So here we are. Sixty years after Independence we are the world’s poorest Black nation. Quoting from Borgen Magazine in August 2020, “Nigeria, a third world country in Africa, is known as the poverty capital of the world. The nation just exceeded India with the largest rate of people living in extreme poverty. In Nigeria, about 86.9 million people live in severe poverty, which is about 50% of its entire population….the nation is failing at lowering the rates of poverty. This is partly due to the mismanagement of the oil business and the presence of corruption. Along with this, the nation is going through a “population boom,” which will make managing poverty rates more difficult. One of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals is to end extreme poverty by 2050. However, Nigeria’s poverty rates are currently going in the wrong direction…”
EXTREME POVERTY. That means that the lives of Nigerians will be one of extreme suffering and extreme lack. People will have extremely substandard lives in every way possible. This extreme poverty means insecurity of life, property, business, health, food, and mind. This is a completely intolerable situation, so people of good faith are more determined than ever to bring about new kinds of prospects and possibilities for the people of this territory.
To come to Nigeria means to come to corruption. This grim situation is such that we have now outgrown the simplistic and constantly-given explanation that Nigeria’s retardation and corruption are due to “poor leadership” and “bad governance”. People of good faith have revealed that the real problem of Nigeria is the imposed 1999 Constitution which is a known forgery, for “we the people” did not produce it as deceitfully claimed in its preamble. Furthermore, it is both anti-development and pro-corruption largely because of the 68-items Exclusive List and the immunity clause. This Constitution has created a Nigeria that is just not the Nigeria negotiated at Independence for there to ever be a Union of ethnic nationalities.
It is said that human life began in Africa, therefore Black people would be the oldest humans on earth, and as “elders”, should actually be leaders on this planet. Earliest recorded written history was in about 4000 BC then we are now some 2000 years AD, making it at least 6000 years that the African has been on earth*. After 6000 long years of being on this earthly habitat, what does the state of Nigeria say about its people’s abilities? What message are we giving the international community as leaders and the led, when the Union called Nigeria is upheld by a fraudulent Constitution? As I have said before, “We cannot have or keep a Union by forgery and by force”. Yet, that injustice is what Unionists are hoping to continue to carry on. Well, people of good faith have had enough and are determined to bring about an Alternative Culture of “doing the right thing” and “doing the right thing the right way”.
There are the silent protests where professionals, students, and the unskilled are showing their disgust with Nigeria by leaving: heading to the West, the Orient and even the Middle East, in search of safer and more satisfying lives. Then we have the vocal protests where people in huge throngs are out on the streets, voicing out their desires for a better way of living and a habitable country. These silent and vocal protests indicate that change in the status quo is inevitable. Some believe that by Restructuring into a true Federation or Confederation, Nigeria can be salvaged and finally begin to progress. For others, it is: “Nigeria? We are done with it! Dissolution is Nigeria’s solution!”
In a multi-ethnic territory like Nigeria, honest democracy can produce and maintain a healthy and happy Union. However, given that an undemocratic 1999 Constitution upholds the Union, democracy is impossible under it – as we can all see. The illegitimate, null and void 1999 Constitution cannot logically and legally be amended, but must be discarded and abandoned. That is doing the right thing. Then, before considering the options of either Restructuring or Dissolution, the ethnic nationalities should have their own Referendum to decide if they want to be in this Union. The results of the Referendum will determine whether the future of Nigeria will be Restructuring or Dissolution.
Some Unionists may say that a Referendum is not provided for in the 1999 Constitution, so there cannot be a Referendum. No surprise! That was deliberate because those who produced it did not get the mandate of the people and sought to permanently tie down the indigenous people of Nigeria through this Constitution. It was handed down by the military who ruled without the people’s consent. It is actually a “political mistake” to call that document a Constitution, for it has nothing to do with the will of the people of Nigeria. It is not autochthonous. However, it does not matter if a Referendum is not provided for in this sham Constitution. “We the people” always have sovereignty so when the people form themselves into a large mass, all seeking Referendum, they shall have it.
Sixty years of aimless wandering in a worsening wilderness has brought Nigeria to rank with the failed nations of this world, and even to being a rogue state. Nigerians are fleeing abroad every which way they can to escape the land of their forefathers. It is a given that host countries will not welcome the change in their demographics that the presence of numerous Nigerians will bring, and will react in response. We owe it to our young people and children to hand them something good and useful, the kind of country they will be contented with. It is very possible to do so. It is by having a Referendum before either Restructuring or Dissolution. REFERENDUM FIRST! REFERENDUM FIRST! REFERENDUM FIRST! We should therefore discard the imposed and sham 1999 Constitution through the legal process of Force Majeure, and go to Referendum by ethnic nationalities. That is doing the right thing the right way.
*NOTE: The Scientific Creationist view.