Let it be recalled that: By virtue of the December 16, 2020 90-day notice of grave constitutional grievances to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the consequential joint multi-regional Constitutional Force Majeure (CFM) proclamation, the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) declared a union dispute bordering on the sovereignty questions arising from the Illegitimacy and fraudulence of the imposed unitary Constitution (1999) of the distressed Federation of Nigeria.
The CFM proclamation made a five-point proposition, outlining an orderly process framework by which the repudiated 1999 Constitution could be eased out and by which successor-constitutional protocols dictated by the self-determination imperative for trapped constituent components of Nigeria, could be distilled.
The said five-point proposition could be summarised as follows: An acknowledgment of the grave constitutional grievances raised in union dispute as declared; An express commitment to decommission the imposed 1999 unitary Constitution; An express commitment to shelve further national elections under the 1999 Constitution in order to initiate an immediate transitioning process for fresh constitutional protocols; An invitation to the constituent peoples of Nigeria to work out the modalities for the transitioning arrangements including mandate timeframe, membership and ancillary matters; Announcement of a time-bound, two-stage transitioning process, which shall in the first stage feature multi-regional referendums by which erstwhile constituent components shall recommit to or opt out of the Nigerian Union; and in the second, distill terms of union, as may be dictated by the outcome of the referendums.
Let it be noted that: In the 90 days period of notice that commenced from the said December 16, 2020 FCM, the Federal Government of Nigeria, whilst evading direct engagements with NINAS, in obvious knee-jerk response, rolled out through its legislative arm, (i.e the National Assembly), a bogus “Constitution Amendment” exercise, lining up issues that relate to the grave constitutional grievances outlined in the FCM, but a far cry from measures necessary for addressing those grievances. That amendment exercise fell like a pack of cards when NINAS exposed the insincerity of the Federal Government for going the route of amendments, especially because the FCM itself clearly established the fact that the legislative mandate of the national assembly does not extend to constitution-making as the national assembly does not have constituent powers required for constitution-making.
At the expiration of the 90 days notice to the Federal Government, NINAS announced a 30-day period of consultations with state governors and other elected officials from the alliance territory (March 17, 2021-April 16, 2021). Again, the governors, (particularly of the South), instead of coming forward, hurried to Asaba to declare that they would all pass anti-open grazing laws by September of 2021 in obvious response to pressures by their constituents ignited by the NINAS constitutional force majeure. The Asaba declaration of the governors of course fell far short of what their constituents were expecting to see.
At the April 16, 2021 expiration of the aforementioned 30-day period, NINAS announced a 120-day period of consultations with the peoples of Nigeria, the stakeholder-segment of the international community and other interests. In this period of 120 days that ran up to August 16, 2021, we saw the various nationalities across the south and middle-belt of Nigeria on the streets, marching for self-determination, demanding referendums, in embrace of NINAS grand propositions for the constitutional reconstruction of the Nigerian union. These street marches were replicated by our diaspora in various countries and cities, culminating in the joint multi-regional freedom march at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, September of 2021, even as a NINAS referendum petition was addressed to the Security Council of the UN.
Unobtrusive as the NINAS campaign was, it must now be acknowledged that in the two years between the December 16, 2020 activation of the CFM and December 16, 2022, the intensive enlightenment and sensitisation campaign of NINAS has galvanised a countrywide consensus against the imposed unitary Constitution of Nigeria (1999). It must also be acknowledged that in this period, the NINAS alliance has objectively identified the caliphate proprietors and enforcers of unitary Nigeria in a manner that sets that recalcitrant minority against the super-majority alliance of the rest of Nigeria (i.e. NINAS).
These two monumental achievements, namely that countrywide consensus against 1999 Constitution and the isolation of the caliphate enforcers of the unitary Nigeria foisted by that Constitution, go to the very core of the Nigerian union dispute and therefore constitute evidence of success in the realisation of the main objectives of the NINAS constitutional force majeure declared in December 16, 2020.
Accordingly, we declare that: It is self-evident that the onslaught against the 1999 Constitution unleashed by the enlightenment and sensitisation phase of the implementation of the NINAS constitutional force majeure, has successfully delegitimised the 1999 Constitution as basis of the Nigerian Union and has therefore raised an urgent question about the basis and purpose of further national elections in 2023 under that 1999 Constitution since the entire country now acknowledges that the 1999 Constitution is a fraud upon which we cannot continue the construction of the Nigerian union and its democracy.
It is also self-evident that the NINAS alliance has successfully isolated and incapacitated the caliphate enforcers of unitary Nigeria, which continues to cling desperately and tenaciously to the dying 1999 Constitution as basis of union.
It is significant to note that even in the international circuit, the dynamics have changed radically in favour of the NINAS alliance since the caliphate proprietors of unitary Nigeria who are openly sympathetic to, and unabashedly entangled with terror groups like Boko Haram and ‘Fulani herdsmen’ militia, have in pursuit of Sharia and feudalism, gone into open alliances with global terror networks, particularly ISIS, floating ISWAP. This complicity with terror has pitched that caliphate against the western powers that are at war with those terror networks in the Middle East.
The delegitimisation of the 1999 Constitution and the isolation of its proprietors and enforcers thus marks the end of the sensitization and enlightenment phase of the implementation of the NINAS constitutional force majeure, bringing us to the commencement of the mobilisation phase for the wholesale decommissioning of that illicit constitution.
That Mobilisation for decommissioning shall commence December 17, 2022 and shall continue until a critical mass is attained to enact enforcement.
Let it be understood that the process of decommissioning which must now follow the delegitimisation of the 1999 Constitution may be as outlined in the five-point proposition of the NINAS constitutional force majeure in which case a transitioning arrangement is initiated according to the prescriptions of the said five-point proposition. The decommissioning may also be by way of unilateral actions of the alliance blocs if no common ground is found early enough to initiate an orderly transitioning process as prescribed by the NINAS propositions.
For the avoidance of doubt, with the demise of the 1999 Constitution and the collapse of the 1967 alliance that imposed it, we must now disperse except something happens to get us discussing the inevitable union reconstruction.
For those who in the face of the union dispute we have raised, chose to railroad the distressed federation of Nigeria to another round of national elections in 2023 under the disputed 1999 Constitution, be it known to you that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand there, and so the winner of the 2023 elections will find no Nigeria to govern if that Nigeria is the one defined by the so-called “1999 Constitution”, (that is if the country manages to wobble to the elections).
In the days ahead, the NINAS secretariat and field operations shall provide directions for how the multitudes of our people who agree with the NINAS propositions will join the practical tasks of mobilisation towards the decommissioning of the delegitimised 1999 Constitution. Those rushing to the 2023 elections mandated by the same 1999 Constitution that enslave them, instead of joining the push for immediate transitioning, should be clear in their minds that the choice they have made is tantamount to reinforcing their bondage. For reasons that have been clearly explained in the NINAS extraordinary alerts broadcasts series, NINAS can tell you authoritatively that the suggestion that ‘the new President will fix the Constitution’ is untenable and a deceit to lure you to your damnation. We invite you to examine the “NINAS interrogatories to political parties” on our website, YouTube or Google, to clear your doubts.
We must now take responsibility for our future and take charge of our spaces.
By the Board of conveners, the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS).
Source: The Guardian
