Nigeria: Ethics of supporting a sham 1999 constitution

BY NDIDI UWECHUE

Nigeria has actually collapsed. I cannot pinpoint the exact date, but when I consider the filth, decay and squalor everywhere, the depth of social pathologies, and horrifyingly, the genocide against ethnic nationalities, together with unstopped herdsmen and Boko Haram-ISIS terrorism, I cannot truthfully call Nigeria a country. It is simply a territory, a piece of land covering an area of 923,768 sq km in western Africa.

A country would be a place where people can live in an environment of peace, intelligence, dignity, and civility, not be so debased as to flounder around in lack, having only a stunted, miserable, frightening and violent existence.

With the passage of time, Nigeria the self-proclaimed “giant of Africa” seems unable to be anything other than delinquent and dysfunctional. Nigerians and the watching world now need to ask, is Nigeria a product of what its first Northern Premier Ahmadu Bello at Independence in 1960 wished for the nation? When he said, “The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our grandfather, Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us or have control over their future.” reported in the Parrot Newspaper of 12th October, 1960.

Such a Nazi-like agenda is clearly Apartheid in nature, plus anti-development. Sixty years after Independence the outcome is very much that the indigenous ethnic people of Nigeria just as Bello wanted, have no control of their lives and can only expect a bleak future if the situation in Nigeria is not stopped, then reversed.

Experts have condemned the 1999 Nigeria Constitution as the foundation and source of the deliberate retardation and grand corruption that are the constant feature of existence in this territory. Much has been written about the 1999 Constitution: how it robs the indigenous Niger Delta-Eastern peoples from benefiting from the bountiful crude oil resources in their lands, how it obstructs electrification of Nigeria, how it prevents states and individuals from building long needed infrastructure, how it enables looting of public funds with impunity. In short, from the effects of the 1999 Constitution it would be understandable if an observer concluded that the inhabitants of this territory are “a confused bunch of Negroes”! Those who want to take issue that this description is antinubianist (racism specifically against Black people) are free to do so. However, anybody whether visitor or citizen who stays 48 hours in this territory will at least privately if not publicly, agree that Nigeria is a chaotic confusion of self-inflicted crises.

So, why would any sane people agree to live under such a Constitution that makes their lives a living hell, and causes mass flight of Nigerians (many illegally) in desperation to be in the West, and now also the Orient? Fact-finding revealed that the indigenous people of Nigeria had enough sense not to agree in any way to the 1999 Constitution. It was IMPOSED upon them, and remains forced upon them by threats and use of State power against them. We find that the Preamble of this Constitution which states, “We the people… resolved” is a complete fabrication for “We the people” had absolutely nothing to do with that social contract, making it a FORGERY.

Since the 1999 Constitution is a forgery, everything it represents is by extension invalid and fraudulent. Examples are a Presidential system rather than Parliamentary, plus no resource control by owners of the resources, as agreed prior to Independence; the number of States; the number of Local Government Areas; lion’s share of public funds being spent on giving officials a sumptuous lifestyle whereas citizens receive lack; culture of sloppiness and mediocrity; insecurity etc. Nigerians at all levels and in every position should be able to live according to the Alternative Culture of “doing the right thing” and “doing the right thing the right way”. It is therefore morally right, and within people’s human rights to REJECT the sham 1999 Constitution then DEMAND and even INSIST that it be DISCARDED and be replaced with social contracts that “We the people” have agreed upon and legitimized by Referendum.

Furthermore, the 1999 Constitution states that Nigeria is “indivisible and indissoluble”. Since the Constitution is a fraud it is most dishonourable and unjust to criminalize self-determination individuals or groups who seek to live under terms agreed at Independence. These are individuals and groups who want to live in a reality where truth counts: they know the Constitution is forged, and rightly refuse to assent to it. Strangely, the core North decided to live under Islamic Sharia law which in effect is that area giving itself self-determination, the very thing that is brutally denied the South and Middle-Belt! Having Sharia when at Independence it was agreed the new nation would be secular means breaking away from the rest of Nigeria emotionally, spiritually, and practically.

We are now at the point where the non-Sharia part of Nigeria MUST urgently do the right thing so that there can be some evidence of democracy in action in their part of the territory seeing that the Arewa region has chosen Sharia as self-determination. (In fact, the right thing should actually have been done a long time ago!) Therefore, for the sake of justice, the Middle-Belt and South should now be responsive to the self-determination clamours of their distressed people who are captives of a sham Constitution that is anti-development and pro-corruption, and which denies them control of their present and future – as Ahmadu Bello and his successors wanted.

The British felt enslaved within the European Union (EU) so following a Referendum, got Brexit done. Former Prime Minister May had said, “We can get out of the EU….and put our own Parliament back in sovereign control of our destiny.” Every human being is born free and has a God-given right to control his destiny. Northern Nigeria has done so by taking up Sharia. It is now for the Middle-Belt and South to work for their own self-determination because the present state of deterioration costs too many lives, and forces citizens to flee abroad (as migrants and refugees) where because of their numbers they are increasingly being seen as a burden and a nuisance.

Those in leadership positions also know that Nigeria has collapsed. That is why they and their children travel regularly to the West for medical treatment, for education, for opportunities, for shopping, for relaxation, to give birth – in fact, to enjoy the good life there, that the 1999 Constitution deprives ordinary Nigerians. They will be remembered more favourably if being leaders, they were to take the lead in doing the right thing and throw away the discredited 1999 Constitution, so that “We the people” Constitutions can become a reality.

We must make Black lives matter right here in this territory, our ancestral lands. Justice and democratic living is what the indigenous people want, so it would be ineffectual to prefer to maintain the current unjust, and therefore unsustainable status quo. Given the terrorism, genocide and insecurity reported in local and foreign media, government is being watched by the people and by international agencies. Actions and inactions are being recorded. Just like at their peak of evil power Nazis thought even God could not stop them, they got conquered, and those who did not commit suicide, ran helter-skelter, but were hunted down and brought to book.

Uwechue is a retired Metropolitan (London) Police Officer, a pro-social advocate and supports BribeCode. He writes from Ogwashi-Uku, Delta state