In sane countries, the process of writing and adopting constitutions is entirely people-centered. This is because not only will the citizens be guided by it, it will also determine how their lives are shaped.
In Nigeria, the story is different and, as expected, in the negative.
The country’s present constitution was written by ‘strong men’ who did nothing but dethrone civilian governments while declaring themselves lords over the hapless citizens through criminal decrees. How can a country ever witness any iota of progress under such wickedness enshrined into a constitution?
Those who framed the 1999 constitution never acted in the interest of Nigerians. Their only motive was to massage the egos of the military oligarchs who recruited them for the hatchet job of subverting the will of Nigerians. They showed their true intentions by beginning the fraudulent document with a lie that read; ‘We the people of Nigeria..’. The lie in these words ring loudly, and is nothing short of wicked and despicable act.
In the actual sense, it was a clear depiction of the fact that if Nigerians as conquered people have no say in their collective destinies and are subjected to being tossed here and there by a few but powerful people.
Sadly, this document has managed to survive over two decades while remaining the most potent clog in the wheel of progress of Nigerians.
Many Nigerians do not know that the fraudulent constitution in which their country is administered was written by Professor Auwalu Yadudu. The ratification of the constitution was done by a military junta made up of 13 men, only one of which was from southern Nigeria.
As wicked and non-inclusive as the process was, the military government went on to unleash the constitution on Nigerians who made no input in its framing through the Military Decree 34 of 1998.
It is sad that this wickedness has been allowed to thrive for so long and the impunity it breeds has become a way of life.
How then do Nigerians want to make headway when they are nothing but pawns who hold no value?
Before the coming of the 1999 fraud, the last constitution known to Nigerians was the 1963 constitution. Going by the dictates of what is obtainable by international laws and what is found everywhere, constitutions can only be revoked or set aside through a properly conducted plebiscite. To date, no plebiscite has been conducted to do so. What this means is that the 1999 constitution falls short of its proper and legal requirement because no plebiscite has been carried out to change that of 1963. This simply means that the 1999 constitution is nothing but a well-crafted fraud that was clearly built on nothing from the beginning.
The 1999 constitution is a piece of garbage designed for state capture and subjugation. It is a constitution that stole power from the people and domiciled them in the hands of members of a select few who do not mean well for the country. This is a constitution that lacks every ingredient needed to run a democratic state, yet Nigeria is purportedly democratic.
1999 Constitution
Under the 1999 constitution, the state and national assemblies are utterly useless because rather than act as independent arms of government for checks and balances, they act as aides to the President or State Governor because the constitution has made them perpetual toothless bulldogs. That these assemblies are even in existence should be a source of worry for people with a conscience because they are beyond ridiculous.
Over the past decades, Nigeria has consistently failed to provide good governance to its citizenry. Many Nigerians are often quick to blame the problems on ‘bad leaders’ wittingly or unwittingly ignoring the fact that even with the right intentions that were tailored to ensure wonderful outcomes, even the best of the best in the world will fail abysmally if allowed to operate under that sham called the 1999 constitution.
The structural insanity of that piece of fraud is one that was built to only frustrate any meaningful plan to take Nigeria to greatness. The constitution not only frustrates everyone, it even makes sure the country is deprived of quality leaders. It is a constitution that ensures that the more educated and qualified one is, the less his chances of making it to leadership positions.
Quota systems which are by every standard archaic and primitive still drive leadership recruitment processes based on the fraud of a constitution. This is why you see a PhD degree holder working under a primary school degree holder without any fuss simply because he or she comes from a particular section of the country.
The 1999 constitution is a fraudulent document that thrives on the unholy culture of incompetence and patronage. It is a constitution that makes the center too strong and overburdened, yet leadership and good governance is almost non-existent at the grassroots. It is a constitution that regards State governors as the Chief Security officers of their respective states yet not even their police orderlies take orders from them. It is a constitution that empowers rent seekers and lazy buffoons. It is a constitution that encourages lack of productivity where Governors always travel cap-in-hand to Abuja to seek oil money thereby turning the federal government into a philanthropist of some sort. The constitution is simply an aberration by every standard. It is not only limiting, it is a constitution that was designed to truncate lives and render Nigerians hopeless.
It is rather sad that with the 2023 elections less than four months away, many Nigerians are once again hitting the streets for rallies, campaigns, sensitisations and mobilisations, and not to demand the destruction of that evil document but to renew its potency.
The next President of Nigeria should be pitied because he will simply be firing blank from day one because, clearly, there is no gunpowder in the gun he is set to wield. He will make similar mistakes of past or current leaders or even perform worse and exit with a soiled reputation like his predecessors.
If the supporters of Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar actually do have any dint of love for their ‘Messiahs,’ they should be campaigning for the abrogation of the constitution by now and not continuing to enthrone illegality and rascality.
It is perhaps more painful that these bunch of overzealous followers do not even understand that Nigeria’s problem is technically surgical. To get Nigeria working, it must go under the knife on the operation table and one of the very first impurities to be expunged will have to be that slave document called a constitution.
In conclusion, it is high time Nigerians realized that there no is no magic wand anywhere. Rather than move from election cycle to election cycle blaming innocent men and women who only volunteered their heads to be used to break coconuts, it is better to collectively demand that the 1999 constitution be sent to the thrash where it belongs.
The best time to do this is now.
The amendments are useless and laughable. The document should be thrown out the window not amended because no one amends some piece of faeces to taste like some well-prepared soup. It is impossible.
