Nigeria: After 90 Days Of The Constitutional Force Majeure, What Next? By Ndidi Uwechue
A keen curiosity has been seen in social media regarding what happens next, now that the generous ninety-day period given to Unitary Government (aka Central Government) to action the Five Demands of the Constitutional Force Majeure has elapsed without having been responded to. What happens next is sequential, so quite logical once a few facts and bits of knowledge are applied. Self-determination for each ethnic nationality in their ancestral land is the goal, and democratic processes guided by international law are the methods being used.
The Constitutional Force Majeure declared on 16th December 2020 by the indigenous ethnic nationalities of the South and Middle Belt (NINAS) is in order to decommission the repudiated illegitimate 1999 Constitution. For, it is that document that took away the self-determination of ethnic nations. Thus, Nigeria became a Disputed Project, over a Sovereignty (or Union) Dispute occasioned by two issues with the Preamble of the 1999 Constitution:
1) When did the peoples submit themselves, their lands, and their assets into such a Union?
2) When did the peoples make for themselves the 1999 Constitution?
Not having experienced servant leadership, it may be harder for older Nigerians to grasp this, but young people are more inclined to understand that the people are the Owners, and elected politicians are simply the hired Managers, there to serve the Owners. Thus, it would be expected that Unitary Government, knowing that sovereignty is always with the people would urgently respond to the Five Demands, and hasten to put in place the processes to decommission a Constitution that not being valid, should never have been used in the first place!
It ought to be made clear that this ninety-day period was for the benefit of Unitary Government, and was NOT one that NINAS gave themselves to accomplish what they need to do. It was time given to allow government to rise to the occasion and take up a principled role in throwing out an unjust and illegitimate Constitution. For, it should be understood that decommissioning a Constitution is never a one day event, but it is a complete process that is managed appropriately. NINAS, thus, “we the people” will proceed towards their destination of self-determination, with the knowledge that the Constitutional Force Majeure is primarily an ORDERLY PROCESS, so people should remain calm, doing what is required of them.
Crucially, in declaring the Constitutional Force Majeure, the peoples of the NINAS territory removed their forged signatures from the 1999 Constitution that they did not participate in writing, and did not consent to. By so doing, that Constitution became defunct, and the UNITARY UNION that it creates, terminated.
Leading from that, is the new situation that the self-determination of ethnic nationalities in their ancestral lands, hijacked by the 1999 Constitution is now returned to them. Therefore control over their assets that had been confiscated, the ability to elect who will govern them, the ability to bring infrastructure to their lands, and so on, are now within the reach of the people. Sovereignty and self-determination are with the people so they can proceed with all the instruments that United Nations standards allow them, including the universal right to self-defence from armed invaders in their space.
Politicians in the NINAS territory should now acknowledge that their game of deceit is up, and that the fraud they have been committing against their own people should end. Thus, it would be an affront, for them to plan to journey to general elections in 2023.
Senators, Representatives, Governors plus their Deputies, and other office holders should therefore remember that they are the “hired Managers”, and make themselves ready and available for discussions with NINAS.
All this is happening at a time when the governance style in Nigeria is under observation by the international community. In December 2020, Nigeria was declared a Country of Particular Concern by the USA. In that same month Nigeria came under investigation by the International Criminal Court for Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes. Earlier in November, Nigeria had been a subject of debate in the UK Parliament over the Lekki Massacre, and sanctions are being considered against officials responsible for that deadly incident. Furthermore, the spreading Islamist terrorism in Nigeria puts its neighbours, and the entire global community at high risk. With all this, Unitary Government should have a rethink, and press on to action the Five Demands so as not to become a pariah in the comity of nations.
These Five Demands of the Constitutional Force Majeure form part of an orderly Framework, based on democratic due process to allow Unitary Government to serve the interests and welfare of the people, thereby preventing anarchy or armed conflict. This is not 1999 when a counterfeit Constitution was foisted upon the country. The ruling class will therefore be held to account by the people and by the concerned international community, for hindering, or even resisting decommissioning a 1999 Constitution that is a forgery.
The people of NINAS territory should feel assured that the Constitutional Force Majeure route being pursued is similar to how South Africa effectively decommissioned its own illegitimate Apartheid Constitution. Directions and updates will come from time to time, and people should acquaint themselves with the documentation placed on the NINAS website. The process was divided into sixteen stages, thirteen have been successfully accomplished, and it is now nearing the end at stage fourteen. This should call for celebration! It ought also to be remembered, that Arewa Bloc without regard to what is now NINAS territory, used their own right to self-determination and took up Sharia. Self-determination is an inalienable right, and through the Constitutional Force Majeure, and rallying round NINAS, “we the people” will at last come to new constitutional arrangements that would be amicably and democratically settled.
