The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) has urged President Bola Tinubu to return Nigeria to federal constitutional governance upon which the nation secured independence.

NADECO secretary general Ayo Opadokun said this in a message to commemorate Nigeria’s Democracy Day anniversary on Monday in Lagos.

The NADECO chieftain recalled how the military abrogated and substituted negotiated federal constitution and replaced it with various decrees, which had unitarised all government policies and activities.

According to him, this, in turn, has occasioned injustice, inequity, disregard for the rule of law and all kinds of discrimination.

Mr Opadokun, in the message titled ‘June 12 and the Search for Democracy’, said Mr Tinubu should implement the report of the Nasir El-Rufai panel.

He said the panel recommended that APC fulfil its promise of returning Nigeria to federal constitutional governance.

The NADECO leader said the path of federal constitutional governance was what most ethnic nationalities, civil society bodies, and opinion leaders had vigorously campaigned for in the last 30 years.

He said this was because the country recorded visible development in all sectors, including the economy and education.

“President Tinubu perhaps was brought to the government to return Nigeria to the path of sanity where it will be able to establish a productive government that fastly lifts its people out of prolonged misery and poverty,” Mr Opadokun explained.

The NADECO chieftain added, “Others are to modernise its education system and organise its agricultural endowments to meet the value chain necessities required in the modern world where agriculture is organised as a business. NADECO, therefore, demands from the president to accurately capture the national mood.”

Mr Opadokun also mentioned that the country’s return to federal constitutional governance would not immediately solve all the many infractions imposed by the military on governance.

He noted that most aberrations at the national and sub-national levels could be taken on board for resolutions.

Mr Opadokun said Mr Tinubu must be conscious of his historical place, adding that the timing was critical.

(NAN)