OP-ED Opinions 

Urgent Appeal To Politicians In The NINAS Territory of Nigeria To Prevent Their People Finally Rejecting Them By Ndidi Uwechue

This appeal has come about because the older generation should speak out when their ancestral land is being taken over, and young people and children being slaughtered.

Some background information is necessary, in order to put things in their proper context, and to appreciate the severity of the situation that necessitates this urgent appeal. It starts with 16th December 2020 when a Constitutional Force Majeure (shortened to “Confom”) was declared by the indigenous peoples of the NINAS Alliance Territory (South and Middle Belt), over a Sovereignty Dispute, thereby making Nigeria a Disputed Project. The Central Government of Nigeria was given a generous period of ninety days from that date to action Five Demands. This all came about because since 1999, Nigeria had been operating an imposed illegitimate 1999 Constitution that creates a country where corruption, poverty, and discrimination are the order of the day. The Confom was declared in order to correct this injustice by decommissioning that Constitution, through proceeding to a time-bound transitional government when ethnic nationalities would carry out their Regional Referendums that would solve the Sovereignty Dispute, to decide whether to re-commit to, or exit, the Union of Nigeria. Then after that there would be new constitutional arrangements as the peoples so decide. NINAS is following a similar path that South Africa had taken to decommission its own illegitimate Apartheid Constitution, when Fredrik de Klerk remained in office during a transitional government, and there were no general elections until after a new, valid Constitution was obtained.

Thus, NINAS had made it clear that during the transitional government all governance structures in Nigeria would remain in place from central to local levels. This was a major concession given that the 1999 Constitution that creates government is a forgery so illegitimate. Therefore, that is also the status of government. So, out of respect and good will NINAS had invited Central Government to still be part of the peoples’ future, via a transitional government. Central Government chose not to respond to the NINAS Five Demands, which could only signify that it has decided not to be involved in the affairs of the ethnic nations of the NINAS Territory, now that the Confom has ended the unfounded Union of Nigeria.



Hence this urgent appeal to politicians in the NINAS Territory, most especially those elected to office. Even though their positions are come by only because of the illegitimate 1999 Constitution, it is hoped that since they are directly related to the people that they govern, they would desire to be involved in the transitioning process that will bring about new constitutional arrangements. Time is passing, and NINAS gave a Thirty-Day period starting from 17th March 2021 for elected politicians of the NINAS Territory to come to the negotiating table.  

It is hoped that the politicians in question will not spin out this time period, but will understand the urgency of now! Fulani herdsmen, bandits and terrorists, feeling protected by the 1999 Constitution, invaded lands in the NINAS Territory to cause mayhem and ethnic cleansing. The USA Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Hearing on 17th December 2020, on the killings in Nigeria, concluded that under the current government, there is no effective civilian security and no effective police protection. There was concern that Fulani herdsmen and Shuwa Arab mercenaries had unlawfully occupied many hundreds of Southern villages in the NINAS Territory, plus quoting from that Hearing we learn, “…Jubilee Campaign submits for the record our detailed Brief that we provided to the International Criminal court and in which we argue that genocide has taken place in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. It is our finding that Boko Haram and Fulani militants are committing acts of genocide. Fulani militants pose a mortal threat (added emphasis) to the predominantly Christian farming tribes in the Middle Belt and surrounding states [ie, the entire NINAS territory]…”

Nigerians now believe that politicians look away unconcerned whilst citizens get massacred, or are forced to flee to Internally Displaced People’s camps, or to refugee camps in neighbouring countries, because their own children are kept abroad, to enjoy the safety and happy lifestyles there. So this is a dangerous time for NINAS Territory politicians to play politics. Sincerity of purpose is what is needed, so that anarchy or even violent conflict do not arise. 

Things are different now for the political class in the NINAS Territory: with the NINAS Confom, Unitary Nigeria that held the people bound down, has been terminated. For, with the declaration of the Confom, indigenous peoples had removed their signatures that had been forged onto the 1999 Constitution, and from that time, the sovereignty denied, and the self-determination hijacked by that Constitution, returned to the ethnic nations. Indigenous peoples in their ancestral lands are now able to democratically, and using the instruments that United Nations allow them, plan and proceed into the new life that “we the people” want, in their ancestral lands. 

Thus, politicians in the NINAS Territory would be making a grave mistake if they think that their people will leave them in peace, and allow them to still try to uphold a make-believe 1999 Constitution that brings only poverty and death. Especially now that they know that state governments, being themselves based on that Constitution, have no legitimate authority over the people. So the peoples will surely deal with any politician identified as their enemy. We have seen how corrupt politicians in other countries have been forcefully removed by irate populations, fed up with their anti-people manoeuvres. This is an appeal to politicians in the Territory, to therefore do the right thing by God and man, so as not to add to the insecurity already brought on by Fulani herdsmen and terrorists. NINAS has done the right thing. They have respectfully invited politicians in the NINAS Territory to come on board, and work with their own people to create democratic and fresh, new beginnings! 

Sourced From Sahara Reporters

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