NATIONAL: Middle belt, southern leaders give FG 90 days to repeal 1999 constitution

PROMINENT leaders from various ethnic groups in the South-West, South-East, South-South and the Middle Belt have called for the repeal of the 1999 constitution.

These leaders, who are from all the geopolitical zones, except the North-West and North-East, gave the federal government a 90-day ultimatum to constitute a committee on Sovereign National Conference to decide on their demand or dissolve Nigeria’s amalgamation of 1914.

Giving reason for their demand these leaders said the 1999 Constitution was written to perpetually subjugate other nationalities under the control of the Fulani.

The aggrieved leaders described the 1999 Constitution as a fraud meant to undergird the Fulani hegemony.

According to a statement on Friday, the Middle Belt and southern leaders made the resolution at a meeting in Lagos.

The leaders, who spoke on the platform of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, said the 1999 Constitution was responsible for the worsening insecurity and poverty in the land.

Some of the leaders who signed the communiqué are former Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang; Prof. Yusufu Turaki; a prominent historian, Prof. Banji Akintoye; President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo; Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe; Senator Aniete Okon; and Fred Agbeyegbe.

Others include Air Commodore Indongesit Nkanga (rtd); Ambassador Godknows Igali; Fred Agbeyegbe, Rear Admiral Geoffrey Yange and Dr Kunle Oshodi.

To address the issue holistically, the leaders said all elections must be suspended so that winners would not be sworn in with the same 1999 Constitution which they described as faulty.

The communiqué read partly, “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.

“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.”