A constitution is the legal document that governs the legitimacy of government action. It requires official conduct to be in accordance with pre-fixed legal rules. In this respect, constitution checks whether the act of government is legitimate and whether officials conduct their public duties in accordance with the laws pre-fixed/pre-determined in advance.
A constitution guarantees the following: limitation of power (limited government). Separation of powers (checks and balances). Responsible and accountable government. Rule of law.
Independent judiciary. Respect for individual rights. Respect for self-determination. Civilian control of the military. Police governed by law and judicial control.
Nigeria has become a laboratory for authoritarian under a democratic experiment. The regime of General Muhammadu Buhari, The Butcher of Aso Rock, has transformed the 1999 Constitution and state apparatuses in an illiberal way. The political sphere has been monopolized in favor of Fulanis, while attacks against important actors from civil society and other critics of the government are common.
The authoritarian transformation of our democracy is linked to the forged, fraudulent, abusive and defective 1999 Constitution. The constitution has largely eroded our democratic order. A rash of recent incidents were made possible by the constitution for a dictator disguised as a civilian president to undermine our democracy. The 1999 Constitution was designed to construct Nigeria as a competitive authoritarian regime, ensures elections are rife with corruption, rigging, ballot box snatching, and vote-buying. Nigeria is governed like a police state.
Before any elections are held in 2023, the following five requirements as contained in NINAS (Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities for Self-Determination) Constitution Force Majeure (CFM) must be met:
1. The federal government must acknowledge the constitutional grievances and sovereignty dispute declared by the peoples of South and Middle-Belt.
2. Federal government must decommission and jettison the 1999 Constitution as the basis for the federation of Nigeria as was done by the government of Apartheid South Africa in 1990, that dismantled the Apartheid Constitution.
3. Federal government must suspend further general elections under the disputed 1999 Constitution since winners of such elections will swear to and govern by that constitution.
4. Federal government must initiate a fixed schedule for two-stage transitional process for Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution ratified by referendum and plebiscites, and to negotiate the terms of federating afresh as may be dictated by the outcomes of referendum and plebiscites.
5. A formal invitation to the peoples of the South and Middle-Belt to work out and put in place Transitional Authority which shall specify modalities for the transitioning process, including the composition and mandate of the Transitional Authority, as well as the time-frame for the transitioning and other ancillary matters.
There should be no elections in 2023 with abusive and defective 1999 Constitution because it is an instrument of oppression and subjugation by which minority Fulanis enslave the majority ethnic groups of Yorubas and Igbos.
