The Chairman of the socio-political group, the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, Prof Banji Akintoye, says those insisting on going on with the 2023 general election with the 1999 Constitution will push Nigeria into “violent disintegration”, adding that other “ethnic nations trapped in the failed Lugardian Experiment of 1914 will do everything legitimate” to extricate themselves from the “Union of Death”.

Akintoye, who is also the worldwide leader of Yoruba Global Movement, Ilana Omo Oodua, stressed that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was an imposed document that can no longer work in addressing the security and economic concerns of all interests in the country.

He, therefore, said that it is wrong for the Federal Government and its agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to begin preparation for the 2023 general election when the clamour for restructuring, resource control and federalism of Nigeria by most regions in the country was at its highest peak.

The member of the Senate during the Second Republic, stated this during a virtual press conference following the expiration of a 90-day constitutional force majeure the group issued to the Federal Government on December 16, 2020.

He said at the expiration of the 90-day notice period on March 16, 2021, no formal contact was made to the group by the Federal Government on the group’s demands.

Amongst others, the group had pronounced “an end to our toleration of Nigeria’s unitary constitutional order, unilaterally imposed and forcefully maintained by a section of the Nigerian country”.

Akintoye, therefore, said the group further gave the Federal Government a 30-day period which he described as “a fresh window of opportunity” for the government to “bring itself to the table of dialogue set up by the constituent components of Nigeria” mostly in the Southern and Middle-Belt parts of the country.

The Yoruba leader of thoughts said, “Being all agreed that no progress is possible for the Peoples of Nigeria under the 1999 unitary constitution, we cannot be proclaiming restructuring, resource control, rule of law, security, #EndSARS, end corruption, or even good governance and still be warming up to go to another round of general election in 2023 that will renew the life of the 1999 Constitution which guarantees unitarism, resource hijack, impunity, insecurity, SARS killings, corruption, and bad governance. We must now get honest with ourselves and turn off the tap from which these evils flow without further delay. The 1999 Constitution is that tap.

“In closing let it be clearly understood that in the face of the demise of the 1999 Constitution and the rapid progression towards self-help across Nigeria by people who find themselves under the invasion by murderous, heavily armed Fulani militia masquerading as herdsmen while the security agents look the other way, it is only a matter of time for the bloody altercations that are currently building up to explode into the violent disintegration of Nigeria with catastrophic consequences.

“Those who insist on governing Nigeria with the imposed, fraudulent and unworkable 1999 Constitution, as well as those who still aspire to contest further national elections under that Constitution, should know they are the ones pushing Nigeria towards a violent disintegration but the ethnic nations currently trapped in the failed Lugardian Experiment of 1914 will do everything legitimate under appropriate international instruments to extricate them from the union of death, attrition and backwardness that Nigeria has become for them. NINAS urge our various peoples across the alliance territories to remain calm and confident as measured steps are being taken towards ending our bondage.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the NINAS proclamation of constitutional dispute on December 16, 2020, terminated the life of the fraudulent 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, and therefore, restored our sovereignty that was confiscated by that constitution.

“What we are doing today is to outline the processes and modality for the necessary and orderly transition to our full self-determination and sovereignty in the world; therefore, we hereby call on the peoples of our alliance territory to rise to the challenge of shaking off the shackles and manacles hitherto imposed on them by the defunct 1999 Constitution”, he added.