Going forwards, Nigerians should do the right thing, and do the right thing the right way. However, appealing to morality would be futile because Nigeria does not have the kind of society where that virtue counts. That leaves either a variety of options under “violent change”, or peaceful reform using the strength of internationally verifiable law-based arguments.
Introductory text: This insincerity of purpose of the elite in leadership has created a situation where the restructuring debate has been manipulated to mean “restructuring”. That is quite unfortunate because it now places a polarising choice before the peoples so that the future is either restructuring or self-determination.
Going forwards, Nigerians should do the right thing, and do the right thing the right way. However, appealing to morality would be futile because Nigeria does not have the kind of society where that virtue counts. That leaves either a variety of options under “violent change”, or peaceful reform using the strength of internationally verifiable law-based arguments.
An observer can see that political, traditional and religious leaders are tryinghard to get the national question (ie, is there a Nigerian nation?) answered within the confines of the existing 1999 constitution. This insincerity of purposeof the elite in leadership has created a situation where the restructuring debate has been manipulated to mean “restructuring”. That is quite unfortunate because it now places a polarising choice before the peoples so that the future is either restructuring, or self-determination.
The elite in leadershipare hoping to push the masses to accept a restructuring which is just a tinkering about with the 1999 constitution, but where the elitewould stay in control. The key thing for these elite is that the entity called Nigeria must remain.So, even though some of them have in essence repudiated the 1999 constitution as being “Oligo-military in nature” and called on government to “rework” the constitution, they informed Nigerians that it would be by “a process of constitution review”. As stated earlier, making a moral appeal is pointless here because those who call for constitutional reviews or amendments, many of whom are lawyers, know that nothing can be done to a forgery to make it legitimate – it must be thrown out, and the 1999 constitution is a known forgery. Nigerians are in a union that has taken them to become the third most terrorised country in the world, and the world’s poverty capital. Therefore, so that things are from now on done right, nothing less than law-based arguments should be applied to any restructuring agenda.Thus, any of those calling for restructuring would need to show the watching world a legitimate union agreement (a constitution) that upholds the current union, which could be corrected into the restructuring that they talk about.
On the opposite side of the elite’s definition of “restructuring”, are those who want Self-Determination for their ancestral land. That is an inalienable right backed by international law and United Nations instruments. This article is only interested in non-violent methods for obtaining self-determination so that means discussing the proposition that the NINAS Movement has already placed on the table. Several points are therefore considered:
Point #1: The union agreed upon ended in 1966 with the military coups (by terminating the one federating and four regional constitutions of the time).
Point #2: By unilaterally taking up Sharia in a union agreed to be secular, Arewa bloc breached the agreed conditions of having any union, so the NINAS Movement has interpreted that action as Arewa bloc having seceded from the union.
Point #3: The union dispute (national question) has not been resolved. Since the end of the civil war, and also since the 1999 constitution was foisted upon the country, the United Nations brought out a new instrument in 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for self-determination and human rights.
Point #4: The 1999 constitution is a forgery. It was not written or agreed by “we the people” as it falsely claims. It is therefore illegitimate and its preamble reinforces the union dispute, which can be democratically resolved by ethnic nationalities first having their self-determination regional referendums to vote to either re-commit to the union, or to go for something else. The results of these referendums would determine what shape any subsequent restructuring would take.
Point #5: There is a countrywide consensus that the illegitimate 1999 constitution is not fit for purpose, so it is increasingly being repudiated, and the outcome is that it will be decommissioned and replaced with new constitutional arrangements according to the wishes of the peoples.
To summarise, the elite are pushing Nigerians into their version of “restructuring” which they want done within the space of the 1999 constitution. The fact that this document is a forgery does not seem to bother them because they depend on the ignorance of the populace, and their control of mainstream news channels and media. The core issue is that they seem quite terrified of the ethnic nationalities deciding the future of the union for themselves. For decades they have used their power to insist that the unity of the country cannot be questioned. Now though, rather than use state terror to maintain that claim, for the stability of this West African sub-region, they should bring forth law-based arguments to support their restructuring.
Meanwhile, those pushing for self-determination via the non-violent NINAS Movement are secure in knowing that their propositions are law-based and intellectually rooted on sound democratic principles. Nigeria became a disputed project from 16th December 2020 when the NINAS Movement proclaimed a constitutional force majeure to decommission the illegitimate 1999 constitution that is the instrument used to hijack the self-determination of the ethnic nationalities.
Going by the provisions of basic law, a forgery simply cannot be “amended” or “reviewed”. That means the 1999 constitution must be set aside. Those who in honesty prefer justice and truth are repudiating that 1999 constitution because it is an illegitimate forgery. Logical necessity means that Nigeria cannot have general elections in 2023 with that forgery. Doing so, would renew the life of the1999 constitution. That is the reason the elite and their agents (NGOs, CSOs, influencers etc) are pushing citizens to “get your PVC!” as elections 2023 are the only way left to renew the life of that forgery because the winner will swear an oath of office to govern by, uphold, and defend the sham 1999 constitution for four more years.
The choice is between self-determination or restructuring. So, indigenous peoples of “Nigeria” – which do you want?
Ndidi Uwechue is a British citizen with Igbo heritage from the Lower Niger Bloc. She is a retired Metropolitan (London) Police Officer, she is a signatory to the Constitutional Force Majeure, and she writes from Abuja