Tony Nnadi, NINAS
09 June 2025
IGNORANCE KILLS; and it is worse when knowledge is available but we cling tenaciously and almost arrogantly to our Ignorance.
Under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the Government of Nigeria is not accountable to the People because of the immunity clauses.
Section 14(2b) of the 1999 Constitution which states that “the Security and Welfare of People shall be the Primary Purpose of Government” is one of the many deceits contained in that Constitution which at its Preamble, begins with three false claims that (1) We The People, (2) Solemnly Resolved to be One Country in Perpetuity and that (3) We Made, Enacted and Gave Ourselves that Constitution.
That Section 14(2b) is just another one of the many empty homilies and unenforceable platitudes described as “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy” contained in that Constitution, intended to deceive the ill-informed populace into thinking that the Government owes them obligations for the many good things listed in that Chapter 2.
HERE IS HOW:
Section 14(2b) of the 1999 Constitution is in Chapter 2 of that Constitution. Chapter 2 contains all the good things of life for the People, including equal opportunities, equal treatment, education, healthcare, and a long list of other good things, BUT Section 6, Subsection 6(c) of the same 1999 Constitution renders the entire Chapter 2 Non-Justiciable (ie, legally unenforceable). In other words, everything in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution, including Section 14(2b), is at the Discretion of the Government to do or not do, and the Jurisdiction of the Court is expressly removed by that Section 6(6)(c). Put simply, the provisions of Chapter 2 create neither Legal Rights nor Constitutional Rights, unlike the provisions of Chapter 4 (ie, the Fundamental Human Rights Chapter), which are Legally Enforceable Constitutional Rights.
Whether anyone understands it or not, the Fountain from which the many Problems of Nigeria flow is the Unworkable Unitary Constitution of Nigeria including, Corruption, Impunity, Bad Governance, Insecurity, Decayed Infrastructure, Serial Electoral Malfeasances etc.
The Solution to these multifaceted and multidimensional problems which flow from Nigeria’s Unitary Constitution cannot be by way of Elections or Electoral Reforms under that same Unitary Constitution, no matter how free or fair such Elections might be.
The Solution to the Distressed Nigerian Federation lies squarely in the Wholesale Decommissioning of that Unitary Constitution; NOT Electoral Reforms under a Constitution that guarantees the many Dysfunctions of Nigeria. That would mean proceeding in Gross Misdiagnosis and will be like building a house from the roof instead of the Foundation, or choosing to mop instead of turning off the tap from which those dysfunctions and anomalies flow.
The 3-leg definition of Democracy as Government OF the People, BY the People, FOR the People means:
(1) That the People in the exercise OF their Sovereignty set the Supreme Rules by which their Society is organized, which is the Constitution.
(2) That those who access power shall be mandated BY the Votes of the People. That is where Elections come in.
(3) That those who wield power shall do so FOR the benefit of the People as stipulated by the Constitution, dictated by the People.
It is obvious that these three legs relate in a certain sequence.
(a) The Foundation is the Constitution OF the People that creates the Structures and Rules of Governance. (the POLITY)
(b) The second in the sequence relates to the Processes BY which Political Parties and Individuals are mandated by the People to exercise the powers stipulated, vested, and delineated by the People via their Constitution, namely – the Electoral Process. (the POLITICS)
(c) The third in the sequence relates to what those who have been mandated by the People to exercise the powers vested by the Constitution will do FOR the People; that is, actual governance that translates to tangible, concrete, and measurable dividends for the People in terms of quality of life. (the POLICIES).
Leaving out the all-important first leg of a Constitution (Government of the People), which is the foundation upon which the other two legs depend and which therefore dictates the outcome in the other two legs (ie, Electoral Process AND Actual Governance), is like building on a non-existent Foundation.
This grave anomaly of building a Country, a Democracy and an Economy on a forged, unworkable and therefore non-existent Constitutional Foundation, is precisely why Nigeria is where it is today: failing on all fronts, particularly Economic and Security, AND wobbling from disaster to disaster in what seems an irreversible descent into anarchy and Catastrophic Collapse.
It is by virtue of that anomalous Constitutional Foundation that the Sovereignty of the Peoples of Nigeria is confiscated and hijacked by an illicit Federal Government imposed by the rigandage of the Fulani Caliphate and the conspiratorial 1967 Alliance of the rest of Nigeria against the Igbo East which played out as the Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-1970, culminating in the imposition of the 1979/1999 Unitary Constitutions on a Federal Union.
As the Murderous Fulani Conquest Onslaught and Southward sweep which is massively empowered and enabled by the Unitary Constitution of Nigeria continues unabated, AND as the State Capture of Nigeria by Tinubu’s Interregnum (which already turned Nigeria into a One-Party State under an Anti-People and Anti-Development Unitary Constitution of Nigeria, compounded by the deliberate Policy-Orchestrated Economic Strangulation of the Populace), continues unchallenged, it takes criminal-level naivety not to see that the desperation to sustain the Unitary Constitution of Nigeria and permutations around the voyage to 2027 Elections are central to why nothing meaningful is being done (or can be done), to arrest the Fulani Conquest Onslaught, the Tinubu State Capture gambit and the accompanying Economic Strangulation of the Populace being unleashed to quell dissent and opposition.
It also takes criminal-level ignorance or outright dishonesty not to see that the most potent pushback to both the Fulani Conquest Push and Tinubu’s State Capture misadventure is to terminate the life of the Unitary Constitution that enables both. We must therefore suspend the Voyage to 2027 National Elections as a demonstration of our Rejection of the 1999 Constitution, AND demand Immediate Transitioning for Union Reconstruction in place of Elections-2027 as the Key to crashing that Constitution.
In the meantime, the Murderous Fulani Conquest March is advancing rapidly every day. It is against the backdrop of the foregoing that we can see very clearly the obduracy of pushing towards another round of National Elections and Electoral Reforms instead of demanding an Immediate transition for Constitutional Reconstruction.