Features Notice of NINAS interrogatories to political parties heading to 2023 elections under the 1999 constitution

 By Guardian Nigeria

26 September 2022   |   7:00 pm

Nigerian casting their vote

Theme: “DISTRESSED NIGERIAN UNION, DISPUTED 1999 CONSTITUTION AND OPTIONS FOR REMEDIATION: TRANSITIONING OR ELECTIONS”

Ahead of the September 28, 2022 Commencement of Campaigns by Political Parties in Nigeria for 2023 Elections and in furtherance of its Campaign for the Wholesale Decommissioning of the 1999 Constitution, NINAS hereby NOTIFIES the General Public that the Claims and Promises of the Political Parties (particularly PDP, APC and LP), for addressing the current Nigerian Situation will be most rigorously questioned along the lines of the 10-Point Interrogatory contained in this publication, with a view to persuading All Stakeholders that an immediate TRANSITIONING Arrangement has become imperative in place of further National ELECTIONS that may plunge Nigeria into disaster and that 1999 Constitution is a Guarantee that most of those Promises will not be Fulfilled and that most of the Expectations will not be met, and to invite them to a surer Route to the Destination they so desperately Desire.

These Interrogatories will also illuminate the reasoning behind the December 16, 2020, NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure Proposition that the ELECTIONS being advertised for 2023 be Suspended, and that in its place, a TRANSITIONING process be emplaced for an orderly Decommissioning of the 1999 Constitution. (Ref: NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure Proclamation of December 16, 2020; full Text published as Advertorial in the Guardian Newspaper of January 20, 2021 at Pages 38, 39, 40 & 41).

THINGS THAT WILL NOT IMPROVE AS LONG AS THE 1999 CONSTITUTION STANDS.

(1)UNION DISPUTE:

From the 1966 collapse of the Federal Constitutional Arrangements AGREED upon in Lancaster House and the 1967 emergence of the Unitary Constitutional Arrangements, IMPOSED on the Nigerian Union by Fiat of the Caliphate Proprietors of Unitary Nigeria through its Military Wing, the Disputations that Resulted in the Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-1970 remain unresolved to date. The so-called “1979 Constitution” as well as its 1999 Re-Incarnation (the so-called 1999 Constitution) was the Victory Charter of the ‘Federal’ Side in that War.

The Massive Distortions of the Original Union Agreement (Federal Constitution) by the illicit ‘Federal Government’ which emerged from the 1966 – 1970 bloody disputations, resulting in the heavily lopsided 36 States/774 Local Government Structure; and the Massive Expropriations of Economic Assets Including Oil, Gas, Ports and Solid Minerals as well as Key Developmental Powers on a wide range of subjects including Electricity Generation and Transmission, Railways, Security, Police, Arms, Ammunitions, Elections, etc. Codified 68 Items Federal Exclusive Legislative List rendering impotent the Federating Units (so-called ‘States’). All the agitations across the Country flow from these distortions.

The two egregious falsehoods in the Preamble to the ‘1999 Constitution’, namely, that ‘We the People Firmly and Solemnly Resolved to Live in Unity as One Indivisible and Indissoluble Nation’ and that we ‘Made, Enacted and Gave to ourselves the 1999 Constitution’ represent a hijack and confiscation of our Sovereignty and Self-Determination by the illicit Federal Government. The Union Dispute declared by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) December 16, 2020 is an Aggregation, Streamlining and Encapsulation of those Agitations.

The Solution to this Multifaceted Union Dispute is the wholesale Decommissioning of the Imposed Unitary Constitution of Nigeria (so-called 1999 Constitution).

(2)PRACTICAL REJECTION OF THE UNION:

While Politicians jump around postulating their plans for repairing the Economic Mess Nigeria has become, a Majority of the Nigerians they are inviting to that Economic Reconstruction have already disconnected themselves from the Defunct Federation of Nigeria. In the Far North of Nigeria, those who Imposed Sharia in 12 Contiguous States have already seceded from the secular union Nigeria was agreed to be. Those who have relocated Overseas and now living in Exile from their crises-ridden Homeland against their own will have simply voted with their feet from the burning house of Lugard. Young People are Trekking and Voyaging Across the Dangerous Sahara Desert and Mediterranean, all in the bid to escape from Nigeria. The ones flying ‘Oodua’ and ‘Biafra’ Flags all over the World have abandoned the Carcass of the Defunct Federation of Nigeria to the Caliphate enforcers of Unitary Nigeria and their agents across Nigeria waving Party Flags. These Practical Steps to Exit the Nigeria by those who should have been building Nigeria, will not cease because another round of National Elections took place in Nigeria. The Solution to this Practical Rejection of the Nigerian Union is to Terminate the Operation of the Unitary Constitution of Nigeria and Either return to the Table of Agreement or watch the distressed Components of Nigeria resume their Sovereignty, most probably. Unilaterally.

(3)  ELECTRICITY:

Someone should explain to all the Presidential Candidates in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections that the Potential for Electricity Generation and Transmission is completely locked down by the Federal Exclusive Legislative List in the 1999 Constitution.

As long as that Constitution stands, whatever a new President is going to do about Electricity will be marginal compared with what will happen if that Constitutional Lockdown is dismantled, because then, all available capacities will be unleashed to Generate and Transmit Electricity.

The ignoramuses who will cite the Concurrent List in the 1999 Constitution as creating a window of participation for States should carry their dishonesty elsewhere until they provide an answer to why in a Federation, the Federal Government would have the Overriding Powers invested by the Provisions of that Constitution, on even the so-called “Concurrent List”.

The Solution to Electricity is to remove the Impediment called the 1999 Constitution.

(4)SECURITY:

As it is with Electricity, so is it with Security. The owners of Nigeria locked down the Possibilities and Potentials for Security Infrastructure with the 68-Item Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution which confiscated all powers over Arms, Ammunitions, Police, and all armed Security Services to the illicit “Federal Government.” As long the 1999 Constitution stands, any effort at improving Security in Nigeria will remain the self-delusion it has been for decades. The cost in blood will continue to increase exponentially until those who imposed that Constitution completes their Murderous Conquest Onslaught which is currently in full swing, whilst distracting the rest of us with Elections 2023. Ask the People of Plateau State or Southern Kaduna if in doubt.

The Solution to Security in Nigeria is to remove the albatross called the 1999 Constitution.

(5)PERVASIVE CORRUPTION:

The 1999 Constitution EXPRESSLY creates massive avenues for humongous Corruption and Comprehensively protects the Beneficiaries of Grand Corruption by the Blanket Immunity Provision. S.6(6c) of that Constitution absolves the Government of all responsibilities to the Citizens including Security and Welfare. That same provision strips the “Citizens” (Populace really as there are no Citizens of Nigeria except we twist the meaning of citizenship to suit our debased Union) of their entitlements in the Social Contract we call the Constitution while the Political Merchants have everything for themselves. Sections 81 & 82 of the 1999 Constitution hand the spare keys to the Treasury of the Federation to the President of Nigeria while Sections 121 & 122 hand the Keys to the Treasury of the States to the Governors. Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution grants absolute immunity to both the President and the Governors for whatever atrocities they choose to commit whilst in power including the reckless looting of the Treasury. The 68-Item Federal Exclusive Legislative List on that Constitution also centralizes control over most of the Resources and Powers in such a way that only breeds unimaginable inefficiency, mind-boggling Corruption, and unbelievable impunity. Anyone who suggests he will fight Corruption in Nigeria whilst the 1999 Constitution is standing is either criminally Ignorant or hopelessly dishonest. The Solution to Corruption and Impunity in Nigeria is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution. Anything less is a Cruel Joke and Self-Deceit.

(6)  REFINERIES AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS:

The Capacity for Petroleum Refining in Nigeria is locked down completely by the Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution which domiciles the Refineries to the illicit “Federal Government” of the Defunct Federation of Nigeria. For as long as that 1999 Constitution stands, no improvement will come to Petroleum Products Availability. The Subsidy regime that now gulps over N6Trillion annually (mostly servicing Corruption) will remain and Petroleum Products will continue to be imported at prevailing international prices; the monumental Pressure mounted by this avoidable anomaly upon the struggling Naira will continue to increase while the Naira maintains its free fall. Apart from the horrendous inflation that comes with all these, the Aviation Industry is on the verge of becoming another casualty of Nigeria’s Madness of locking down refining capacity with its Fraudulent 1999 Constitution. Unlocking this Constitutional lockdown of refining capacity is the answer and not licensing Dangote Refineries in Monopoly.

The Solution to the Non-Availability of Petroleum Products in Nigeria with all its Consequences lies in Taking Down the 1999 Constitution, not in Elections that will reinforce that Constitution.

(7)DECAYED INFRASTRUCTURE INCLUDING SEA-PORTS, AIRPORTS, HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS ETC:

The State of Infrastructure is the way it is in Nigeria today because of the 68-Item Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution which Lock Down all possibilities and capacities for Infrastructure by confiscating all powers over these Key Developmental Assets into the hands of an illicit “Federal Government”. Nothing relating to these items will improve as long as the 1999 Constitution stands, no matter what Candidates for 2023 Elections under the 1999 Constitution tell you.

The Solution to Infrastructure in Nigeria is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution and Free the Locked-Down Possibilities and Capacities around Infrastructure development.

(8)HUMONGOUS COST OF GOVERNANCE:

Over and above CORRUPTION, the humongous cost of Financing Massive Bureaucracies inflicted upon us by Nigeria’s 36-States/774LGs Structure indiscriminately created by Caliphate- Military Fiat between 1966 and 1999 and which has resulted in the 811 Governments (1- Federal+36-States+1-FCT+774LGs), that must be financed every month from the Treasury, is the Principal Reason for the Bankruptcy currently Staring the Nigerian State in the Face.

Anyone who speaks about the plan to reduce the cost of Governance under the 1999 Constitution is simply deceiving himself. Even if a Frugal President emerges, how will that stop the Constitutionally Mandated Monthly Allocation to these 811 Governments?

There will be 36 Governors who are not accountable to the President for the Profligacy they might embrace.

Bottom-line: The Solution to the Humongous Cost of Governance is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution. Further Elections under that Constitution only reinforces the Economic Bleeding of Nigeria.

(9)RULE OF LAW AND GOOD GOVERNANCE:

No Rule of Law, Good Governance or even Democracy is possible under the Worse-Than- Apartheid 1999 Constitution.

The Fraud of Forcefully appropriating our Collective Sovereignties under a Constitution WE DID NOT AGREE UPON or MAKE, renders everything anchored upon that Constitution Illegitimate and Unacceptable including the Institutions of State that frame the Lopsided Society we are building, whether in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial Arms.

When the Presidential Candidates for Elections 2023 come telling you about how they will Uphold the Rule of Law, ask them: “Rule of which Law?” The 1999 Constitution which is the basis of all Laws in Nigeria is a Fraud and so it must be the Rule of Fraud they are talking about. Any Journey to the Rule of Law or Good Governance must commence with the wholesale Decommissioning of the 1999 Constitution.

(10)     CROOKED ELECTIONS AND BAD LEADERSHIP:

Elections into the National and State Offices including those of the President, Governor, Senator, House of Representatives, and House of Assembly are by virtue of the Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution, the exclusive preserve of the illicit Federal Government of Nigeria and its so-called “Independent National Electoral Commission”.

The result of this great anomaly for a supposed “Federation” is the serial heist we have witnessed repeatedly since 1999. The frequent turnover of “Bad Leaderships” that the “Federation of Nigeria” and its Constituent Component States had been saddled with for decades, flows directly from the inclusion of responsibility over Elections into the aforementioned Federal and State Offices on the Exclusive List in the 1999 Constitution.

This first important step amongst the matrix of Solutions required to resolve the huge burden of Bad Leadership is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution.

Anyone who suggests that the Constitution is not the Reason Nigeria is where it is today is either ignorant or dishonest otherwise such a person should support that assertion by responding in specific terms, to each of the Ten Points of Interrogation made in this Publication about things that will not improve in Nigeria as long as the 1999 Constitution is standing.

CALL TO ACTION:

NINAS hereby invites Ethnic Nationality Organizations, the Media, the Civil Society Organizations, Students whose Universities have been locked down for several months by ASUU Strike, Professional Associations, supporters of various Political Parties particularly members of the Obi-dient Movement, to openly join this Union Debate using the NINAS Interrogatories Published here, to determine whether it is further National ELECTIONS under the atrocious 1999 Constitution that will address the Dysfunctions and Failures of Nigeria or a TRANSITIONING that will ease out and Reset the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria.

Peter Obi: The Labour Party candidate electrifying young Nigerians

BBC

IMAGE SOURCE, AFP

By Olivia Ndubuisi & Nduka Orjinmo

BBC News, Lagos

A wealthy businessman with a reputation for being frugal, Peter Obi has emerged as a powerful force ahead of Nigeria's presidential election next February, energising voters with messages of prudence and accountability that are amplified by an army of social media users.

In a country that seems to always be on the lookout for a messiah to solve its myriad problems, young social media-savvy supporters have elevated Mr Obi to sainthood and are backing his largely unknown Labour Party against two septuagenarian political heavyweights. 

The way he has attracted supporters seems to border on populism - a tag he and his supporters would denounce, but some of his rhetoric might be encouraging that.

"It's time to take your country back," he often says.

"[This election] is the old against the new," he told the BBC.

His name is often trending on social media on the back of numerous conversations sparked by his supporters, instantly recognisable from their display picture of his image or the white, red and green logo of his party.

These are mostly urban under-30s who refer to themselves as the "Coconut-head generation", because they are strong-willed, independent-minded and contemptuous of older politicians who, they say, have done little for them. 

Many of them, like Dayo Ekundayo from the eastern city of Owerri, were involved in the EndSars protests that forced the disbandment of a notorious police department two years ago and also morphed into calls for better government. 

Now, they are deploying the same strategies that mobilised hundreds of thousands of young Nigerians and raised millions of naira within weeks for the 60-year-old who they consider an alternative to the two parties that have dominated politics since the end of military rule in 1999. 

"Which Nigerian politician has ever held office and has his integrity intact? I do not see any other logical option for young people in Nigeria," said Mr Ekundayo.

IMAGE SOURCE, DAYO EKUNDAYO

Image caption, 

A mobiliser during the EndSars protests, Mr Ekundayo is now doing the same for Mr Obi

He has already been involved in a march for Mr Obi, and is providing logistics and mobilising students for the campaign as he did during the EndSars protests.

But opponents say Mr Obi is a political impostor, one of many who spring up at election time with delusions of being a third force that will wrestle power from the traditional parties. 

Many supporters of the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) and neutral observers agree he is head and shoulders above the other candidates, but say he lacks the nationwide popularity to win the election and have warned his supporters that they risk wasting their votes. 

They believe he is a distraction from the common goal of removing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from office, and could split the opposition vote.

A devout Catholic from eastern Nigeria, they point to his lack of popularity in the Muslim-dominated north, whose votes are considered critical in winning presidential elections. 

And his critics question whether he truly represents a break from the corruption he routinely lambasts, pointing out that his name popped up in the leaked Pandora Papers which exposed the hidden wealth of the rich and powerful in 2021.

While he was not accused of stealing money, he failed to declare offshore accounts and assets held by family members, citing ignorance.

He was also accused of investing state funds, as governor, into a company he had dealings with. He denied any wrongdoing and points out that the value of the investment has since grown.

Mr Obi repeatedly says he is not desperate to be president, which is ironic for a man who has changed parties four times since 2002.

He dumped the PDP just days before its presidential primary in May and the party went on to choose the 75-year-old former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential flagbearer. 

IMAGE SOURCE, AFP

Image caption, 

Mr Obi was Atiku Abubakar's running mate in the 2019 presidential election which the PDP lost to the ruling APC

Critics say he pulled out of the contest because he knew his chances of winning were slim but he cited wrangling within the PDP, where he was a vice-presidential candidate in 2019, for deciding to cross over to the Labour Party.

His supporters are also convinced that he was pushed out of the PDP because he refused to bribe delegates at the party primary and have coined the phrase: "We don't give shishi (money)" as a buzzword for his famed frugality and his prudence in managing government funds in a country with a history of wasteful expenditure by public officers.

They regard him as an unconventional politician prepared to take on the APC and PDP behemoths seen as different sides of the same coin, who they accuse of dipping their fingers into the public purse.

There is also a religious and ethnic twist to his candidacy.

In a country where roughly half the population is Christian, his supporters hope that this will bolster his chances of winning, as after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari they would not want another Muslim - the APC's Bola Tinubu, 70, or the PDP's Mr Abubakar - to take office.

Some also support Mr Obi because of his ethnic background. Igbos make up the country's third largest ethnic group, but Nigeria has had only one Igbo president, largely ceremonial, since it freed itself from British colonial rule in 1960. 

Many Igbos accuse successive Nigerian governments of marginalising them and hope that Mr Obi will rise to power so that the south-east, where most of them live, would see greater development and so counter the pull of secession groups like the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob).

Critics say he is a supporter of Ipob, a group designated as a terror organisation by Nigeria, but he told the BBC that he is a firm believer in Nigeria and that his position on the different "agitations across the country" is to dialogue and reach a consensus. 

He said Nigeria's number one priority is the issue of insecurity because it has become an existential one "that must be dealt head-one decisively".

"If you deal with it [security] today, you deal with inflation because farmers would go back to farms and that would reduce food inflation," he said.

A philosophy graduate, he worked in his family's retail businesses before going on to make his own money, importing everything from salad cream to beauty products, and baked beans to champagne, while also owning a brewery and holding major shares in three commercial banks.

You can normally recognise a Nigerian billionaire from a mile off but Mr Obi is thrifty and wears it as a mark of pride. 

He is quick to point out that he owns just two pairs of black shoes from midmarket British chain Marks and Spencer, prefers a $200 suit from Stein Mart to a $4,000 Tom Ford suit, and always insists on carrying his own luggage, rather than paying someone else to do it for him. 

Even his children are not spared his frugality. His 30-year-old son was denied a car, he said, while his other child is a happy primary school teacher - a rarity in a country where a politician's name often opens doors to more lucrative jobs.

The OBIdients

Despite the financial controversy, his tenure as governor of Anambra state has become a reference point for his presidential campaign. 

His supporters point out that he invested heavily in education and paid salaries on time - the simple things that most Nigerian state governors tend to neglect.

He also left huge savings in state coffers at the end of his two four-year tenures, another rarity.

IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES

Image caption, 

Most of those supporting Mr Obi were involved in anti-police brutality protests in 2020

But Frances Ogbonnaya, a university student in Anambra state when Mr Obi was governor, is surprised by the praises being sung in his name, describing his tenure as unremarkable.

"Who saves money in the face of hunger? Who saves money in the face of a lack of facilities?" she asked rhetorically.

But it is his reputation for frugality and sound management that has attracted a horde of supporters, known as OBIdients. 

Some have been accused of cyberbullying and labelling anyone who does not vote for him in next year's election an enemy of the state. 

He responded with a tweet calling on his supporters to "imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship", but it has done little to calm them down.

They are quick to show anyone who tells them that elections aren't won on Twitter, the crowds at offices of Nigeria's electoral body where they have been flooding to register as first-time voters. 

But this is not the same as actually turning out to vote on election day.

With months to the election, there is no denying the momentum building behind Mr Obi but cynics also point to the lack of a nationwide party structure to support the view that, while possible, an Obi presidency remains highly improbable. 

"The structure that has kept us where we are, the structure that has produced the highest number of people in poverty in any country, the structure that has produced the highest number of out of school children, that is the structure we want to remove," he said.

He retorted that his structure is "the 100 million Nigerians that live in poverty [and] the 35 million Nigerians who don't know where their next meal will come from". 

If half of those turn out to vote him on election day, it might very well be all that he needs.

Nigeria's other main presidential candidates:

• Bola Tinubu: Lagos 'godfather' sets sights on conquering Nigeria
• Atiku Abubakar: The operator who knows how to make money
• Peter Obi: The Labour Party candidate electrifying young Nigerians
• Bola Tinubu: Nigeria's APC presidential candidate
• Atiku Abubakar woos Nigerians with a reminder of the good times

Related Topics

• Nigeria