Neither The 1979 Constitution Nor The 1999 Constitution Was Made Or Enacted By “We The People”
Tony Nnadi, First published 16 May 2021
(Being a Rejoinder to an Article by Simon Kolawole of ThisDay Newspaper imputing the authorship of both the so-called 1979 and 1999 Constitutions to the Peoples of Nigeria).
The article is obviously the hatchet job done on behalf of the distressed Fulani Caliphate, desperate to save their defeated, forged Title Deed over Nigeria, the so-called “1999 Constitution”.
The author’s key strategy is to distort facts and obfuscate the clear line of reasoning that inform the present total onslaught against the fraudulent 1999 Constitution by the trapped constituent components of the Failed Lugardian Experiment of 1914.
The dispute on the Legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution (and its 1979 Precursor), is about who AGREED UPON THE TERMS and ENACTED (ie Promulgated and Gave the Force of Law to) the Constitutions, not about who DRAFTED them.
It amounts to illiteracy on the subject of Constitution-making for anyone to mix up the two ie Agreeing Upon the Terms, and Enacting and Drafting the Document.
The story of the making of the so-called 1979 Constitution as told by Kolawole begins with the Draft commissioned by Murtala Mohammed in 1975 via Rotimi Williams who brought in Ben Nwabueze.
This Williams-Nwabueze Draft went as Working Paper to the Constituent Assembly of 1977 set up by Olusegun Obasanjo (as Murtala Mohammed had been assassinated in 1976 and Obasanjo his Chief Of Staff took over as Head of State and continued the warped Constitution-making process initiated by Murtala Mohammed).
The 1977 Constituent Assembly deliberated extensively and rejected several aspects of the Murtala Mohammed Draft including the retention of the States that had been created by Military Decrees since 1967 as well as the adoption of the Presidential System of Government.
These two key aspects relate to the Structure of the Federation and the System of Government.
The 1977 Constituent Assembly submitted a Clean Copy of its own Draft Constitution to Obasanjo sometime in 1978.
On the 21st of September in 1978, Obasanjo went on National Broadcast to announce 17 Amendments introduced by the then Supreme Military Council to the Clean Draft (ie the Finished Work) submitted by the Constituent Assembly and went ahead to Promulgate this heavily altered version by Decree as “1979 Constitution” with a false Preamble that “We the People” Agreed Upon and Made that 1979 Constitution.
It was through these 17 Amendments that the Land Use Decree of 1978 and other heinous Decrees including the NYSC Decree of 1973, were smuggled into the so-called “1979 Constitution”.
Bottom-line is that despite being DRAFTED by the individuals named in the fictitious article, the 1979 Constitution was ENACTED by Obasanjo’s Supreme Military Council and not the People of Nigeria as falsely claimed in the Preamble to that Constitution.
It is curious that Kolawole did not mention this overriding alteration act of Obasanjo’s Supreme Military Council to the Clean Draft Constitution submitted by the 1977 Constituent Assembly.
Similarly, the story of the 1999 Constitution was fully told by its author, Abdusalami Abubakar in the Decree No.24 of 1999 by which he Promulgated the so-called 1999 Constitution.
He (Abdusalami Abubakar) had set up a “Constitution Debate Coordinating Committee” which went on its jamboree of Town Halls, ostensibly gathering Memoranda from a cross-section of Nigerians and reaching the conclusion that most people wanted a return to the 1979 Constitution.
The 1979 Constitution was therefore adopted wholesale with additions and subtractions (amendments) made by Abdusalami Abubakar’s “Armed Forces Ruling Council”.
It was these cocktail of concoctions that was Promulgated on the 5th of May 1999 via Decree No.24 of 1999 into the so-called “1999 Constitution”, attached as a Schedule to the said Decree No.24 of 1999.
For a 1999 Constitution that emerged through the process outlined above, and which has the egregious false claims that “WE THE PEOPLE” Agreed upon and ENACTED that Constitution, it is both illiterate and dishonest to cite the list of persons who DRAFTED the 1999 Constitution as irrefutable proof that it was not the Military that ENACTED the Rogue “1999 Constitution”.
Simon Kolawole also asserted that: “the 1999 Constitution was not written by the Military”
This is tantamount to equating the jamboree of some random “Constitution Debate and Coordinating Committee” going around in some kind of Town Hall settings, with the Constitution-making necessity of Constituent Components meeting to AGREE to form a Union, and to Ratify whatever DRAFT emanating from the process by REFERENDUM.
Bottom-line: Neither the 1979 Constitution nor the 1999 Constitution was made or enacted by “We the People”.
Let it be known to all including Simon Kolawole, that the true owners of the Sovereignties hijacked and confiscated by both the 1979 Constitution and 1999 Constitution, had by the December 16, 2020 Constitutional Force Majeure, launched a massive campaign to Dismantle the imposed, fraudulent 1999 Constitution and recover their hijacked Sovereignties from the defunct Federation of Nigeria.
To learn more on this process, visit: www.ninasvoice.org
Tony Nnadi
NINAS Secretariat
May 16, 2021.
IMPORTANT SUPPLEMENT (added 19 March 2023)
The fraud called 1999 Constitution is the Fulani Caliphate’s lifeline, for it is the fraudulent and illegitimate Instrument that having seized control of Nigeria, they are using to bring about Ahmadu Bello’s Declaration of 1960 that Nigeria is to be turned into the “estate” of the immigrant settler Fulani.
It is that 1999 Constitution that empowers the horrific genocidal violence against the indigenous peoples of the Middle Belt for Fulani land grabbing, spreading southwards. It is that 1999 Constitution that empowers government to unleash deadly violence upon peaceful protesters. It is that 1999 Constitution that enables INEC assisted by other government services to rig elections. It is that 1999 Constitution that enables government to withhold infrastructure, welfare, security, public services and everything else needed for a safe and comfortable life for Nigerians.
Therefore all those that Ahmadu Bello himself described as “willing tools”, who defend the 1999 Constitution in one way or another in the hope of giving it false legitimacy, plus all those who one way or another subscribe to it (eg members of political parties), plus all those who have sworn an Oath of Office to uphold that 1999 Constitution, or are prepared to do so, are betrayers of Truth and betrayers of the Nigerian people.
That 1999 Constitution is being used to wage war against indigenous Peoples of Nigeria and it is VITAL that the TRUTH that it is NOT made by “we the people” or agreed by “we the people” must stand!
Here therefore, is a series of short video clips where different personalities inform Nigerians and the concerned international community, making it very plain that Nigerians have no (federating) Constitution, thus no Union Agreement because the 1999 Constitution is nothing but bare-faced Deceit.
1. "Nigeria’s Fraudulent Constitution & False Narratives About its Making”
2. We Must Jettison 1999 Constitution Completely" - Robert Clarke(SAN)
3. 1999 Constitution: A Country Cannot Live On Falsehood - Nwodo
4. "Nigeria’s Unitary Constitution is Behind the Woes of Nigeria” - Experts
Listen to the then Ohanaeze PG, Nnia Nwodo and a few other very knowledgeable Persons including eminent Professor of Jurisprudence, Professor Akin Oyebode, renown Political Economist & Strategist, Dr Amos Akingba and Senator Adeyeye at the Plenary of Nigeria’s Senate, expounding the position of the Lower Niger Congress (LNC) on the urgent imperative of Taking Down the rogue 1999 Constitution as the first order of business, whether we seek True Federalism, Regional Autonomy or Outright Exit from the defunct Federation of Nigeria.
5. Nigeria's Constitution Can Never Give Us Peace And Progress - Sen. Adeyeye Fumes
Here is Sen. Adeyeye's capture of the fraudulent Constitution.
6. The 1999 Constitution Created More Problems For Nigeria -- Robert Clarke Pt. 1
7. “1999 Constitution is our greatest enemy. It is like a rotten egg..." Robert Clark, SAN
Commenting on the botched 2023 Presidential Election of February 25, 2023 and the legal hurdles that may mar the March 11 (re-scheduled to 18th), 2023 Governorship Elections, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN) pointedly indicts Nigeria’s 1999 Unitary Constitution for the serial Electoral and other woes of Nigeria, describing the Constitution as the greatest enemy of Nigerians and a rotten egg from which nothing good can come.
8. Why the Focus on the 1999 Constitution. Part 2 of 2
9. Nigeria@60: What Exactly is Wrong With The Constitution?
10. What went wrong with Nigerian Constitutional Arrangements and the Options of Remediation
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