THE 1999 CONSTITUTION IS NOW DELEGITIMIZED AND DECOMMISSIONING PROCESSES HAVE NOW BEEN ACTIVATED.

(Being a NINAS Special Milestone Report on the Implementation of the December 16, 2020 Constitutional Force Majeure, Presented at a Press Conference on the 3rd Anniversary of the NINAS Declaration of a Sovereignty/Union Dispute by way of the said Constitutional Force Majeure).

NINAS Board of Conveners
16 December 2023 Protocols.

Dear Compatriots, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

I welcome you on behalf of the Board of Conveners of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS).

We invited you here today to share with you the Spectacular Progress being made in the implementation of the Joint Multi-Regional Constitutional Force Majeure Declared on December 16, 2020, and the next steps in the Implementation Processes, as a part of our Celebrations and Stock-Taking at the Third Anniversary of the said Constitutional Force Majeure.

We wish to State as follows:

1. You will recall that on the 16th Day of December 2020, NINAS Activated the Joint Multi-Regional Constitutional Force Majeure by which it Declared a Union Dispute in the Federation of Nigeria, issuing a 90-day Notice of Grave Constitutional Grievances to the Government of the Federation of Nigeria and Presenting a Five-Point Proposition by which those Grievances could be addressed, including the Suspension of further National Elections under the 1999 Constitution and the Initiation of an Immediate Transitioning Arrangement to Undertake the Long-Overdue Constitutional Reconstruction of Unitary Nigeria.
2. You will recall that at the Expiration of the 90-Day Period of Notice, NINAS Addressed a World Press Conference in Ibadan, on March 17, 2021, at which it announced a 30-Day Period of Consultations being extended to the Governments and Elected officials of the States of the Federation of Nigeria since the 90-Day Notice of December 16, 2020 was directed to the Government of the Federation of Nigeria.
3. Upon the Expiration of the 30-day Period, NINAS by another World Press Conference in Lagos, declared a 120-day Period of Consultations with the Peoples and Ethnic Nations of Nigeria, sundry interests, and the Stakeholder Community in the International Circuit, including the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Trusteeship Council as well as Governments of the United States, the European Union, China, Russia and a few others.
4. Upon the completion of these Consultations which ran concurrently with Enlightenment Campaigns with the Populace and Stakeholders, NINAS intensified engagements with Groups that were mobilizing towards 2023 General Elections but the Government, the Political Parties, the Prospective Candidates, Civil Society Groups and the Religious Leaders all pushed rambunctiously towards Elections under the same Unitary Constitution that Guarantees the Dysfunctions and Failures of Nigeria, including Insecurity, Corruption, Impunity, Infrastructural Decay, Mass Impoverishment, and Serial Electoral Heists.

   Young people were hoodwinked by those who knew better into believing that Leadership was the Major Problem of Nigeria and so in that belief, they rallied massively behind the Candidate they believed would offer the great Leadership that would turn Nigeria into a Great Country. Their Movement became known as ‘Obidient Movement’ with Candidate Peter Obi as their battle-axe for rescuing Nigeria from demons that they can see.

   The noise of Elections drowned the strident voice of NINAS which kept pointing at the dangers that were encircling Nigeria and Nigerians from all sides.

5. February 2023 came and voting took place. Everything that could go wrong went wrong with results; INEC and the Judiciary completed the circuit and Nigeria went into a free fall as predicted by NINAS and as guaranteed by the Unitary Constitution of Nigeria which was directly responsible for everything that went wrong with the Elections. The rest as they say is history.

   Almost instantly, from Fuel Price Hikes and the free Fall of the Naira to an astronomical rise in the cost of living, particularly in Foodstuffs; Lamentations and Disillusionment led to more exodus of young people to foreign lands, fleeing from their Country that fed on their blood like a monster.

   NINAS’ verdict on the entire 2023 Electoral Charade (especially the defiance of the already disputed Constitution of Nigeria by both INEC and the Judiciary to produce the preconceived outcomes from the Election), was that Nigeria had landed itself in an Interregnum in which there is a Government in Power but which lacked Legitimacy.

6. The worst outcome of the 2023 Elections is what has now crystallized as State Capture in which all Arms of Government and Institutions of State have openly capitulated to the rampage and onslaught of the Agents of the brazen State Capture, complete with massive looting of whatever is left of Nigeria, even as Foreign Loans are recklessly contracted for consumption purposes. Young People began to shout ‘Revolution, Revolution’ all over the place, looking longingly at the recent string of People’s Revolts across the West African Sub-Region.
7. Apparently frightened by the rapid descent of Nigeria towards anarchy, more voices began to emerge from high places in support of the immediate Constitutional Reengineering of Nigeria, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Emeka Anyaoku with the likes of Prof Pat Utomi and Prof Kingsley Moghalu, who had all plunged heedlessly into the 2023 Electoral Fray. Everyone now agrees that the Unworkable Unitary Constitution of Nigeria is the source of practically all the problems of Nigeria, including Insecurity, Corruption, Infrastructural Decay, Mass Poverty, and the General Hopelessness pervading the land.

   The Question on every lip now is, “How exactly do we get rid of the 1999 Constitution?”

   Others ask: “Where does Nigeria Go From Here?”

   Without any hesitation, NINAS will ask all those who are asking these questions: “Is there anyone or group in Nigeria including the Government and the Political Parties, that has a better Proposition for addressing the Anomalous Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria, than NINAS which since December 16, 2020, placed on the Table, a Comprehensive Practical Plan for the immediate undertaking of the Constitutional Reconstruction of Nigeria following a 20-Year Painstaking Process that began right from the 1999 imposition of the Unitary Constitution that has now brought Nigeria to its knees?”

   Without being immodest, we have no doubt that the answer to this question is a resounding No.

   It is on the basis of this reality that NINAS will request all Stakeholders including the Government of Nigeria, Political Parties, Statesmen, and other Stakeholders, to find the courage to embrace this Proposition of NINAS as the last available peaceful and orderly mechanism for taking Nigeria to immediate Union Reconstruction, in a process that offers the existing Governance Structures an accommodation by way of a Transitioning Arrangement. The alternative will most likely be a disorderly and most likely Violent Disintegration of Nigeria, triggering a Refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale.

8. NINAS observes with concern that the Government of the day seems determined to sidetrack the NINAS route to Redemption by groping about in the dark in the search for other Solutions that will retain the Stranglehold on the Sovereignty of the Constituent Components of Nigeria, now being Restored by the Two-Stage Union Reconstruction Process contained in the NINAS Five-Point Proposition.

   The Government and agents of the system have gone from one form of amorphous Restructuring suggestion to lame talk about recourse to the Report of the 2014 Political Reforms Conference, to suggestions about a return to the 1963 Constitution, to the recent Invitation by the Leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), to ALL Lawyers in Nigeria, to submit Memoranda on Constitution-Amendments. The latest dubious suggestion on the subject was made by Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), at the December 14, 2023, Abuja Colloquium in which he invited the National Assembly of Nigeria to draw some imaginary powers from Section 4(1) of the 1999 Constitution, to replace that Constitution wholesale without any recourse to the Sovereign Constituent Components (Peoples) of Nigeria.

   This is an invitation to a bigger fraud than the Fraud of 1999 enacted by Abdulsalami Abubakar and this is Treasonous. The further Tragedy is that both Tinubu and Akpabio Openly Hailed that dubious suggestion by Agbakoba as actionable.

   The common strand with all the Constitutional Reconstruction options listed above is that the Constitution Amendment will be the mechanism, while the National Assembly will be the venue for undertaking the Constitutional Reconstruction of Nigeria.

   For the avoidance of doubt, NINAS completely Rejects and will vehemently oppose any suggestion that seeks to take the Union Reconstruction Undertaking to the National Assembly because such a procedure will reinforce the lockdown of the Sovereignty of the Constituent Peoples of Nigeria, hijacked and detained from the Colonial Era, to date. This is the jinx that the NINAS Proposition has broken.

9. NINAS is pleased to inform the Peoples of Nigeria, home and abroad, that the 1999 Constitution has been Delegitimized and that the Processes for the Decommissioning of that Constitution have been activated. What this means is that the Imposed Constitutional Instruments by which the Sovereignty and Assets of the Constituent Peoples of Nigeria were Forcefully Confiscated and Conscripted into the Nigerian Project are now Defeated and Disabled.

   The People of Nigeria are now at Liberty to Decide Whether or Not they wish to Federate afresh, and if yes, on what Terms.

   The Unitary Union of Nigeria Currently Anchored Upon and Defined by the 1999 Constitution is now at its Terminus and so Nigeria must now choose BETWEEN Immediate Transitioning for Union Reconfiguration AND Immediate Union Dissolution, most likely by Default or by the Uncoordinated Unilateral actions of Aggrieved Constituent Components of the Defunct Federation of Nigeria that died since the 1966-1967 toppling of the Federating Constitutions but the carcass of which is still being operated as the Federal Republic of Nigeria by an illicit “Federal Government”.

10. NEXT-STEPS IN THE DECOMMISSIONING
    PROCESSES OF THE DISTRESSED 1999 CONSTITUTION AND A CALL TO ACTION.
    1. The Strategic Objective of the NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure as summarized in the Five-Point Proposition of the Force Majeure Proclamation, is to bring Nigeria to an Orderly Constitutional Reconstruction via a Transitioning Arrangement, in a Determinable frame with a Process that outlines in clear detail and sequence, WHAT exactly needs to be done, WHO has to do it, WHEN It has to be done and HOW it has to be done, Step-By-Step, Start-to-Finish.

       Constructed on the Self-Determination Imperative for the Constituent Components of Nigeria, the NINAS Proposition Demystifies the entire “Restructuring” Debate whilst offering accommodation to existing Governance Structures by way of a Transitioning Arrangement, with outcome options that range from Proper FEDERATION, CONFEDERATION, to the emergence of Independent Units of Successor-SOVEREIGN State Entities from the ruins of the Defunct Federation of Nigeria, all in a Two-Stage Orderly Process that will be Ratified by Referendums.

    2. With the Spectacular Success of the NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure in the DELEGITIMIZATION of the 1999 Constitution and the Activation of the DECOMMISSIONING Processes, Steps for NINAS will entail rallying together for Joint-Action, of all those who now agree with NINAS, that the Imposed and Unworkable Unitary Constitution of Nigeria, is the Problem with Nigeria and that the immediate Wholesale Decommissioning of that Constitution has become an urgent Imperative to halt the Dangerous Drift towards Anarchy; to arrest the Free-Fall of Nigeria on all fronts; to arrest the ongoing State-Capture of Nigeria by Merchants of Power and to save Nigerians from the foreseeable disastrous consequences of the Disorderly collapse of Nigeria.

       To this end, NINAS will in the First Quarter (Q-1) of 2024, put out an invitation (Altar Call), to all who agree with the NINAS Five Point Proposition for Union Reconstruction, and who therefore agree that the Operation of the Death-Dispensing 1999 Constitution must be wound up forthwith and a Transitioning Arrangement initiated, to commence the Renegotiation, Reconfiguration and Reconstruction of the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria, using the Processes outlined in the aforementioned NINAS Five-Point Proposition.

    3. Ahead of that formal invitation, NINAS requests all concerned, to join in the urgent task of Disseminating the NINAS Message so that we can more quickly attain the critical mass of those who are sufficiently informed, to act together in a Joint Jailbreak from the Prison of Unitary Nigeria.

Thank you for your attention.

Issued this 16th Day of December 2023 by the NINAS Board of Conveners.

Video of the event: Milestone Report & Next Steps Towards Decommissioning