NEW REFERENDUM-BASED CONSTITUTIONS: GLOBAL TESTAMENT TO POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE
The world is replete with nations that emerged from constitutional darkness into the light of participatory democracy and popular governance. Some examples will suffice here to advance this point. Kenya, in 2010, rose from the ashes of electoral violence to birth a new people-oriented Constitution through a referendum. The Kenyan model was not merely legal-it was moral. It sought to heal, not just to rule. South Africa’s 1996 Constitution is another golden standard: a document forged through exhaustive public consultations, grassroots submissions, and national soul-searching, culminating in a powerful symbol of unity post-apartheid.
Ghana’s 1992 Constitution also passed through a national referendum, marking the country’s rebirth after years of military interregnum. In 2022, Chile attempted a similar feat by proposing a new Constitution through a popularly elected Constituent Assembly. Although that version was rejected in a referendum, the process itself showcased the democratic principle: the people must be heard, not herded; their will must prevail, not discarded.
In Iran, a new Islamic Republic Constitution was birthed in 1979 after a 99.5% referendum of the Iranian people. A people’s referendum in Bangladesh in 1991reintroduced a parliamentary system of government, abolished the office of the Vice President and provided that the President must be elected by the Parliament. Morocco held a referendum on 1st July, 2011, for constitutional reforms in response to wide-spread protests. Egypt subjected its new Constitution to a referendum in 2012. The Eritrean people in 1994 carried out a referendum which gave the people a “sense of ownership of the Constitution”. Tunisia, following a revolution and months of protests, set up a Constituent Assembly that drafted a new Constitution on 26th January, 2014, after a people’s referendum. Iraq, on October 15, 2005, carried out a referendum to adopt her new Constitution.
The United States of America (after whom Nigeria’s Constitution is modelled) held a constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between May 25 and September 17, 1787, to birth a new Constitution and have a “more perfect union”. Of the 55 Delegates that attended the Convention presided over by George Washington (who later became the first American President), 39 delegates signed a new Constitution after a people’s referendum. Broad outlines of a new Constitution were proposed, debated and agreed upon by these delegates that represented the autonomous confederates. It was this initiative that brought about America’s federal system of government; Executive Presidency; Republicanism; Separation of Powers (a doctrine earlier popularized in 1748 by Baron de Montesquieu, a great French philosopher); and judicial review. It witnesses inclusive inputs by great Federalists such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, John Adams and John Marshal. Since 1789 when the Constitution birthed ( 236 whole years ago),has just 7,591 words with only 27 amendments. The reason it has withstood its stability and acceptability is because it emanated directly from the will of the people and so enjoys their legitimacy and respectability. Why not Nigeria,I ask? (See Mike Ozekhome: Constitutional Autochthony and a Referendum for a New People’s Constitution: A Comparison with the 1999 Constitution; February, 2025, Mikeozekhomeschambers.com).
What unites the above examples is one common thread-referendum. This is the power of the people expressed directly; not elected, selected or appointed through legislative surrogates. The people must see their fingerprint on the agreed charter that governs them. That is the essence of legitimacy through a yes-or-no referendum on the people’s grundnorm. Referendum makes a Constitution autochthonous, homegrown, people-owned.
[See Yash Ghai, “Kenya’s Constitution: An Instrument for Change,” Open Society Foundations, August 2011]
[See Christina Murray and Heinz Klug, “Constitution-Making in South Africa: A Model for the World?” Review of Constitutional Studies, 1997].
LESSONS FOR NIGERIA FROM THESE COUNTRIES
Nigeria must jettison the illusion that piecemeal amendments can yield a legitimate, people’s Constitution. We must learn from America, our African and Latin American siblings that the legitimacy of a Constitution lies not in its legal grammar but in its popular genesis. A new Nigerian Constitution must be drafted by a Constituent Assembly comprising of Representatives of the people elected on a non political or partisan basis-civil society, labour, youth, men and women’s groups, professionals, students, traditional institutions, faith-based organizations, persons living with disabilities and other stakeholders. It must then be subjected to a national referendum where every citizen, from the creeks of Yenagoa to the plains of Sokoto, from the savannah to the mangrove swamps, etc, casts a vote.
This process is not just a legal imperative-it is a national therapy. A referendum-based Constitution would erase the ghost of military rule and birth a fresh beginning and identity for Nigeria. It would convert cynical citizens into patriotic stakeholders. It would replace imposed obedience with inspired allegiance.
The time has come. Let the eagle soar again-not on colonial graves; not on military Decrees and diktats; but on the wings of popular consent of the people.
[See Clement Nwankwo, “Towards a People’s Constitution for Nigeria,” Cleen Foundation Policy Paper, 2021].
THE PATRIOTS’ PATRIOTIC BLUEPRINT FOR A PEOPLE’S CONSTITUTION
A Constitution must not only be written-it must be born. And like all legitimate births, it must pass through the womb of collective consent. The Patriots, a formidable assembly of distinguished elder statesmen and women, jurists, constitutional scholars, professionals, traditional and religious leaders and public intellectuals, have for years championed the cause of a People’s Constitution, not by revolution but by resolution; not with bayonets but with ballots; not by Decrees but through dialogue and democratic deliberation.
Their thesis is clear: no nation can build peace on the foundation of falsehood or silence, and no union can last where one part feels conscripted rather than convened. In the interest of national salvation-not sentiments-they propose a blueprint for constitutional rebirth anchored on Nigeria’s plurality.
PRACTICAL STEPS FOR NIGERIA’S CONSTITUTION-MAKING PROCESS
Step 1: Enactment of Enabling Legislation:
- Executive Bill Pathway: The President submits an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, requesting promulgation of a law to enable INEC conduct elections into a Constituent Assembly on a non-partisan basis. This will comprise of 110 members made up of three representatives from each Senatorial zone of the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,Abuja (one per senatorial district). Such candidates are to campaign and run on their personal merit based on their own manifestos, not on political party platforms. This approach follows global best practice, as seen in Uganda (1989) and South Africa (1996).
- Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC):
Step 2: The elected Constituent Assembly sits publicly for the sole
purpose of drafting a new people’s Constitution. In this historic task, the Constituent Assembly shall consult widely across all segments of the society. They shall also draw inputs from:
- The 1960 Independence and 1963 Republican Constitution;
- The 2014 National Conference Report (over 600 consensus-based recommendations);
- Relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution;
- Relevant reports from Senate and House Committees on their Constitutional Review exercise;
- Nationwide submissions from ethnic nationalities, civil society, the military, Police, media, business, private sector, persons living with disabilities, academia, students leadership, labour, diaspora, traditional and religious leaders, elder statesmen and women, market men and women, and more.
Deliberations at the Constituent Assembly must be open to the public, transparent, and all-inclusive; modeled after the 1996 South African process which received over two million citizen submissions.
Step 3: Public Engagement and Harmonization
Once the initial draft is produced:
- The document must be translated into major local languages and subjected to town hall meetings, digital consultations, and public critique across the six geopolitical zones and the diaspora.
- The drafters shall revise and harmonize the draft based on inputs received.
This step ensures that the Constitution reflects lived realities, promotes civic ownership, and withstands democratic scrutiny.
Step 4: National Referendum
The harmonized final draft is subjected to a national referendum—a democratic mechanism for the people to either accept or reject the new Constitution.
The Constituent Assembly may in its wisdom adopt one of two suggested formats:
- Single Yes/No Vote on the entire draft Constitution (as done in Kenya in 2010 and Bangladesh in 1991).
- Clause-by-Clause Referendum, where citizens vote section-by-section, enabling granular endorsement or rejection. This format mirrors the 1963 Midwestern Referendum of 10th August, 1963.
A minimum voter turnout threshold shall be set to ensure democratic validity.
Step 5: Presidential Proclamation and Entry into Force
Once the referendum is concluded and the draft is approved,it is submitted to the President for assent.
- The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, acting under section 5 of the Constitution and in line with the powers vested in nim as head of the Executive, shall sign and proclaim the new Constitution into law, thus bringing about its enforcement.
It is only then that Nigeria can truly affirm the genuine foundational democratic statement:
“We the people of Nigeria… do hereby give to ourselves this Constitution.”
This process is not about undermining state institutions—it is about restoring them to legitimacy. It blends legality (via executive and legislative action) with legitimacy (via citizen participation and referendum). It affirms that sovereignty indeed resides with the people, not a political class; not a elitist group.
This roadmap ensures that Nigeria’s next Constitution is not a product of Decree, convenience, or elite consensus, but of collective national will, built through openness, participation, and inclusion.
CONCLUSION
A CALL TO NATIONAL ACTION
Nigeria stands today, not merely at a constitutional crossroads, but at a moral precipice. The air is thick with constitutional fatigue, the soil weary of authoritarian roots masked by democratic branches, and the soul of the nation suffocate under the weight of imposed structures (foreign and military) that neither resemble nor respect its people’s will.
It is no longer a question of whether the 1999 Constitution is flawed. That is settled. It is a graveyard of imposed ideas, a mausoleum of military fiat dressed in borrowed democratic robes. What is now urgent, pressing and constitutionally obligatory is what we, the Nigerian people must do to salvage her soul.
We must not tinker any longer with palliative amendments. The process of constitutional reform cannot merely be an elite sport, played behind closed doors in committee rooms in Abuja, choreographed by a political class more interested in electoral advantage than nation-building. No. It must begin and end with the people.
The people, in their villages and towns, their religious centres and schools, their market places and offices-they are the sovereigns. Not military Decrees of yesteryears. Not the colonially inherited scaffolds of exclusion. Not the self-serving silence of our complicit elites.
As argued above, the role of the National Assembly under sections 4 and 9 of the 1999 Constitution is not to wear the toga of originators. It is not their prerogative to determine in isolation the next chapter of our nationhood. Rather, they must become enablers, facilitators of a people-driven process rooted in popular sovereignty.
The Patriots, in their timeless wisdom, hug this national moment. Their peaceful blueprint for constitutional renewal, laid out with clarity and democratic precision, calls for a step-by-step people’s conference, one divorced from state capture, one driven by inclusivity, and culminating in a national referendum.
This process is not a romantic idealism. It is national necessity. It is legal realism. It is historical debt owed to a citizenry long ignored and despised.
Furthermore, at a time where the sword increasingly overshadows the scale, when guns echo louder than reason, the law must reassert itself-not in violence, not in Decrees, but in institutional dialogue. We are not a banana republic. We are a sovereign Republic founded on law and justice. And it is time we returned to that foundation with humility and courage.
Now therefore, dear Nigerians-activists and artisans, farmers, professors and pensioners, youth and students, academia, diaspora, market men and women, military and police, and elderstatesmen and women, religious and traditional leaders- we call upon you. Let this be the hour of national reawakening and rebirth. Let this be the season when democracy is not just recited but rewritten. Let it not be said that in our moment of reckoning, we chose silence over courage, cynicism over hope, and apathy over action.
Let the President, National Assembly initiate enabling Executive Bill; Let the NASS pass it into law. Let the process commence towards a truly people-led constitutional process. Let the Constituent Assembly deliberate and agree on a draft new Constitution. Let the NASS in its new law mandate INEC to organsise a people’s referendum . Let civil society and other stake holders mobilize town halls, public debates grassroots dialogues to aid the Constituent Assembly. Let the courts be courageous in defending the people’s right to re-found their nation. Let the press amplify, not suppress. Let the young rise and the old lead by example and with conscience.
Let it be said of this generation: They inherited a broken Constitution. They rebuilt it and gave us a new one.
Let Nigeria rise anew, not on the crumbling scaffolds of imposed legality, but on the sacred shoulders of popular legitimacy. This is the lens I recommend to Kolawole and others to appreciate the Patriots’ patriotic position. God bless Nigeria.