Newsfront Online …Telling the Public as it is
As Presidential Candidates of the three Frontline Political Parties in Nigeria’s “2023 Elections” continue their Global Junkets, news has been flying around the media space about the miracles each Candidate will perform if they emerge President of Nigeria from those Elections that are being advertised under the 1999 Constitution.
The purpose of this General Rejoinder by the Secretariat of NINAS is to respond to some of the claims by those Political Parties (PDP, APC & LP) and their Candidates, and to explain to their Supporters, Promoters, and the wider Nigerian Public that the 1999 Constitution is a Guarantee that most of those Promises will not be Fulfilled and that most of the Expectations will not be met. This Rejoinder will also serve to illuminate the reasoning behind the NINAS Constitutional Force Majeure Proposition that the Elections being advertised for 2023 be suspended.
(1) ELECTRICITY
Someone should explain to all the Presidential Candidates in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections that the Potential for Electricity Generation and Transmission is completely locked down by the Exclusive List in the 1999 Constitution.
As long as that Constitution stands, whatever a new President is going to do will be marginal compared with what will happen if that Constitutional Lockdown is dismantled, because then, all available capacities will be unleashed to Generate and Transmit Electricity.
The ignoramuses who will cite the Concurrent List in the 1999 Constitution as creating a window of participation for States should carry their dishonesty elsewhere until they provide an answer to why in a Federation, the Federal Government would have the Overriding Powers invested by the Provisions of that Constitution, on even the so-called “Concurrent List”. The Solution to Electricity is to remove the Impediment called the 1999 Constitution.
(2) SECURITY:
As it is with Electricity, so is it with Security. The owners of Nigeria locked down the Possibilities and Potentials for Security Infrastructure with the 68-Item Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution which confiscated all powers over Arms, ammunition, Police, and all armed Security Services to the illicit “Federal Government.” As long the 1999 Constitution stands, any effort at improving Security in Nigeria will remain the self-delusion it has been for decades. The cost in blood will continue to increase exponentially until those who imposed that Constitution completes their Murderous Conquest Onslaught which is currently in full swing, whilst distracting the rest of us with Elections 2023. Ask the People of Plateau State or Southern Kaduna if in doubt. The Solution to Security in Nigeria is to remove the albatross called the 1999 Constitution.
(3) PERVASIVE CORRUPTION:
The 1999 Constitution EXPRESSLY creates massive avenues for humongous Corruption and comprehensively protects the Beneficiaries of Grand Corruption by the Blanket Immunity Provision. S.6 (6c) of that Constitution absolves the Government of all responsibilities to the Citizens including Security and Welfare. That same provision strips the “Citizens” (Populace really as there are no Citizens of Nigeria except we twist the meaning of citizenship to suit our debased Union) of their entitlements in the Social Contract we call the Constitution while the Political Merchants have everything for themselves. Sections 81 & 82 of the 1999 Constitution hand the spare keys to the Treasury of the Federation to the President of Nigeria while Sections 121 & 122 hand the Keys to the Treasury of the States to the Governors. Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution grants absolute immunity to both the President and the Governors for whatever atrocities they choose to commit whilst in power including the reckless looting of the Treasury. The 68-Item Exclusive List on that Constitution also centralize control over most of the Resources and Powers in such a way that only breeds unimaginable inefficiency, mind-boggling Corruption, and unbelievable impunity. Anyone who suggests he will fight Corruption in Nigeria whilst the 1999 Constitution is standing is either criminally ignorant or hopelessly dishonest.
The Solution to Corruption and Impunity in Nigeria is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution. Anything less is a Cruel Joke and Self-Deceit.
(4) REFINERIES AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
The Capacity for Petroleum Refining in Nigeria is locked down completely by the Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution which domiciles the Refineries to the illicit “Federal Government” of the Defunct Federation of Nigeria. For as long as that 1999 Constitution stands, no improvement will come to Petroleum Products Availability. The Subsidy regime that now gulps over N6Trillion annually (mostly servicing Corruption) will remain and Petroleum Products will continue to be imported at prevailing international prices; the monumental Pressure mounted by this avoidable anomaly upon the struggling Naira will continue to increase while the Naira maintains its free fall. Apart from the horrendous inflation that comes with all these, the Aviation Industry is on the verge of becoming another casualty of Nigeria’s Madness of locking down refining capacity with its Fraudulent 1999 Constitution. The lazy folks who will want to point us to the Dangote Refineries that will soon come to our rescue should first go and research the meaning of Asset-Stripping which is what the Fulani is doing to the Indigenous Owners of the Crude Oil confiscated by the illicit Federal Government by the Exclusive List on its Fraudulent Constitution, and now allotted to Mr. Dangote. Our Questions should be; “Why should we tolerate that brazen confiscation of Assets (Oil & Gas) and the Sequestration of Powers to refine, whilst running helter-skelter across the globe in search of refined products, keeping our educated young People unemployed while creating employment in the Countries upon which we now rely for refined products? What is there in Petroleum Refining that cannot be thrown open to all others who may have the capacity to do the refining or even the sub-National Governments (States), that we all have to depend on one Fulani Man, Dangote to do it for us? The Solution to the Non-Availability of Petroleum Products in Nigeria with all its Consequences lies in Taking Down the 1999 Constitution, not in Elections that will reinforce that Constitution.
(5) DECAYED INFRASTRUCTURE INCLUDING SEA-PORTS, AIRPORTS, HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS ETC
The State of Infrastructure is the way it is in Nigeria today because of the 68-Item Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution which Lock Down all possibilities and capacities for Infrastructure by confiscating all powers over these Key Developmental Assets into the hands of an illicit “Federal Government”. Nothing relating to these items will improve as long as the 1999 Constitution stands, no matter what Candidates for 2023 Elections under the 1999 Constitution tell you. The Solution to Infrastructure in Nigeria is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution and Free the Locked-Down Possibilities and Capacities around Infrastructure development.
(6) HUMONGOUS COST OF GOVERNANCE:
Over and above CORRUPTION, the humongous cost of Financing Massive Bureaucracies inflicted upon us by Nigeria’s 36-States/774LGs Structure indiscriminately created by Caliphate-Military Fiat between 1966 and 1999 and which has resulted in the 811 Governments (1-Federal+36-States+1-FCT+774LGs), that must be financed every month from the Treasury, is the Principal Reason for the Bankruptcy currently Staring the Nigerian State in the Face.
Anyone who speaks about the plan to reduce the cost of Governance under the 1999 Constitution is simply deceiving himself. Even if a Frugal President emerges, how will that stop the Constitutionally Mandated Monthly Allocation to these 811 Governments?
There will be 36 Governors who are not accountable to the President for the Profligacy they might embrace. Bottom-line: The Solution to the Humongous Cost of Governance is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution. Further Elections under that Constitution only reinforce the Economic Bleeding of Nigeria.
(7) RULE OF LAW:
No Rule of Law or even Democracy is possible under the Worse-Than-Apartheid 1999 Constitution. The Fraud of Forcefully appropriating our Collective Sovereignties under a Constitution WE DID NOT AGREE UPON or MAKE, renders everything anchored upon that Constitution Illegitimate and Unacceptable including the Institutions of State that frame the Lopsided Society we are building, whether in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial Arms.
When the Presidential Candidates for Elections 2023 come telling you about how they will Uphold the Rule of Law, ask them: “Rule of which Law?” The 1999 Constitution which is the basis of all Laws in Nigeria is a Fraud and so it must be the Rule of Fraud they are talking about.
(8) CROOKED ELECTIONS AND BAD LEADERSHIP
Elections into the National and State Offices including those of the President, Governor, Senator, House of Representatives, and House of Assembly are by virtue of the Exclusive List on the 1999 Constitution, the exclusive preserve of the illicit Federal Government of Nigeria and its so-called “Independent National Electoral Commission”
The result of this great anomaly for a supposed “Federation” is the serial heist we have witnessed repeatedly since 1999. The frequent turnover of “Bad Leaderships” that the “Federation of Nigeria” and its Constituent Component States had been saddled with for decades, flows directly from the inclusion of responsibility over Elections into the aforementioned Federal and State Offices on the Exclusive List in the 1999 Constitution. This first important step amongst the matrix of Solutions required to resolve the huge burden of Bad Leadership is to Take Down the 1999 Constitution.
Anyone who suggests that the Constitution is not the Reason Nigeria is where it is today is either ignorant or dishonest otherwise such a person should support that assertion by responding in specific terms, to each of the Eight Assertions made in this Rejoinder about things that will not improve in Nigeria as long as the 1999 Constitution is standing.
Let all Political Parties in Nigeria (particularly PDP, APC & LP) heading to 2023 Elections under the 1999 Constitution be on NOTICE that the Eight-Point Postulation contained in this General Rejoinder would operate as NINAS INTERROGATORIES for the Changes they are Promising the Nigerian Populace from the 2023 Elections that NINAS wants to be Suspended for the immediate Reconstruction of the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria.
NINAS Secretariat, September 8, 2022
