NINAS Secretariat
21 March 2024

Responding to a deliberate distortion of the Interpretation of the True Significance of the Terminal Developments around the 1999 Constitution, both in the National Assembly and the wider Polity, Tony Nnadi, on behalf of the NINAS Secretariat, wrote as follows:

The NINAS Open Memo of March 17, 2024 to the Lagos “National Colloquium on the Constitutional Future of Nigeria”, Convened by Chief Emeka Anyaoku and the Patriots on the 18th of March 2024, (link HERE: https://ninasmovementnews.substack.com/p/ninas-open-memorandum-to-the-patriots), is sufficient evidence that NINAS was not at all involved with the Colloquium (NINAS actually described that Colloquium in the said Open Memo as “a Reinvention of the Wheel” on the subject advertised by the Conveners of the Colloquium).

Accordingly, whether or not anyone here understands what is being reported, the reality on ground in Nigeria is that straight from a chain of events triggered by the Disastrous 2023 Presidential Election, (which NINAS Counseled and Campaigned Against), Nigeria went into a free fall and the 1999 Constitution is now being wheeled to its interment, along with the Unitary Union Erected on it.

With the Successful Delegitimization and the commencement of the Decommissioning of the 1999 Constitution, the NINAS that set out to Truncate the life of that 1999 Constitution from a series of measured actions against the 2023 Presidential Election, is now interpreting to those who may not understand what is going on with Nigeria that the Fact that Nigeria’s National Assembly is now groping in the dark, in the Obdurate desire to Unilaterally Write a “NEW CONSTITUTION” for Nigeria AND the fact that the Chief Subscribers to the 1999 Constitution and the Unitary Nigeria anchored on it, would gather in National Colloquium in search of a New Constitutional Direction for Nigeria, represent an admission of the Demise of the 1999 Constitution along with the Unitary Nigeria erected on it.

Beyond the objective assessment of the rational public, it is the prerogative of NINAS to interpret these monumental developments in the context of the NINAS Union Reconfiguration Campaign. 

More importantly, it is a notorious fact that both the National Assembly and the Conveners of the Lagos Colloquium, have for years, been stoutly opposed to the NINAS Union Reconfiguration Propositions. It is therefore a significant development on the subject, that both the National Assembly and the Patriots would now be searching frantically for a New Constitutional BASIS and Direction for Nigeria, in circumstances that evidence the Demise of the 1999 Constitution.

Accordingly, it smacks of Ignorance and Dishonesty for anyone to suggest that NINAS is ”relying on People who speak from both sides of their mouths and those whose words have no value” for anything. 

The Goals of NINAS are clearly stated in the public space and the measurement of success in the attainment of those goals are easy, practical and objective. 

Bottom-line is that the 1999 Constitution is Dead and the Unitary Union anchored on it is at an end. The Stipulations of the NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure remains the Compass for Navigating what will emerge from the Ruins of Unitary Nigeria and both the successes and prospects of the NINAS Self-Determination Campaign should now be past debate.

NINAS Secretariat,
March 21, 2024