BY REBECCA AJANI
PROMINENT Nigerian leaders across major ethnic groups have given the Federal Government 90 days ultimatum, effective from December 18, 2020, to repeal what they described as a fraudulently authored 1999 Constitution or forget Nigeria’s unity.
The leaders, under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, said they were declaring a sovereignty dispute with the federation of Nigeria, as represented by the Federal Government of Nigeria, being confronted “by the clear and present danger of extermination in the hands of our supposed compatriots in the union of Nigeria.”
They demanded, within the 90 days, a formal announcement by the Federal Government acknowledging the constitutional grievances and sovereignty dispute declared by the people of the South and Middle-Belt.
According to them, further general elections under the 1999 Constitution must also be suspended.
The communiqué was signed by notable leaders, including former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang; President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo; Prof. Yusufu Turaki; Prof. Banji Akintoye; and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.
Others are: Senator Aniete Okon; Air Commodore Indongesit Nkanga (retd); Amb. Godknows Igali; Fred Agbeyegbe, Rear Admiral Geoffrey Yange; and Dr Kunle Oshodi.
The leaders said the 1999 Constitution represented a “unitary union of death, attrition and backwardness.”
The communiqué said, “Being confronted by the clear and present danger of extermination in the hands of our supposed compatriots in the union of Nigeria, (we) hereby declare a sovereignty dispute with the federation of Nigeria as represented by the Federal Government of Nigeria, on account of our repudiation and rejection of the imposed 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, whose authorship was fraudulently imputed to us.
“Furthermore, effective from today, 18th December, 2020, we give a 90-day notice to the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, the Security Council of the United Nations, the Government of the United States of America, the European Union as well as the international community, of the intention of the peoples of the alliance territories to reconsider our continued allegiance to the disputed 1999 Constitution as well as the unitary union of death, attrition and backwardness it foists on us.”
The leaders therefore declared, “It is our demand that in the 90-day period of this notice, the following specific actions must be taken by the Federal Government of Nigeria to firmly set in motion an irreversible process by which the aforementioned grave constitutional grievances would be addressed:
“A formal announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria acknowledging the constitutional grievances and sovereignty dispute now declared by the peoples of the South and Middle-Belt of Nigeria.
“A formal commitment by the Federal Government of Nigeria to the wholesale decommissioning and jettisoning of the 1999 Constitution.
“A formal announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria suspending further general elections under the disputed 1999 Constitution.
“A formal initiation of a time-bound transitioning process to engender the emergence of fresh constitutional protocols by a two-stage process in which the constituent regional blocs will, at the first stage, distill and ratify their various constitutions by referendums and plebiscite and in the second stage, negotiate the terms of federating afresh as may be dictated by the outcomes of a referendum and plebiscite.”
