Nigeria in a Dilemma: A New Constitution or Disintegration

There are schools of thought with different ideological beliefs, one of which is that Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable while the other is that it is negotiable. Well-meaning Nigerians have over a period of time expressed concerns about the fragile nature of the country’s unity and have advanced suggestions as to how to strengthen it, and one of the ways they thought that could be achieved is by a complete overhaul of the country’s 1999 constitution, which they consider as illegitimate, being a product of a military regime. Their concern about the unity of the country has led to the convocation of a constituent assembly such as the 2014 constitutional conference. The outcome of which most people believed has produced a document that is fairly representative of the aspirations of all the different ethnic groups that make up the country Nigeria.

Unfortunately, because the documents produced happened to be out towards the end of the former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, and the fact that his second term bid was truncated by the emergence of the administration of the former President Mohammadu Buhari, implementation was impossible, hence, the proposals contained in the document died a natural death. However, the former President Mohammadu Buhari did not dime it fit to consider the draft document for implementation throughout his 8 years tenure. Not doing that represents the stagnation in the process of moving the country forward and saving it from the threats and likelihood of disintegration. There are several indices pointing towards the imminent disintegration of Nigeria as a country. These have lingered for a while and have manifested themselves in the form of agitations, with good examples as the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, headed by Nnamdi Kanu, who is being incarcerated and has been in custody of the DSS for more than 4 years, and the recent arrest of the representatives of the Yoruba Nation Agitators in Ibadan, when they tried to take over the government secretariat by hosting the flag of the Yoruba Nation. These two groups claim to be representing the interest of the South East and the South West in relation to the plan to secede from the entity called Nigeria.

The new dimension to the existential threats to the unity of Nigeria is a group of people representing the Northern part of the country, who are clamoring for the establishment of the “Arewa Replublic”. To this plan of action, the Middle Belt Youth Forum, MBYF, the youth wing of the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, has denounced proponents of “Arewa Republic” and distanced the people of the geopolitical zone from the idea. Part of the statement read: “Our attention has been drawn to a trending secessionist video on the social media space of certain individuals and groups purportedly displaying a figment of their imagination which they christened the “Republic of Arewa” and to which they even went further to attach a gamut of state paraphernalia such as a flag, logo, map, coat of arms and perhaps an anthem of some sort”.

With the developments currently going on in the country about the quest of the 3 major ethnic groups to secede and go their separate ways, the actions that have found its way into the floor of the National Assembly, where a member of the house, a Northerner, moved a motion for the division of the country and met with stern reactions from his colleagues, some in favor and others indifferent, it is therefore understandable what engineered the action of those eminent Nigerians called the Patriots, who visited President Bola Admed Tinubu on Friday 9th August with a proposal stating the need for the overhaul of the 1999 constitution, which they described as illegitimate. Among the Patriots are Chief Kanu Agabi, Segun Osoba, Mike Ozekhome, Labaran Maku, Ben Obi, Shehu Sani, Pauline Tallen, Olawale Okunniyi (General Secretary), and Annekio Briggs, just to mention a few. After the meeting with the President, the leader of the Patriots, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who is the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations indicates that “We put some proposals to Mr. President and we urged him to send a president’s executive bill to the National Assembly, a bill that will call for two essential measures. One, the convening of a national constituent assembly, to be mandated to produce a new draft constitution. We suggested that such a national constituent assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non-party basis”. In the wisdom of the Patriots, they posit that because Nigeria is a pluralistic country, it therefore needs a constitution that will address the challenges of its pluralism, lest it disintegrates. However, President Bola Admed Tinubu, responding to the Patriots demand, indicates that his priority at the moment is fixing the bad economy of the country and after that has been done, he would surely look into their proposal.

On a final note, the participation of the Northerners massively in the End Bad Governance Protest between August 1st and 10th, which happened to be the first time that the Northerners will be protesting against social-economic concerns in the country, lends credence to and corroborates the possibility of a secessionist move by the Northerners, and whether the priority of Mr. President to fix the economy before considering the proposal of the Patriots is right, is a question of time. Wisdom demands that one should prefer a small certainty before a great uncertainty. There is no gain saying the fact that Nigeria is at the brink of disintegration, waiting for a savior to salvage it.