NINAS Secretariat
01 March 2024

Being a Rejoinder on behalf of the NINAS Secretariat to Nigeria’s House of Representatives in its misguided quest to manufacture a “New Constitution” in 2026 for the Distressed Federation of Nigeria.

This Rejoinder and Note of Caution is the response of the NINAS Secretariat to the numerous inquiries that have trailed a news report credited to the Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s National Assembly about how “a New Constitution for Nigeria will be ready in 24 months”. (Link to said News Report HERE: https://news.band/just-in-new-constitution-will-be-ready-in-24-months-says-kalu/ )

We state as follows:
(1) NINAS assures the public that with the defeat and delegitimization of the 1999 Constitution, the Decommissioning Processes that will culminate in the wholesale dismantling of that Fraudulent Constitution are in process.

(2) In the face of:
(a) The protracted disputations around the Question of the Legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution on the grounds of the indisputable Fraudulence of its Basis (i.e. the False Claim in the Preamble of that Constitution that the Constituent Peoples of Nigeria did firmly and solemnly agree to be in One Indivisible and Indissoluble Political Union), and the illicit Enactment (i.e. imposition by Military Decree No.24 of 1999);
(b) The formal admission of the 9th National Assembly that the National Assembly lacked (and still lacks) the power to make a Constitution for Nigeria,

It is inconceivable that any group of Lawmakers could in 2024 gather in Abuja, and resume the nauseating, insulting, and infuriating discussion about their plan to make a New Constitution for Nigeria in 24 months.

(3) Whether driven by Ignorance, Arrogance, or Mischief, the National Assembly should note that the Peoples of Nigeria, to whom the authorship of the 1999 Constitution has been falsely imputed, but in whom the Constituent Powers required to Make Federating Constitutional Arrangements EXCLUSIVELY reside, have under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) formally repudiated and rejected the Fraud of 1999 as Basis of Union and has since December 16, 2020, Declared a Union Dispute by way of a Constitutional Force Majeure. (Link to the Full text of the NINAS December 16, 2020, Constitutional Force Majeure as published by the Guardian Newspaper on January 20, 2021 (Pages 38, 39, 40 & 41 HERE:
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/

Also, the link to a Public Communication on behalf of NINAS explaining the fact that the Legislative Mandate of the National Assembly is limited to Law-Making and does not extend to Constitution-Making, which requires Constituent Powers HERE:
https://www.ninasvoice.org/the-legislative-mandate-of-the-national-assembly-does-not-extend-to-constitution-making

(4) We recall that sometime in the last quarter of 2023, in the midst of the largely contrived confusion and distorted discussions around the question of appropriate Constitutional Arrangements for Nigeria, with the loud but directionless debates about the “Restructuring” of Nigeria, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had, in what seemed like a choreographed script, invited Memorandum from All Lawyers in Nigeria to support the plan of the National Assembly to carry out a “Comprehensive Review of the 1999 Constitution”. Shortly afterward came the Olisa Agbakoba Lecture at the Akpabio Birthday Colloquium in Abuja.

From recent public pronouncements of the Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives on the subject, it appears that the 10th National Assembly has adopted the weird suggestions of Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), made at the December 2023 Birthday Colloquium of Godswill Akpabio (Nigeria’s Senate President) in the presence of Bola Tinubu (Nigeria’s Interregnum President), about how the National Assembly could draw some imaginary powers from Section 4(1) of the Fraudulent 1999 Constitution, to make a New Constitution for Nigeria.

A Rejoinder and Rebuke dated December 19, 2023, was issued by the NINAS Secretariat, denouncing those weird and untenable Prescriptions of Olisa Agbakoba.

NINAS says without equivocation that no alphabet will be taken from the Fraudulent 1999 Constitution and the Amendments to it, neither will any New Constitution or Constitutional Instrument, made by the National Assembly of Nigeria, pursuant to any Provisions of the 1999 Constitution be accepted as Basis for the Nigerian Union.

(5) For the avoidance of doubt and the purpose of clarity, we adopt in full the aforementioned December 19, 2023, Rejoinder as an integral part of this Note of Caution to the National Assembly. We invite Members of the National Assembly as well as the General Public to Read that Rejoinder in full as part of the wider explanation for our complete rejection of whatever the National Assembly plans to throw up as a “New Constitution” in 2026. (Link to that NINAS Rejoinder to, and Rebuke of Agbakoba HERE: https://ninasmovementnews.substack.com/p/rejoinder-to-olisa-agbakobas-frying

(6) Let it be known to all that the fraudulent imposition of the 1999 Constitution via Abdulsalami Abubakar’s Decree No.24 of 1999 was a Treasonous act, tantamount to the Hijack and Confiscation of the Sovereignty of the Constituent Peoples of Nigeria to whom the authorship of the atrocious “1999 Constitution” is Falsely Credited in the Preamble to that Constitution.

(7) The retention of that illegitimate 1999 Constitution (and all Amendments to it) as the Basis of the Nigerian Federation since 1999 is tantamount to a compounding of the said Treasonous act and Fraud of Abdulsalami Abubakar.

The suggestion that the National Assembly could somehow, unilaterally manufacture a “New Constitution” by virtue of some power that could be drawn from the 1999 Constitution is most reprehensible, and it would be tantamount to a further Compounding of the Treason and Fraud of 1999 should the National Assembly attempt to cobble and foist another illegitimate Constitution on Nigeria, standing on the dubious authority of the so-called “1999 Constitution”.

(8) Let it be known, therefore, that NINAS will reject in its entirety any Constitutional Instrument by the National Assembly of Nigeria, however distilled or derived, for the reasons stated hereinbefore. Let it also be stated that consequences will attach for Participation in the Treason of the Continuing Hijack and Confiscation of the Sovereignty of the Constituent Peoples of Nigeria.

(9) In closing, NINAS invites the Government and People of Nigeria, including Members of the National Assembly, Political Parties, and the General Public, to the NINAS 5-Point Proposition for the immediate Constitutional Reconstruction of Nigeria, in place of the endless voyage in the ocean of affliction that Unitary Nigeria has been sailing for decades.

Inquiries to: (Text Only) +234-810-056-9448
+234-906-472-0016
Email: info@ninasvoice.org

For NINAS Secretariat,
Tony Nnadi
February 28, 2024