Nigeria: Indigenous People and their Right to Self-Determination
28th September 2020
Between years 2000 and 2002, a full one-third of the states of Nigeria declared that they would be governed by Islamic Sharia. These are twelve adjoining states in the core north also known as the Arewa region. In taking up Sharia for themselves, Arewa took up their entitlement to self-determination, and were not criminalised or penalised for it. In characteristic Nigerian fashion of confusing matters, although the 1999 Constitution (Section 10) that it operates mandates that Nigeria must be a secular country, it is also known that this Constitution is a forgery, thus null and void, and invalid. Therefore could it be that Arewa simply ignored the Constitution being unwilling to keep to the demands of an illegitimate social contract? What is clear is that A...
