NINAS PRESS STATEMENT

Video broadcast: Unitary Nigeria Has Broken Down; We Must Now Discuss Or We Disperse

As Proponents of the August 1-10 2024 Countrywide Protests in Nigeria threw up a wide range of Protest Demands from various flanks under the theme, “#EndBadGovernance”, NINAS received an invitation from one of the Proponent Groups, to a Virtual Townhall of July 27, 2024 which shall focus on the Distillation of Protests Demands that would yield the Wide-Ranging Changes sought by the Protesters. 

Here is a Summary of Rapporteurs Report from that Virtual Townhall of July 27, 2024:

(1) That the Unitary Constitution of Nigeria is the Tap from which the Failures and Dysfunctions of Nigeria as well as the Woes and Miseries of Nigeria flow, including Corruption, Impunity, Insecurity, Economic Free-Fall, Mass Poverty, Unemployment, Agitations, Infrastructural Decay, Serial Electoral Malfeasances, Mass Hopelessness and Disillusionment.

(2) That the Solution to Nigeria’s dysfunctions is the Wholesale Decommissioning of the 1999 Constitution, not Amendments or forms of Legislative Action, just as South Africa’s Apartheid Constitution was Jettisoned and Decommissioned from 1990-1994.

(3) That the Mechanism for Taking Down the 1999 Constitution is the Immediate Shutting Down of Preparations for further National Elections under that Constitution as a mark of our rejection of that Constitution since Election is the mechanism by which the life of the Constitution is renewed every four years, and since the winner of Elections must swear to and Govern by that Constitution. Note: The Election Shutdown referred to here is not an Election Boycott.

(4) That the Action required NOW to Trigger the Election Shutdown that will Precipitate the Decommissioning of the 1999 Constitution, is to Demand immediately (in 2024), the initiation of a Transitioning Process to Renegotiate and Rework the Fundamentally Flawed Basis of Nigeria in place of another round of Elections in 2027 under the 1999 Constitution. 

(5) That the NINAS 5-Point Proposition for the Constitutional Reconstruction of Nigeria (which essentially requires the Federal Government of Nigeria to Acknowledge that the Unitary Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria is Reason for the Dysfunctions and Failures of Nigeria AND to Expressly Commit to the wholesale Constitutional Reconstruction of Nigeria, in the Two-Stage Procedure Stipulated by the NINAS Proposition) offers Nigeria the most immediate, most viable Framework for an Orderly Renegotiation, Reconfiguration and Reconstruction of the Distressed Federation of Nigeria in the face of widespread Disputations over the Nigerian Union and the Drift towards Anarchy.

In light of the foregoing, it is recommended that the Demands of the Protests which already listed the scrapping of the 1999 Constitution as Principal-Demand, will become exponentially more realisable if reinforced by the express adoption of the NINAS 5-Point Proposition as that will make the Protest Demands more Definitive and therefore offer the best prospects of a Definitive Response from Government in a manner that can truly resolve the long-standing Distortions of the Nigerian Federation which has culminated in the Dysfunctions and Failures now being protested.”

In view of the fact that the aforementioned 5-Point Proposition REQUIRES ONLY the Formal Acknowledgment and Commitment of the Government of Nigeria, NINAS is firmly convinced that if the Protesters adopt those NINAS Propositions as their Demands, a middle-ground upon which a resolution of the entire Dispute can be erected shall be established because it will only take the kind of announcement made in 1990 by the Apartheid-Era Government of Frederik De Klerk in South Africa, to commence the Wholesale Decommissioning of South Africa’s Apartheid Constitutional Order.

It is also the firm conviction of NINAS that with the Delegitimization and overwhelming Rejection of the Fraudulent 1999 Constitution by the Peoples of Nigeria, it is untenable to continue in the dangerous pretense of drawing power and authority for the Governance of Nigeria from the Illegitimate, Distressed and Lifeless 1999 Constitution.

It is therefore the firm view of NINAS that it is by embracing this Transitioning Proposition for the Wholesale Constitutional Reconstruction of Nigeria that the current Government of Nigeria which suffers considerable legitimacy challenges, can set up the kind of Genuine Union Dialogue capable of earning the confidence of both the Protesters and the rest of the Aggrieved Populace, especially since every other Demand of the Protesters beside the No-1 Demand (ie scrapping of the 1999 Constitution), will be most adequately addressed within the Constitutional Reconstruction Process.

Here are links to the recording of the July 27, 2024 Townhall by Protest Proponents: 

(1) Nigeria Protest 2024: Defining the Change We Seek & Distilling Demands that will Deliver the Change.

(2) Scrap -1999Constn‘ as Protest Demand No.1: Insights From Protest Proponents Townhall.

NINAS Secretariat,
July 30, 2024.