Why Obasanjo Almost Punched Me – Olanipekun

A former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Wole Olanipekun, has made a startling revelation about an encounter with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Olanipekun claimed that Obasanjo nearly assaulted him when he suggested amending Nigeria’s constitution during his presidency.

This revelation came during the 32nd and 33rd convocation lecture of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, where Olanipekun was a speaker.

Delivering a lecture titled “Mass Exodus of Human Capital in Nigeria: An Anatomical Analysis of the Causes and Effects”, Olanipekun strongly criticized the 1999 constitution, labeling it as “fake” and inadequate for addressing the nation’s challenges.

He advocated for a complete overhaul of the constitution to better meet the country’s needs.

The former NBA President recalled that in 2002, while leading a delegation of the association to meet with President Obasanjo, he advised the commencement of a process to amend the constitution.

However, his suggestion was not only rejected by Obasanjo but also nearly led to physical confrontation, as the former President almost “boxed” him in response to the proposal.

Olanipekun attributed the mass exodus of young Nigerians abroad to several factors, including insecurity, a faulty constitution, a struggling economy, and flawed federalism.

He said, “We need a constitution with a humane face. I’m a lawyer, but we are deceiving ourselves, our constitution is fake and I have said this over and over, but then you will ask we lawyers that, ‘if we say the constitution is fake, why are we practicing it’? Lawyers and judges apply the law as it is, not the law as it ought to be, so we apply the law as we have it now and we have been pleading that we should amend the constitution, let us overhaul it.

“I, as president of the NBA, I led a delegation of the association to president Obasanjo in 2002, he almost boxed me, I’m here in Ogun State and I’m saying this, he is still alive, he said ‘no you can’t change it’, I said Mr. President, let us seize this opportunity to do it.

“We also appeal to the powers that be now, to our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the time for us to restructure this country is now if we do not do it, these children that we have abroad might not return home, they won’t come here.”

He described previous alterations to the constitution as “charades and widow dressing” and called for the restructuring of the country.