SPECIAL Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina has described calls for an Interim Government as unconstitutional.
Some Nigerians, including a senior lawyer Afe Babalola, have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend plans for the 2023 general elections and instead set up an Interim Government that will work out a new, peoples’ Constitution for the country.
“As soon as the president, the present government completes its term, do not hold a new election, rather let us have an interim government for a short period to discuss a new Constitution,” Babalola had said.
Reacting to the calls in an interview on Channels Television on Friday, Adesina said there was no provision for Interim Government in the Nigerian Constitution.
“To the best of my unlearned knowledge, it is not in our Constitution for an interim government to be set up,” he said.
He also faulted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s call for restructuring.
According to Adesina, Obasanjo was in a position to restructure the country but did nothing.
“Well, the former President Obasanjo has a right to hold a different opinion from what he had in the past but I recall that under him restructuring of the federation was a key issue that Afenifere fought for and then there was the issue of state police which also resonated loudly under him, he didn’t do anything in eight years.
“Like I said, he has the right to change his mind right now but it does not remove the fact that he had the opportunity to have done something about those issues then and he didn’t do it,” the presidential spokesman said.
