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 OF NIGERIA. (Being the
Joint Proclamation of a Sovereignty Dispute by Accredited Delegates of Nigerian
Indigenous Nationalities of the Southern and Middle Belt Territories of Nigeria,
Issued This 16th Day of December 2020 in Lagos).
This Proclamation is Titled:
CORRECTING THE MISTAKE OF 1914
PROTOCOLS.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press.
(1) As the Distressed Federation of Nigeria wobbles in what seems it’s Terminal
Throes; As Young Nigerians Rise up Massively in Revolt against System that Ruin
their Present and Compromise their Future and as Bloody Conflicts rage in all
parts of Nigeria in disputation of the Terms of the Distressed Nigerian Union;
and As Concerns mount in the International Community, first, regarding the shaky
Future of the Troubled Nigerian Federation, and second, the impact of a possible
disorderly Dissolution of Nigeria over the West African Sub-Region, the rest of
Africa and indeed the World.
We gather here this day as Accredited Delegates of the Constituent Component
Nationalities of Nigeria, under the aegis of : “Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities
Alliance for Self-Determination”, being a Joint-Cooperation Framework for the
Self-Determination Initiatives of the Southern and Middle-Belt of Nigeria on behalf
of our Various Peoples and Interests, to Pronounce an end to our toleration of
Nigeria’s Unitary Constitutional Order, Unilaterally Imposed and Forcefully
Maintained by a Section of the Nigerian Country, in negation of the Federal Basis
Upon which Nigeria became one Political Union at Independence in 1960 and in
brutal Subjugation of our Collective Sovereignties currently being Forcefully and
Fraudulently appropriated by the Nigerian State.
We gather here today before the Global Community, to Formally Proclaim a
Sovereignty Dispute in Rejection of the Further Operation of the Imposed, Unity
Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria and in Assertion of our Inalienable Right
to Self-Determination.
(2) The History of the Colonial beginnings of Nigeria as a Commercial Venture of
Britain is too well-known to admit of any further repetitions here but suffice it to
recall:
(i) That the manipulations that went into the Flawed Foundations laid by the British
in the 1914 Amalgamation of the Protectorates of Southern Nigeria with the
Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, (as revealed in recently Declassified British Colonial Records on Nigeria), created a lopsided Union, locking the Diverse
Peoples of Nigeria into one Political Union with two mortally opposed
Civilizations.;
(ii) That as Independence approached in 1960, the Diversities of the Various
Peoples of the Nigerian Union Dictated the Adoption of the Federal Constitutional
Model by the then three largely Autonomous Regions, (namely Eastern, Western
and Northern Regions of Nigeria) as the Basis of entering Into Independence as
one Political Union in 1960.
(iii) That amidst the early strains of Post-Independence Nigeria arising mainly from
the aforementioned Foundational and Pre-Independence manipulations by the
British Colonial Rulers of the Nigerian Union, the Military Coups of 1966 Truncated
the Federal Constitutional Basis of Nigeria and plunged the fledgling Union into a
catastrophic 30-Month War with it’s Breakaway Eastern Region between 1967
and 1970, triggered by disputations around the Terms of the Nigerian Union and
leaving in its trail, human carnage in excess of 3million People and a fractured
Union now resting on an Unworkable Unitary Constitutional Order Imposed in
1979, by the Fiat of the illicit “Federal Government” which emerged since the 1966
Collapse of the Federation of Nigeria, Forcefully Hijacking and Confiscating
the Sovereignties of the Constituent Component Regions of Nigeria that
Federated their Sovereignties in 1960.
(iv) That the Prevailing 1999 Constitution of Nigeria which was a wholesale
adoption of the 1979 edition via Decree No.24 of 1999, revalidated and reinforced
the aforementioned Hijack and Confiscation of the Sovereignties, Powers and
Assets of the Four Erstwhile Federating Regions by the aforementioned Illicit
“Federal Government of Nigeria” which by Decrees, fractured the Four Regions
into 36 States, that are completely emasculated by a 68-Item Federal Exclusive
Legislative List that Comprehensively strip the “Federating” States of All Key
Economic Assets and Governmental Powers, thereby creating a totally
dysfunctional, Corruption-Prone, Over-Centralized System that has failed in
every respect, manifesting in Gross Insecurity, Decayed Infrastructure and Mass
Impoverishment such that Nigeria, with its Vast Human and Material Resource
Endowments, has now emerged as the Poverty Capital of the World as well as
the Global Leading Example of a Failed State.
(v) There is a Countrywide Consensus against the Unitary Constitutional
Arrangements Imposed incrementally on Nigeria by a combination of Guile, Brute
Force and Impunity between 1966 and 1999 now codified by the 1999
Constitution. This Countrywide Consensus had manifested in Several Unilateral
Regional and Joint Multi-Regional Actions in Repudiation and Rejection of the
Unitary 1999 Constitution of Nigeria:
(a) The first indication was when in year 2000, the 12 Contiguous States of the
Far North, Simultaneously Imposed and began to implement Sharia in their 3
Domains against the express provision of the 1999 Constitution which in Section
10, forbids the Adoption of any State Religion. This Translates to a Unilateral
Secession from the Secular Union of Nigeria.
(b) Between 2005 and 2006, a Sovereign Conference of the Ethnic Nationalities
of Nigeria, Convened by the Pro-National Conference Organizations
(PRONACO), Deliberated exhaustively and produced A Draft Peoples’
Constitution 2006 which had the Potential of restoring Nigeria to it’s damaged
Federal Foundations. Though Ignored by successive Federal Governments in
Nigeria, that Draft became the New Federating Consensus against the Prevailing
Unitary Constitutional Order in Nigeria. It will be recalled that prior to the 1999
return to Civil Rule in Nigeria and before PRONACO, there was NADECO which
vigorously challenged both the aberration of Military Governance in Nigeria and
Nigeria’s Unitarized Federalism imposed by Military Decrees.
(c) As a way of easing out the Rejected Unitary Constitutional Order and paving
the way for the emergence of a New Federating Consensus, the Conveners of
PRONACO, aggregating under the aegis of the Movement for New Nigeria, MNN,
(being an Alliance of the Regional Self-Determination Initiatives of the South and
the Middle Belt Territories of Nigeria, hereinafter called “the Alliance”), in May of
2007, instituted a Lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging the
Legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution on the Grounds of Fraud and Forgery and
sought an Order of Court for the Termination of the Operation of the 1999
Constitution via an 18-Month Transitioning Arrangement.
(d) The MNN Alliance by it’s MNN LAGOS DECLARATION OF JUNE 30, 2011
(http://goo.gl/dLVIHR ) Jointly Repudiated the 1999 Constitution as the Basis of
the Nigerian Federation and Mandated the Alliance Blocs to Distill their various
Regional Charters and Constitutional Drafts in readiness for the Inevitable
Fundamental Reconfiguration of the Distressed Nigerian Federation, to be
Ratified by Referendums and Plebiscites. We hereby adopt and incorporate the
said MNN LAGOS DECLARATION OF JUNE 30, 2011 in support of this
Proclamation.
(e) Pursuant to the Mandates of the MNN LAGOS DECLARATION OF JUNE 30,
2011, the Regional Blocs of the MNN Alliance Convened their Various REGIONAL
SOLEMN ASSEMBLIES between 2015 and 2018 namely, the April 27, 2015
Solemn Assembly of the Peoples of the Lower Niger in Port Harcourt, (ie South-
East and South-South); the September 7, 2017 Yoruba Summit in Ibadan and the
July 18, 2018 Emergency Assembly of the Peoples of the Middle-Belt in Makurdi.
Each of these Regional Solemn Assemblies Formally Repudiated and Rejected
the 1999 Constitution as the Basis of the Nigerian Federation, and we hereby
endorse, adopt and Incorporate the Resolutions reached by each.
(f) Having each Rejected the 1999 Constitution as the Basis of the Nigerian
Federation, and in the face of the ferocious but Coordinated Ethnic Cleansthat4
Onslaught of the Murderous Fulani Militia against the Indigenous Peoples of
Nigeria, the MNN Alliance Mobilized the Peoples of the Alliance Territories under
the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination
to issue the Joint Multi-Regional FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of
December 11, 2018 (https://bit.ly/3mkPFNv) by which the Alliance Territories
Rejected the conduct of further National Elections Mandated by the Repudiated
1999 Constitution and Demanded a Transitioning in place of the largely doomed
2019 National Elections, as a way of putting a time-frame to the Termination of
the Operation of the 1999 Constitution and the Distillation of Successor
Constitutional Protocols. The said FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of
December 11, 2018 is hereby Adopted and Incorporated in support of this present
Proclamation.
(g) It is pertinent to note that across all the Regions of Nigeria, various Socio-
Cultural and Ethnic-Interests Vanguard Organizations have also been vehement
in expressing the Constitutional Grievances of their own People, (some even
violently), thus on the Yoruba side, we have the Afenifere, the Yoruba Elders
Council (YCE), Agbekoya, the Yoruba Liberation Command, (YOLICOM), YWC
and many more including the ILANA OMO OODUA which now aggregates
Several Yoruba Self-Determination Initiatives across the World. In the Eastern
part of Southern Nigeria, we have Ohanaeze, Movement for the Survival of the
Ijaw Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND); Ijaw National Congress,
(INC); Ijaw Youth Council (IYC); PANDEF, Midwest Movement, the Niger Delta
Peoples Volunteer Force, (NDPVF), MEND, MASSOB, IPOB, others. In the
Middle-Belt, we have the Middle-Belt Forum, (MBF), MBC, SOKAPU,
CONAECDA and many others. Several notable Statesmen in Nigeria including
Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Yakubu Gowon, both (former Heads of State)
have lent their voices to the urgent imperative of the Fundamental Reworking of
the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria, warning that any further delay may
lead to the catastrophic collapse of the Distressed Nigerian Union. Nigeria’s
Former Defence Minister, Lt.Gen Theophilus Danjuma, had also urged the
Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria facing the Ethnic Cleansing Onslaught of the
Murderous Fulani invaders to Defend themselves and their lands in the face of
obvious collusion of the Federal Government of Nigeria and its Armed Forces with
the Fulani invaders. In the aftermath of the October 2020 EndSARS Protests
many, including the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) now insist that
Nigeria needs to be Renegotiated.
(h) Between January and July of 2019, a Delegation of the Alliance Territories
engaged the International Community especially Stakeholder-Institutions in
Washington DC, to alert the US and the Global Community of the Degenerating
Security Situation in Nigeria where ISIS/ISWAP Terror Machinery made sweeping
inroads into Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin with Nigeria as its Hub, with large-
scale Killings and Dislodgment of Christian Indigenous Populations mainly in the
Middle Belt and the South, encouraged by what seems a manifestly sympathetic
Federal Government of Nigeria and it’s Armed Forces, in circumstances that 4
Onslaught of the Murderous Fulani Militia against the Indigenous Peoples of
Nigeria, the MNN Alliance Mobilized the Peoples of the Alliance Territories under
the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination
to issue the Joint Multi-Regional FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of
December 11, 2018 (https://bit.ly/3mkPFNv) by which the Alliance Territories
Rejected the conduct of further National Elections Mandated by the Repudiated
1999 Constitution and Demanded a Transitioning in place of the largely doomed
2019 National Elections, as a way of putting a time-frame to the Termination of
the Operation of the 1999 Constitution and the Distillation of Successor
Constitutional Protocols. The said FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of
December 11, 2018 is hereby Adopted and Incorporated in support of this present
Proclamation..
(3) SPECIFIC CONSTITUTIONAL GRIEVANCES TOUCHING ON THE
SOVEREIGNTIES OF THE CONSTITUENT COMPONENTS OF THE
DISTRESSED FEDERATION OF NIGERIA WHICH ARE BEYOND THE
POWERS AND LEGISLATIVE MANDATE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF
NIGERIA OR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA TO
UNILATERALLY ADDRESS.
(I)The Claim in the Preamble to the 1999 Constitution that “We the People” Firmly
and Solemnly Resolved to live in One Political Union and that we Enacted and
Gave Ourselves the 1999 Constitution, is Self-Evidently False as the Decree No
24 of 1999 by which the so-called 1999 Constitution was Promulgated, outlined
step-by-step, the Process by which the author of the 1999 Constitution, Gen,
Abdusalam Abubakar and his Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, came
about the Document it labeled “the 1999 Constitution”. This is a Criminal
Usurpation of the Sovereignties of the Constituent Components whose Exclusive
Right it is to Make for Themselves the Constitution by which they will Federate
and Be Governed, as an incident of their Sovereignty. Even by the admission of
the 1999 Constitution at Section 14(2)(a), “Sovereignty Belongs to the People,
from whom, Government, through this Constitution Derive all its Powers and
Authority”. This is the Fountain from which all other Constitutional Grievances
Flow and there is no other REMEDY to this Particular Grievance than an
Autochthonous Process by which the Constituent Components will Submit their
Peoples and their Lands into a Union, and also Stipulate the Terms of that Union,
to be Ratified by Referendums and Plebiscites. (Ref: Decree No.24 as
Incorporated into the 1999 Constitution and the Preambular Text of the 1999
Constitution).
(II) A Federation is a Union of Constitutions and Nigeria became a Federation of
Three Largely Autonomous Regions at Independence in 1960 when those
Regions, each armed with its own Constitution, Agreed to Federate into One
Political Union after Series of Negotiations at Lancaster House in London between
1957 and 1959. The Midwestern Region became the 4th Region of Nigeria in 1963
from a Constitutional Process.
The 36 States and 774 Local Governments Structure unilaterally imposed by the
1999 Constitution fundamentally distorts the Pre-1966, Four-Region Federation,
especially the Power Relations between the “Federating Units” and the “Federal
Government”, which is supposed to be a creation of the Federating Units,
rendering the Nigerian Union a Unitary State away from the Federal Basis upon
which the Autonomous Regions of the Diverse Peoples of Nigeria agreed to
become one Political Union at Independence.
These imposed Structures also create artificial Permanent Political Majorities and
Permanent Political Minorities, irrespective of ground realities in terms of
Populations and other Key Indices with grave implications for Representation in
the Places of Decision-Making as well as Resource-Allocation, amongst other
debilitations. There is no other viable REMEDY for this particular Grievance than
reverting to a Negotiated Basis of Federating in Terms of Formations and
Preferences, Ratified by Referendums and Plebiscites. (Ref: First Schedule Part
1 of the1999 Constitution).
(III) The 68-Item Federal Exclusive Legislative List is the Mechanism by
which the illicit Federal Government of Nigeria Hijacked, Confiscated and
Sequestered the Key Economic Assets as well as the Most Important
Governmental Powers and Authority of the Federating Units. The
Federally Confiscated Assets include the Oil and Gas Assets; the Vast Maritime
Assets of the Coastal Territories; Solid Mineral including Iron Ore, Aluminum,
Coal, Limestone and wide range of Precious Metals and Stones.
The Federally Confiscated Powers include the Power to Generate and Transmit
Electricity; the Power to Operate a Police Service and other Services that might
require the Use of Arms; the Power to Build, Own or Operate Seaports, Airports,
Railways, Highways, et cetera.
Also Confiscated are the Powers over Banking, Insurance, Copyright, Patents,
Trade Marks, Pensions, Prisons, Posts, Company Incorporation, Marriages and
Elections into Federal and State Public Offices. The list continues. Some of
the worst consequences of this Federal Hijack and Confiscation of Powers and
Assets, was the seizure by the Federal Government, of Educational Institutions,
particularly the great Universities developed by the then Regions, which the
Federal Government thoroughly degraded over the years. The same was the case
with the Manufacturing concerns established by the Regions.
The implication of this Federal Exclusive Legislative List is that only the Federal
Government shall have Power and Control over all Items Listed while the
Federating Units are forbidden from undertaking anything coming under that List.
To make things worse, even the few undertakings permitted the already
emasculated States under the so-called Concurrent List, (30 Items) are expressly
subjugated to the overriding powers of the Federal Government such that any
conflicts between the Federal Government and the Government of a State in
respect of any matter on the Concurrent List, the interests of the Federal
Government will prevail.
More than any other single Cause, the Disastrous Consequences of this Over-
Centralization of Control over a large range of Subject Matters, has been at the
heart of Nigeria’s Arrested Development and total System Dysfunction especially
when viewed against the backdrop of the Rapid Socio-Economic Development In
the Pre-1966 Regions of Nigeria which Owned, Controlled and Worked their
Respective Economic Assets to the Benefit of their Own People. Exercised most
of the Powers now sequestered from them by the so-called Federal Government.
The Over-Centralization comes with hideous inefficiencies that have been the root
cause of the Culture of Corruption and Waste in Nigeria as Humongous Assets
and Funds are held in the hands of Federal Establishments that have no real
contact with the Developmental needs of the various Parts of Nigeria. Thus, we
are saddled with a situation in which People who have nothing to do with the
pressing needs of the true owners of the Assets and who are not in any way
accountable to these true owners (or anybody at all), carry on most wastefully as
Armed Robbers would do with their Loot, whether such Public Funds are
Proceeds from the Sale of Oil and Gas or From Customs Duties, Operation of
Ports, Company Taxes or VAT. Those who receive the Funds as “Allocations”
simply treat the Funds as their own share of the Loot called “Nigeria”. In all, the
entire system is designed to be resistant to Development.
The Various Agitations in Nigeria, from the Niger Delta Resource-Control
Agitation, to the Yoruba OPC and AMOTEKUN that seek Control over Yoruba
Internal Security, to the Biafra Agitation by those in Eastern Nigeria who are so
completely frustrated by the Inequitable and Unworkable Nigerian Unitary Union,
that they seek outright exit from the Union, are caused by the 68-Item Federal
Exclusive Legislative List. That Nigeria is without Electricity, or any meaningful
Infrastructure, is on account of this Federal Exclusive Legislative List. That Nigeria
has become the Poverty Capital of the World is due mainly to the Exclusive
List. The Broken Down Security Situation in Nigeria is also largely due to this same
Exclusive List.
The REMEDY to this Particular Constitutional Grievance, is to Dismantle the
Exclusive List Completely, Restore the Sovereign Powers of the Constituent
Components which may in turn, Cede to the Center, only such Powers as they
freely wish, in unfettered Self-Determination as dictated by the Concept of
Federalism. (Ref: Second Schedule Part-1 of the 1999 Constitution).
(IV) Aggravation of Existing Constitutional Grievances And Extraordinary
Urgency For Remedial Action:
Amidst Trenchant Demands by the Peoples of the South and Middle-Belt, for the
Fundamental Reconfiguration of Nigeria’s Unitary Constitutional Order to Address
the Dysfunctional System under which Security and Infrastructure had completely
broken Down in Nigeria, the ferocious Ethnic Cleansing Onslaught by the Fulani
Militia masquerading as “Herdsmen” commenced throughout Southern and
Middle-Belt Nigeria, upon the emergence of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari,
in 2015, as the President of Nigeria, compounding the Boko-Haram Insurgency
and Terror Campaign that was already ravaging the North-East of
Nigeria especially the Christian Communities.
Concerning the rapidly worsening Security Situation in Nigeria, particularly in the
Southern and Middle-Belt Territories as well as the glaring complicity of the
Federal Government of Nigeria, in circumstances that progressively validate the
charge of outright collusion with the Murderous Fulani Militia, it is pertinent to point
out the following:
(a) That as President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria,
Muhammadu Buhari, (a Fulani himself and a Life Grand Patron of the Fulani Cattle
Breeders Association MACBAN) had asked the Governor of Benue State, Samuel
Ortom, who had come to seek the Federal Government’s Intervention on the
Invasion of Benue State by Fulani “Herdsmen”, to go home and get his People to
live in peace with the Murderous Fulani “Herdsmen” who Buhari described as “the
Fulani of Benue”.
(b) Nigeria’s Defence Minister under President Buhari had declared that the
Developments blocking what he described as “ancient Cow Grazing Routes”,
must be removed or the Cows and the “Herdsmen” will bulldoze their way
through the Developments.
(c) The Inspector-General of Police under President Buhari declared that the
States which passed and enforced Anti-Open Grazing Laws were responsible for
the Violence being unleashed by the Fulani Herdsmen and that UNLESS those
Laws were repealed, the situation could only get worse.
(d) Amidst the agonizing cry of the Peoples of the Middle-Belt and the South
regarding the Invasion their Communities by Murderous Fulani Militia, the
Spokesman of President Buhari, Femi Adesina, advised the distressed and
endangered Communities that it would be better to give up their Lands to the
Fulani IN ORDER to Save their Lives.
(e) Under the watch of President Buhari and at the outset of the post-2015
escalation of the Fulani “Herdsmen” Killings in Southern Kaduna, the Governor of
Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai had announced how he went to 14 different
Countries to appease the Fulani who come from those Countries to kill in Southern
Kaduna. This appeasement measure, according to El-Rufai, included the payment
of N100 Million from the Public Purse of Kaduna State to the invading murderous
Fulani Militia.
(f) Under the watch of President Buhari, a strange practice was introduced, in
which captured fighters of Boko Haram and other Terror Groups, are freed by the
Federal Government of Nigeria, which declares them “Repentant” and actually
absorbs them into the Nigerian Military..
(g) The recent Unilateral Declaration by President Buhari, that Africans from all
parts of Africa, are free to enter Nigeria without Visa, and the consequent influx of
Fulani into Nigeria, (who are being openly aided by the Federal Government of 9
Nigeria, to take over vast Lands from the Indigenous Communities), has
exacerbated the undisguised Ethnic Cleansing by the invading Fulani, (whom the
Governor of Bauchi State recently declared as being all Nigerians, wherever they
are in Africa) on a scale that totally compromise the Sovereignty of Nigeria and
therefore that of all of the Constituent Components of Nigeria particularly, the
South and Middle-Belt. The massive influx of dangerous-looking Fulani migrants
into Southern Nigeria during the Federal Government imposed Covid-19
Lockdown is a pointer to the malevolent motives of the Fulani. In the first week of
August, 2020, the US raised alarm about an impending invasion of Nigeria by both
Al-Qaeda and ISIS from Nigeria’s North-West.
To further compromise our Sovereignty, Chinese Loans being recklessly
contracted by the Federal Government of Nigeria contain clauses that cede
Nigeria’s Sovereignty to China in the event of default.
Reckoning Aggravations (a)-(g) above, the Peoples of South and Middle-Belt of
Nigeria are now in the horrific realization and apprehension that the Fulani-
Controlled Federal Government of Nigeria, under the superintendence of a Fulani
President, Muhammadu Buhari, could actually be behind the well orchestrated
Ethnic Cleansing Campaign being unleashed against the Indigenous Nationalities
of Nigeria by the Fulani Invading Nigeria from all sides.
In the face of the Sharia embraced by our Compatriots in the Far North of Nigeria
in a supposedly Secular Federation, the Clear Existential Threat to the Peoples
of Southern and Middle Belt Nigeria represented by the aforementioned Jihad-
Style Fulani Militia Onslaught, brings a new urgency to the Grave Constitutional
Grievances that had been consistently raised by the Peoples of Southern and
Middle Belt Nigeria in the course of the last five decades, bordering on the
Sovereignties of the Constituent Components of Nigeria which has now been
completely hijacked, suppressed and subjugated by the illicit Federal Government
of Nigeria which has become a Suzerain Power controlled Exclusively by the
Fulani.
ACCORDINGLY, WE THE UNDERSIGNED,
BEING Accredited Representatives of the Indigenous Nationalities of Nigeria’s
Southern and Middle-Belt Territories, hereinafter called “the Alliance Territories”,
(Constituting over 75% of the Population of Nigeria), on behalf of the Peoples of
the Alliance Territories, and in Invocation of the Universal Rights appurtenant to
our Sovereignties as Indigenous Peoples of the Distressed Nigerian Federation,
including the Right To Self-Determination as enshrined in the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 as well as the United
Nations Charter On Human Rights;
HAVING exhausted every Democratic, People-Driven Process in seeking an
orderly redress for the aforementioned Grave Constitutional Grievances
emanating from the Unilateral Imposition of a Unitary Constitutional Order on our 10
supposed Federal Union by a Section of Nigeria that has also Imposed Sharia in
their own Part of our supposed Secular Union;
AND NOW in circumstances that has become an extraordinary emergency for our
Peoples, being confronted by the Clear and Present danger of Extermination in
the hands of our supposed Compatriots in the Union of Nigeria who are Pursuing
an Ethnic Cleansing Campaign against the Indigenous Nationalities of Nigeria
HEREBY DECLARE A SOVEREIGNTY DISPUTE with the Federation of Nigeria
as represented by 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 by the Preamble to that Constitution in its False Claim
that “We the People”, Made, Enacted and Gave To Ourselves the said 1999
Constitution, with a further lie in that same Preamble, that we had Firmly and
Solemnly Resolved to submit Our Peoples and Our Lands into the Union of
Nigeria.
FURTHERMORE, IN INVOCATION OF OUR LONG-SUPPRESSED
COLLECTIVE SOVEREIGNTIES WE HEREBY PROCLAIM A
CONSTITUTIONAL FORCE MAJEURE effective from the Midnight of the
…….Day of… ………..2020, with 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.
FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE AND TO AVOID ANARCHY, 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) A Formal Announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria
acknowledging the Constitutional Grievances and Sovereignty Dispute now
Declared by the Peoples of South and Middle-Belt of Nigeria.
(B) A Formal Commitment by Federal Government of Nigeria to the wholesale
Decommissioning and Jettisoning of the 1999 Constitution as the Basis of the
Federation of Nigeria as was done by the Government of Apartheid-Era South
Africa in 1990, to commence the process by which the Apartheid Constitution of
the then South Africa was eased out.
(C) A Formal Announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria suspending
further General Elections under the Disputed 1999 Constitution since winners of
such Elections will Swear to, and Govern by that Constitution.
(D) A Formal Initiation of a Time-Bound Transitioning Process to midwife 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 Plebiscites and in the second stage, Negotiate
the Terms of Federating afresh as may be dictated by the outcomes of
Referendum and Plebiscites.
(E) A Formal Invitation to the Peoples of the South and Middle-Belt of Nigeria to
work out and emplace a Transitional Authority, which shall specify the Modalities
for the Transitioning Process including the Composition and Mandate of the
Transitional Authority a well as the Time-frame for the Transitioning and other
Ancillary Matters.
BY THIS PROCLAMATION, Let it be known to ALL, including International Money
Lenders, that Nigeria is now a Disputed Project and that while the Constituent
Components commit to honouring existing International Debt Obligations,
WE CAUTION that whatever Obligations that may arise from any Foreign Loans
contracted by the Federal Government of Nigeria from the date of this
Proclamation may come into controversy. Similarly, all Loans contracted by the
Federal Government of Nigeria, containing any Clause that may Cede the
Sovereignty of Nigeria or any part thereof in the event of Repayment Default shall
be disputed as illicit, and in breach of the Sovereignty of the Federating Units.
We also invite Politicians from the Alliance Territories and all Political Parties
Operating in the Alliance Territories, to TAKE NOTICE, that the 1999 Constitution
by which the winner of any National Elections in Nigeria will Swear, and Govern,
is the very Object of the Sovereignty Dispute We Have just Proclaimed, with a
Demand that Further National Elections premised upon that Repudiated
Constitution, be Deferred Forthwith, for the purpose of first Reworking the
Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria. It is therefore our Expectation that you
will stand with the People you Claim or Seek to Serve as Politicians or Political
Parties in their current resolve to Wind up the Operation of the 1999 Constitution
and Extinguish the source of their Misery. If instead of standing with your People,
you choose to go to another round of General Elections in 2023 under that
Constitution, it will simply mean that you are a part of the enemy-imposed
Mechanism for Inflicting Death, Misery and Impoverishment upon your own
People, for no other reason than Personal Gain.
The Signatories to this Proclamation commit themselves to providing a Detailed Proposition for Undertaking this Fundamental Reconfiguration of the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria.
In this regard, the Signatories Adopt and Incorporate the MNN Alliance’s November 16, 2018
OPEN MEMORANDUM TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI ON THE RESTRUCTURING DEBATE, (click this link https://bit.ly/2ILKjNs for the full text and was also reported by Guardian
of Nov 18, 2018) as an outline of our Prescriptions.
ISSUED THIS 16th DAY OF December 2020,
Appendix A
SIGNATORIES TO THE 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 OF NIGERIA. (Being the Joint Proclamation of a Sovereignty Dispute by Accredited Delegates of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities of the Southern and Middle Belt
Territories of Nigeria, Issued the 16th Day of December 2020 in Lagos), under the title CORRECTING THE MISTAKE OF 1914
WESTERN NIGERIA (YORUBALAND)
S/No. NAME (ORGANIZATION OR GROUP OPTIONAL)
1 Prof. Adebanji Akintoye.
2 Mrs Julia O Akintoye
3 Otunba Shade Olukoya
4 Aare (Dr) Kunle Oshodi
5 George O Akinola
6 Bashorun Kunle Adesokan
7 Comrade Bunmi Abidogun
8 Professor Adewale Adeniran
9 Dr Akin Adejuwon
10 Mrs Shola Salako
11 Asiwaju Olu Mayungbe
12 Omokehinde A.Mayungbe
13 Prof Ade Kukoyi
14 Paul O. Bankole
15 Mrs. Dupe Ajayi- Gbadebo
16 Ademola Akintoye
17 Michael Awe
18 Bola Bolawole
19 Dr. Rotimi Olokodana
20 Feyisola Oluwemimo Okupe
21 Olurotimi Ajibowo
22 Dr. Adewole Banji
23 Toluwalase Adesina
24 Maxwell Adeleye
25 Praise Ayodele
26 Iyanda Wasiu Abiodun
27 Opeoluwa Elisha Ademoyegun
28 Makanjuola Adigun
29 Ajani Oluwafemi
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
13
Appendix B
SIGNATORIES TO THE 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 OF NIGERIA. (Being the Joint Proclamation of a Sovereignty Dispute by
Accredited Delegates of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities of the Southern and Middle Belt
Territories of Nigeria, Issued the 16th Day of December 2020 in Lagos), under the title
CORRECTING THE MISTAKE OF 1914
THE MIDDLE-BELTOF NIGERIA
S/No. NAME (ORGANIZATION OR GROUP
OPTIONAL)
1 Prof. Yusufu Turaki 39 CP Iorbee Ihagh (Retd)
2 Air Commodore Jonah Jang, Rtd 40 HRH Chf Daniel Abontse Ter Tyoshin
3 Dr Bitrus Pogu 41 Prof Amstrong Matie Adejor
4 Eng.Abdullahi Tanko 42 Terhemba Timothy
5 Hajia Amina Mohammed 43 Adah Anthony Adah
6 Nuhu Ibrahim 44 Leonard Nzadon Esq
7 Dr Isuwa Dogo 45 Yusuf Amos Sunday
8 HE, Dr Shem Zagbayi 46 Binanu Esthon Esq
9 Mrs Debra Ogazuma 47 Panny Yunusa Boga
10 Mr Emmanuel Alamu 48 Dr Francis Zira
11 Mrs Elizabeth Jibrin
12 Eng. Ben Akarka
13 Mr Adakole Ijogi
14 Dr Emmanuel Onucheyo
15 Abah Ejembi ESQ
16 Mrs Ene Ede
17 Bishop Habu Dawaki
18 Alex Maramma ESQ
19 Mr Benjamin S. Ashu
20 Mr Bah Abubakar
21 Mark Jacob ESQ
22 Mr Simon Reef
23 Mr Lanre Obafemi
24 Justin Chuwang ESQ
25 Leonard Nzadon ESQ
26 Hon Jonathan Asake
27 Mr Musa Jekeko
28 Rev. James Pam
29 Dr. Luka Mailumo
30 Mr. Dan Aaron
31 Dr Zahu Bonat
32 Dr Yusuf Sunday
33 Dara Dudu
34 Prof Zack Gundu
35 Amb Emmanuel Njiwah
36 Prof Terdoo Kpelai
37 Dr Qrisstuberg Amuwa
38 Chief Nguto Anyiam
Appendix C
SIGNATORIES TO THE 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 OF NIGERIA. (Being the Joint Proclamation of a Sovereignty Dispute by Accredited Delegates of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities of the Southern and Middle Belt Territories of Nigeria, Issued the 16th Day of December 2020 in Lagos), under the title CORRECTING THE MISTAKE OF 1914
SOUTH-SOUTH (THE LOWER NIGER)
S/No. NAME (ORGANIZATION OR GROUP OPTIONAL)
1 Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (Retd)
2 Senator Aniete Okon
3 Fred Agbeyegbe
4 T K Ogoriba
5 Marshal Kunoun
6 Amb Godknows Boladei Igali
7 Isi Momodu
8 Donald Ekpo
9 Mathew Dighi
10 Imoh Stephen Okoko
11 Okeyim Cosmas
12 Peter Olofu
13 Kelly Efemana Umukoro
14 Pastor Samuel Igiri
15 Rear-Admiral W Geoffrey Yange
16 Chief Dan Ebierein Ekpebide
17 Mike Oka
18 Prince Ihunwo
19 Jerry Okolo
20 Chief Kalaiti Jephthah Obadiah 1
21 Prince Tonye Jeminimiema
22 Davies Igiri
23 Kennedy Tonjo West
24 Ibingha Joseph Philip
25 George Oboh
26 Peter Aihiokhai
27 Harrison Imide
28 Lucky Agie
29 Sylvester Oyekpen
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
15
Appendix D
SIGNATORIES TO THE 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 OF NIGERIA. (Being the Joint Proclamation of a Sovereignty Dispute by Accredited Delegates of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities of the Southern and Middle Belt Territories of Nigeria, Issued the 16th Day of December 2020 in Lagos), under the title CORRECTING THE MISTAKE OF 1914
IGBO (THE LOWER NIGER)
S/No. NAME (ORGANIZATION OR GROUP OPTIONAL)
1. Chief Nnia Nwodo
2. Prof Chidi Osuagwu
3. Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (Retd)
4. Chike Odunukwe
5. Richard Obilo
6. Mrs Patience Oruh
7. Ogbo Awoke Ogbo
8. Dr Okenwa Nwosu
9. Dr Clifford Iroanya
10. Dr Emeka Onyebuchi
11. Okechukwu Orji
12. Mark Olise
13. Tony Nnadi
14. Dr Patience E. Simon-Okube
15. Mrs Munachimsoaga Okpala
16. Dr Augusta Uloma Anosike
17. Dr C J Odunukwe
18. Dr Amuzie Eronini
19. Chioma Uche
20. Uche C Njoku, Esq
21. Chinedu Achunine
22. Oscar Onwudiwe
23. Uju Lilian Modi
24. Ndidi Uwechue
25. Johnny Nosike
26. Igwe Peter U
27. Apostle Newman O Nwokoro
28. Apostle Fracis A Ezeiru
29. Benson A Ezeobi
30. Uchenna Nnadi
31 Nnenna Nwanna
32. Obi Manafa
33. Josephine Osakwe
34. Kally Albert
35. Dr Ngozi Oleru
36. Chudi Nwafor
37. Jude Odimegwu
38.
39.
40.
