Nigeria, Aug. 1 -- Two weeks ago, on 16 July to be precise, the self-described Eminent Patriots, in conjunction with the Nigeria Political Summit Group, convened a three-day National Summit on "The Future of Nigeria's Constitutional Democracy" at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. At that summit, two pre-eminent Nigerians, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, grabbed media headlines for their diametrically opposed views on the country's Constitution.

Anyaoku, who spoke first, said the problem with the country was its Constitution basically, because it was a military imposition and did not reflect the country's plural nature. His solution, he said, was to go back...