The deputy national chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Ayo Olorunfemi, says the ongoing process of constitution amendment would not make much meaning if it ignores restructuring and electoral reforms.

Mr Olorunfemi said in an interview on Sunday in Lagos that Nigeria was practising “something else” and not true federalism.

“As a federal republic, every state should have its own independence and autonomy, including having control over security at the state level,” said Mr Olorunfemi, who advocated true federalism and restructuring.

“Second to this is the electoral review. What we have now contains a lot of gaps, and these encourage manipulation of elections by desperate politicians,” Mr Olorunfemi added.

According to him, the country will still struggle to survive unless the National Assembly reforms the electoral system and delivers restructuring.

“We must deploy more technology to improve our elections. We need to transmit election results live in real time; this helps out democracy and puts the nation on a development path,” the politician added.

He suggested that instead of INEC deploying huge funds to produce permanent voter cards (PVCs) each election year, the country could work on national identity cards, improve them with more security features, and use them for elections.

On the immunity clause for presidents and governors, Mr Olorunfemi said that if immunity was removed, every public officer would sit up, knowing they could be touched.

The 10th National Assembly has begun the amendment process of the 1999 Constitution.

In February, the Senate constituted a 45-member Constitution Review Committee headed by the Deputy Senate PresidentJibrin Barau.

Areas listed for possible consideration in the amendment include the creation of state police, local government autonomy, and electoral system reform.

(NAN)