Taiwo Adisa, Abuja - 02.08.2007

He said the exercise, like the previous ones, might end up taking Nigerians for a ride.

The Senator, who made the declaration in an interview with newsmen, said that though he was stating his personal views, the 1999 constitution was workable.

“You see, our Senate president, the President of this country, every body has been clamouring that there will be constitutional review and they have been giving the people the anxiety that it is early next year or something like that, we should start it. I Senator Mahmoud Kanti Bello am not in agreement with that view.

“The problem of our Constitution, we all know that there are some lapses. It is true but they are not lapses that we should rush and then start talking about let’s review the Constitution and then we take Nigerians for a ride.

“When you start talking about Constitutional Review the first thing that will come to mind first of all is that the people from the Niger Delta area and so forth will start thinking that 13 per cent derivation is not enough. May be we need 50 or 70 per cent.

He said that the idea may further heat up the polity and raise vain hopes.

“Then the polity will be heated up because in 2006 when we were doing the Constitution review, because of the nature of the Constitution itself, some people had been given the impression that you are likely to get a state just like that.

“That is the South East, so you are going to give them an appetite and then generate another political fever which is not supposed to be there. Again, with all due respect to Mr. President, he has been saying that in the Constitution review the Emirs will have a role to play. You see, it is a very critical remark.”