The founder of the National Interest Movement, Dr Abu Sakara Foster, has called for drastic changes in the nation’s constitution to ensure growth and development.

According to him, the current posturing of the constitution acts as impediments to the development of the country.

“The National Interest Movement started after the 2012 elections. So, we’ve been registered for only five years. During those five years, we’ve asked ourselves a very pertinent question relating to the fact that we want to see a change in the duopoly… and country.

“So, we have determined that the key things that are holding us back are really the road blocks in our constitution that have stopped us from operating like a cohesive, focused community of people… so that we can have a direct impact on our development. By this, we mean the issues relating to transition from essentially a military government to a civilian government”.
Dr Abu Sakara Foster

Dr Foster further revealed that the Movement desires to see also a “reduction in power concentrated at the center”.

Constitutional changes to arms of government

Furthermore, he advocated for “a reduction in the number of appointments the President alone makes”.

He further maintained that such reduction will equally translate to a reduction in his “influence over independent bodies”.

“… And also, in the capacities of the independent bodies to operate independently. We want to see a separation between the legislative and the executive and an empowerment of the judiciary.

“Those are things we can only do if we make some constitutional changes and really drastic ones. On top of that, we want to make those changes that speaks to the tension that we have at elections. Why do we have these tensions? Because there’s a perception that somebody’s electoral commissioner is going to be the referee. Why can’t we have a system in which a [second] chamber which we create to appoint these independent bodies and we take some levies to direct those independent organisations.

“That way, both sides and everybody else can have confidence that they can operate independently”.
Dr Abu Sakara Foster

Reforms submitted to Speaker of Parliament

Dr Foster, as part of his reforms, reckons it will ensure the growth of the economy and insisted that government must adopt a more sustainable position.

He further advised that government must invest revenues in areas of manufacturing, agriculture and other sectors. This, he explained, will be a better alternative as against being in a position of borrowing and spending.

“We have a comprehensive table of reforms that deal with key areas. One has to do with long-term national development planning and its impact on our country’s progress. The other has to do with the powers of the executive… on the other arms of government and then the other has to do with independent bodies.

“Yet still, we are looking at committing certain amount of our revenue on investment in productive areas of the economy. We cannot be spending all our revenues on the consumption parts of the economy. That’s not how we manage our households. So, we say, we need to guard a certain amount of our revenue that will be invested in production areas”.
Dr Abu Sakara Foster