Constitutions create the environment citizens live in. That is why the type of Constitution a country has matters! Nigeria’s Constitution MUST therefore matter to Nigerians.
Nigeria is the visual representation of its Unitary 1999 Constitution, a well-known Forgery and Fraud foisted upon its people.
Whatever Nigerians complain about in their environment can be traced back to the 1999 Constitution.
For instance, listed below are ten key things from its Preamble and its 68-item Exclusive List that will not allow Nigeria’s environment to improve as long as the 1999 Constitution stands:
(1) Union Dispute (Who has Sovereignty: is it indigenous Ethnic Nations or elected politicians?)
(2) Mass exodus from Nigeria because of lack of welfare and public services.
(3) Electricity lack.
(4) Insecurity.
(5) Institutionalized corruption.
(6) Functioning refineries, and petroleum products scarcity.
(7) Decayed infrastructure including seaports, airports, highways, and railways.
(8) Massive cost of governance.
(9) No Rule of law or good governance.
(10) Crooked elections and bad leadership.
In a proper and true Constitution (which the 1999 Constitution is not), the Preamble is the introducing text that states who created it and sets out the reasons and purpose of the Constitution. It is the seal of approval for the entire Constitution and the Preamble can be viewed as the signature of its makers. In short, the Preamble would confirm that the people freely agreed to adopt the entire Constitution as theirs. It should therefore concern Nigerians that the Preamble of the 1999 Constitution contains four major falsehoods, and any reasonably honest person would want those falsehoods corrected.
The Preamble states:
“We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:
HAVING firmly and solemnly resolved:
TO LIVE in unity and harmony as one indivisible, indissoluble, Sovereign Nation under God dedicated to the promotion of inter-African solidarity, world peace, international cooperation and understanding:
AND TO PROVIDE a Constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country on the principles of Freedom, Equality and Justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the Unity of our people:
DO HEREBY MAKE, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES the following Constitution:”
Those falsehoods have created a lingering Union Dispute (aka Sovereignty Dispute) which revolves around three questions.
Firstly, who are the "We the people"…???
Secondly, If Nigeria is “Federal” then where are the Constitutions of each of the federating units..???
Thirdly, when and where did “We the people”: “Firmly and solemnly resolve, to live...as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation” i.e. Unitary Nigeria…???
Fourthly, when and where did “We the people”: “Do hereby make, enact, and give to ourselves the following Constitution” i.e. a Unitary Constitution...???
The answers to these questions are in fact known: that the 1999 Constitution is a Forgery, and is actually Military Decree 24, and it has never been ratified by Referendum. To date, no leadership group whether political, religious, civic or traditional has had the moral fibre to insist that these falsehoods in the Preamble be corrected.
Since the Preamble is fraudulent, all the provisions of the entire 1999 Constitution have that same status. Those who imposed that Forgery had a clear aim in view: it is to rob indigenous Ethnic Nations of their valuable natural resources, plus at the same time render Nigerians weakened and conquered – which is what the 68-item Exclusive List achieves. It is no secret that the 1999 Constitution is the Instrument used to bring about Ahmadu Bello’s Declaration of 1960 that Nigeria is to be turned into the “estate” of the immigrant settler Fulani.
Ahmadu Bello had boasted that the Fulanization Agenda of the conquest of Nigerians would make use of “willing tools” who would be individuals from indigenous Ethnic Nations. The chief willing tools are clearly and easily identifiable. They are ALL those who have ever sworn an Oath of Office to uphold and defend that fraudulent 1999 Constitution, PLUS all those willing even now, to do so. Since these willing tools are the ones DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the environment that Unitary Nigeria is, described by many as a failed state, as a Union of death because of the frightening levels of terrorism and genocidal violence, and as a hell-hole from which multitudes have escaped abroad or are seeking to do so, it is essential that Nigerians know who brings miseries, hopelessness and existential threats upon their heads: it is the willing tools among them.
So here is a list of chief willing tools, those who swear an Oath of Office to uphold and defend that known fraud called the 1999 Constitution in exchange for riches-for-life, and for armed protection for self (meaning that they themselves do not partake of that Nigerian environment that they happily foist on others):
Presidents and Vice Presidents
Cabinet Ministers
Senators
Representatives
State Governors and Deputy Governors
Members of the State House of Assembly,
Commissioners
Local Government Area Chairpersons
Special Advisers
Judges
Top civil servants
It is this same group of chief willing tools, together with either the active participation or immoral silence of members of the legal profession, the media, civil society, and the church who continue to deceive Nigerians and the global community by hiding the truth of the 1999 Constitution being a Forgery, and instead hoping to give it legitimacy by addressing that Fraud as if it is the genuine article. Going even as far as promoting “constitutional amendments” when it is illogical and invalid to “amend” a Forgery. The only thing to do with that 1999 Constitution is to throw the entire Document away, and then correct Nigeria’s dysfunctional constitutional arrangement. Again, those who want to deceive and cause mischief will say that throwing away the 1999 Forgery (Constitution) will cause a vacuum or anarchy. No, it would not! Because Nigeria would enter a time-bound period of Transitioning – just like South Africa did in order to terminate its Apartheid constitutional order.
To conclude, Nigeria’s intolerably unsafe and unstable environment, created by the fraudulent 1999 Constitution is “a pressure cooker for injustice” and a ticking time bomb. Except by hoping on a kind of idiot optimism, is it rationally possible for “good leadership” to emerge when it must swear an Oath of Office to uphold a FORGERY over Nigerians? Plus, that FORGERY through its 68-item Exclusive List ties down the means of productivity and of security and self-preservation. That really just means continued miseries and existential threats for Nigerians.
Young Nigerians especially, should be THINKING AHEAD, and focus on that 1999 Constitution plus on the chief willing tools who are its ENFORCERS. Both that 1999 Forgery (Constitution) and those who have sworn or are willing to swear an Oath of Office to uphold and defend it show wickedness that must be put on trial for all to see. We simply cannot keep on disregarding this level of insensitivity where Black lives do not matter to those who are in leadership positions, and who make “Nigeria happen” to hundreds of millions of ordinary and poor Nigerians, by creating a unitary Nigeria where a few grab it all, and the majority are left with nothing, using a Forged Instrument (that 1999 Constitution). We cannot disregard these willing tools, we must highlight them and their offences, and they must be held accountable for their actions and for creating the environment that makes Nigeria, Nigeria.
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.