The ‘Wisdom’ of Building a House From the Roof: A NINAS Memorandum to the Patriots/NPSG Summit on the Constitutional Future of Nigeria
The Public Communications issued by the Conveners and Organizers of the Abuja Conference of the Patriots presents the same merry-go-round and rigmarole by the same set of people over a period of many years spanning several Electoral Cycles, but studiously avoiding the main issue which is the urgency of halting the Self-Deceit that has been going on since after the Aburi Conference of January 1967.
Listening to the Speakers, it is clear that the absence of NINAS at this gathering speaks louder than the combined voices of the Summiteers because the questions are:
(1) Having all realized and acknowledged that the unworkable Unitary Constitution of Nigeria is the Problem with Nigeria, why are these Summiteers unable to see that the obvious solution is to Dismantle and Reconstitute the Unitary Nigeria of now into either the Federal Union it was founded to be, OR the Confederation it could have become from the outcome of Aburi Sovereign Conference of January 1967 OR an orderly reconstruction of Nigeria into Independent Units of Successor-Sovereign State Entities?.
(2) Is it not obvious to the Summiteers that the most urgent challenge before Nigeria and Nigerians is the Question HOW to go about this Inevitable Dismantling and Reconstruction of the unwieldy and unworkable Unitary Nigeria?
(3) Ancillary to an Integral with to that Question of HOW are the Sub-Questions of WHAT exactly has to be done, WHO has to do what has to be done, WHEN it will all be done and WHICH precise Process in terms of a Time-bound Action Framework especially in the face of Scheduled General Elections Mandated by that Unworkable Unitary Constitution because unless there is a disruption of the 2027 Electoral Cycle by way of a Transitioning Process that retains existing Governance Structures in the period of the Reconstruction just as South Africa did in 1990 to ease itself out of the Apartheid Constitutional bind.
(4) The 5-Point Proposition of the NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure Proclamation of December 16, 2020, which was the culmination of a 20-Year Measured Remediation Process, provides an Actionable, Ready-For-Use, Strategy Framework by which the aforementioned questions of WHAT, HOW, WHO, WHICH, WHEN and WHICH.
(5) Any Proposition that does not offer a plan that terminates in the immediate, in 2025, the life and operation of the 1999 Constitution, is a waste of everybody’s time. In the same vein, any plan or proposition that does not shut down the already doomed voyage to the 2027 Elections is also a waste of everyone’s time.
(6) We can say without equivocation that:
(a) Proposals for writing one Constitution for an inevitably Federal Union, as the Patriots are currently making, is either ignorant or dishonest.
(b) Any Proposal that seeks to write a Constitution for a Nigerian Union that has not been Discussed First by clearly identified Constituent Peoples of Nigeria and who have been locked into a Union-At-Gunpoint since 1914 by the Fiat of British Amalgamation, now codified by the Caliphate-Imposed Unitary 1999 Constitution which has been responsible for the many angry Regional Agitations for Autonomy or Secession across Nigeria, threatening the very existence of Nigeria.
(c) The logical sequence of solving a problem like the ailing Nigerian Federation is Diagnosis, Prescription and Treatment Plan. Proposals that do not offer these three components In clear details are simply of no use.
(d) as directionless debates continue on appropriate Constitutional Arrangements for Nigeria, the Fulani Conquest Agenda and Onslaught against the Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria.
(e) The suggestion that Nigeria reverts to the 1963 Constitution or the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, brings us back to the same question of: Who has Negotiated or Agreed upon is the Nigeria for which you are seeking to make or adopt a Constitution AND also the Question of HOW as already dissected?.
(7) We state unequivocally that the 5-Point Proposition of the NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure provides Nigeria and Nigerians the most viable, most immediate and most orderly mechanism for Navigating Nigeria from the dangerous precipice it is now at, to safety and progress.
To the extent that Nigeria and Nigerians must find cogent answers to Five Main Questions relating to:
(i) WHAT exactly is the Problem with Nigeria?
(ii) WHAT exactly is the Solution?
(Iii) HOW can that Solution be enacted?
(Iv) WHO will do what and
(v) by WHICH Time-Bound Process.
We can say without equivocation that against the backdrop of (i)-(v) above, what the Patriots/NPSG Conference has done so far covers only the first of these Five Issues which is the question of WHAT the Problem is with Nigeria which is the ImposedUnitary Constitution of Nigeria. The other Four Main Issues remain unaddressed by what the Patriots are doing, especially plan to go writing a Constitution for Federating Peoples who have not Discussed or Agreed on a Union or the Terms of Union.
(8) Let it be known that for the same reason of wrong modalities for which NINAS declined participation in the 2014 National Conference, NINAS, having engage extensively with the Conveners of both the Patriots and the NPSG on the Questions of CONTENTS of Union Constitution and the PROCESS for arriving at the appropriate Union Constitution, NINAS Opted to only observe the Patriots/NPSG Summit for Nigeria’s Constitutional Future: https://guardian.ng/features/notice-of-constitutional-grievances-declaration-of-constitutional-force-majeure-and-demand-for-transitioning-process-for-an-orderly-reconfiguration-of-the-constitutional-basis-of-the-federation/
NINAS Secretariat, July 16, 2025.
