Rule Of Law
“ A PRAGMATIC HEALING OF NIGERIA BY THE RE-CONSTRUCTIVE OPERATION OF CHAPTER II (2) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA 1999 AS AMENDED.“
By Oladipo Fola-Alade
At 60 years old, the Nigerian Nation can at best be described as an old adult that suffers the consequences of a stunted growth.
Stunting is known as the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.
Some of the clinical diagnosis that result from this syndrome include Growth Hormone Deficiency( GHD), Hypothyroidism, Turner Syndrome(TS) and Constitutional Growth Delay(CGD).The ailment most analogous to the Nigerian situation is that latter medical condition known as “Constitutional Growth Delay”(GHD).
When viewed through the lenses of the legal microscope, the provision of the hitherto controversial Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, titled, “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy”, the root cause of the ailment that has plagued our nation can be diagnosed in literal terms thus: An impairment of the development of the fundamental needs of the citizens, due to a deficiency in the appropriate principles to direct the leadership of the country, on the path of those objectives that are necessary to secure a sustainably healthy and prosperous life for we the people, through well informed and properly guided and directed state polices.
This is even more so especially as it concerns the protection and justification of not just our fundamental human rights, but our long term interests and human dignity as enshrined in Chapter IV(4) of the constitution, for which both our leadership and citizenship ought always to be held accountable. Short of this, would be to remain in a national body trapped in self inflicted malnutrition, resulting in a dysfunctional growth and underdevelopment syndrome, akin to “Constitutional Growth Delay”.
Our discourse on The Rule of Law in the commencing series, is to profer some remedy for the afflictions that have truncated the growth of our nation thus far, to the intent that a reversal of our misfortune is effected , via a cardio – surgical procedure on our constitution, where the subject matter of the “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy” is indeed at the heart of the matter.
To Be Continued
