those constitutions for ourselves, we all know this allegation or averment to be false.

This is why these constitutions, including the subsisting 1999 constitution (as amended), are widely regarded as military imposition. When The Patriots told the president that a plural society, such as Nigeria, must, to survive and flourish, adopt a federal constitution properly socalled, they stated the obvious.

The good examples they cited: India and Canada (what of the Scandinavian countries?) are apt; so also the bad ones: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Sudan, among others. The Patriots avoided using the word “Restructuring” Why?

Perhaps for the same reason that Karl Marx and Engels, in 1848, avoided the word “Socialism”, choosing, instead, to call their political manifesto “The Communist Manifesto”!

But does anyone need to preach restructuring to Tinubu who, himself, was an apostle of restructuring? Except, of course, that the shoe is now on the other foot!

The Patriots want a new National Constituent Assembly to be mandated to produce a new constitution! But do we need another constituent assembly jamboree to do that?

They also suggested “that such National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non-party basis.” If so, on what platforms?

Then they want whatever is produced by this assembly to be subjected to a referendum: What percentage of voters will qualify as “Yes” and “Nay” votes?

What if the proposed constitution fails to scale through a referendum? Responding, President Tinubu said he is preoccupied at the moment with economic issues; after which he will turn his focus on tinkering with the country’s political structure.

But do you think he will ever “finish” with solving Nigeria’s economic problems? In which decade and under what ruler did Nigerians not experience an economic downturn? Herbert Ogunde sang of hard times.

IK Dairo, Adeolu Akinsanya aka Baba Eto, Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Sonny Okosun, Orlando Owoh; Fuji musicians like Ayinde Barrister – all of them, different genres of music and at different times, sang about hard times.

Fela sang of suffering and smiling. Eedris Abdulkareem sang Nigeria jaga-jaga. If Tinubu wants to solve Nigeria’s economic problems before addressing its foundational, structural problems, he will discover, like Obasanjo and Jonathan did, that time has passed him by.

It is the foundational problems of Nigeria that should first arrest the attention of our leaders. Scripture says if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3).Jesus counsels us to build on solid ground and not on quick – sand (Matthew 7: 24 – 27).

It is when the faulty foundations of Nigeria are first repaired that the country can start to blossom again. It is then that whatever structure is erected on that foundation can stand and flourish.

It is a solid foundation that will propel a strong economy and not the other way round. Placing the economic woes of the country over its foundational problems is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse.

What gave rise to the economic problems in the first place? Is it not our foundational problems? Why, then, leave the tap root of the problem and dissipate energy cutting branches?

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