“ABURI 1967 was a Demand by an embattled Eastern for Restructuring back to being a Federation from the 1966 Accident and Collapse of the Federation of Nigeria. Nigeria agreed but later dithered and rather resorted to Violence of Genocidal Proportions in what became, for the embattled Eastern Nigeria whose Peoples were the targets of that Genocide, a War of Self-Preservation and Independence, waged as the Republic of Biafra 1967-1970, in which over 3.5 Million Easterners we’re killed” LNC, April 21, 2015.
The LNC asks toady, January 5, 2019:
“51 Years after ABURI, with the Caliphate Proprietors of One-Nigeria still bluntly and adamantly refusing to revert Nigeria to being a Federation, is it enough for the Leadership Collective including the Partisan Political Actors, the Thought-Leaders and the Socio-Cultural Groups by whatever name called, of Eastern Nigeria to continue to idly chant ‘Restructuring’, ‘Restructuring’, with no clear Strategy to compel a better response from the rest of Nigeria, at a time a younger Generation and a Clear Majority of the Eastern Nigeria Populace, is on the streets of both Eastern Nigeria and many global Capitals, insisting of the Excercise of the Right to Self-Determination, with some laying down their lives?”
To be able to put this Question in Perspective, it might be necessary to remind ourselves of where this jinxed Voyage called “Nigeria” emanated and how it reached the deep turbulent waters it is in now, so that we can reestablish our bearings as a People, shipwrecked and lost at Sea.
(1) The LNC is in Possession of Irrefutable Documentary Evidence obtained Wikileaks-Style from Highly Classified Colonial Records (some now Declassified) that the Nigeria of 1914 was entirely a Business Joint Venture between the British and their Caliphate Partners.
(2) Researchable and easy-to-verify Historical Accounts and Records of the Making of Post-Colonial Nigeria (1949 to 1979), show:
(a) that Nigeria became one Country at Independence in 1960 solely on account of a Federation Model that guaranteed a very high Level of Autonomy.
(b) That the Agreed Degree of Autonomy Defining the Federation Model Adopted in 1954 as Basis of the Union of Nigeria was basically distilled from the 8-Point Demand of the then Northern Region’s Premier, Ahmadu Bello in 1953 in the immediate aftermath of the Northern Region’s Opposition to, and defeat of the 1953 Independence Motion Moved by Anthony Enahoro, on the Ground, according to the North, that the North was not ready to get into Independence with the South that was far Ahead of the North at that time.
(c) That it took all the 7 years from 1963 to 1960, to emplace the Regional Constitutional Instruments that guaranteed the agreed Autonomy Levels, between 1957 and 1959 after which the Lancaster House Meetings of 1959 in London were held by Leaders of the then 3 Regions, each already armed with it’s own Regional Constitution, to distill the Federal Constitution which become the 4th Constitution, consisting strictly of Powers Jointly Donated and Delegated by the 3 Federating Regions and this was the basis of the then 3 Regions of the time, becoming one Country (a Federation) at Independence in 1960. (The 4th Region, the Midwestern Region, came in 1963 through due Constitutional Processes that included a Plebiscite)
(d)The Regions, owned their Assets and contributed only the agreed 15% of their Incomes, generated from the working of those assets, for the upkeep and financing of the Operations of the Center (Federal Government) for the limited functions as Jointly Delegated to the Center by the Federating Regions.
(e) The Coups of 1966 truncated these Arrangements when the 5 Constitutions (4 Regional + 1 Federal) which Defined the Federation of Nigeria were abrogated and replaced by Military Decrees made between 1966 and 1999 into the Unitary Arrangements we now have embodied in the so-called “1999 Constitution” Defining Nigeria in which the Federating Regions have become fractured into 36 mostly lame States as ‘Federating Units’ with almost all the key Economic Assets of the erstwhile Regions, Hijacked and Confiscated by the Rogue ‘Federal Governments’ that eventually emerged from the commotion of 1966 since May 27, 1967, with a succession of Rogue Federal Governments presiding over Unitary to date, maintaining the Inverted Federalism (Unitarism) we have to date under the rouge 1999 Constitution that currently defines Nigeria in which the 36 States now grovel at the feet an omnipotent Federal Government THAT NOW OWNS AND CONTROLS ALL THE KEY ECONOMIC ASSETS OF THE FEDERATING CONSTITUENT COMPONENTS. This is plain fraud.
(3) The crux of what changed between ‘Federal Nigeria’ and ‘Unitary Nigeria’ and WHICH MUST BE REVERSED BACK TO WHAT WAS AGREED AS BASIS OF THE UNION OF NIGERIA in the Restructuring that is being clamoured for are basically in threefold, taken in turns thus:
(i) the Federation of Nigeria was the Consensual AGREEMENT of the Regions that Came Together in the Lancaster House Meetings of 1959. The Unitary Nigeria we now have is a product of IMPOSITION by force and Decrees being fraudulently sustained by the insulting Claim in the Preamble to the Fraudulent 1999 Constitution that “WE THE PEOPLE” made, enacted and gave unto ourselves that Constitution.
Accordingly, First Order of Business in the Inevitable Reconfiguration of Damaged Constitutional Foundation of Nigeria, is to get the Constituent Components to AGREE to recommit into being in Union once more, in whatever formations the Entrapped Constituent Component Nationalities would prefer, as a departure from the Imposition that Nigeria had been since 1967 for its Constituent Components, especially Eastern Nigeria. This recommitment is invariably by way of REFERENDUMS and it is after this has been done in the First Stage to settle the Question of BEING in the Union that the Question of the TERMS OF THE UNION can be legitimately undertaken in the Second Stage. Anything short of this Two-Stage Minimum of Process is a farce and a further Departure from Federalism being pushed by the forces of Caliphate owned One-Nigeria.
(ii) The next Order of Business is the Question of the Power Relations between the Constituent Federating Units and the Federal Government they set up and that is where the issue of massively decongesting the asphyxiating 68-Item Federal Exclusive Legislative Imposed by Caliphate brigandage will have to be undertaken AND THIS MUST BE BY THE CONSTITUENT COMPONENT BLOCS THAT SEEK TO FEDERATE, not by the Rogue Federal Government or any of its Arms, especially the National Assembly that seems to be under the Grand Illusion that their Legislative Mandate now includes CONSTITUTION MAKING. This is Criminal and Treasonous as it amounts to a brazen Usurpation of the Sovereignty of the Constituent Component Nationalities of the Union, which Exclusively Reserve the Right to DETERMINE THEIR SOVEREIGNTY (ie what Political Union Model they wish to form with willing, compatible contiguities).
For the avoidance doubt and just in case there be anyone here who is genuinely ignorant on this, the Legislative Mandate of the National Assembly does not include the Power to Make or Remake the Constitution.
You require Constituent Powers to make or remake Constitutions and this flows Exclusively from the Sovereignty of the Constituent Components and Vests Exclusively on the Constituent Components. This was the basis the processes that led to the 1959 Lancaster House Meetings that birthed the Political Union of Nigeria as One Country at Independence in 1960. It is exactly like the Exclusive Right of the Owners and Shareholders of a Private Limited Liability Company to make or remake their Memorandum and Articles of Association. Imagine that a day comes whe the hired Management of such a Company conspire to hijack the enterprise from the Owners by overthrowing the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company. That was exactly what happened to Nigeria in 1966/1967. (The Government in its 3 Arms are merely the Hired Management of the Enterprise called “Nigeria”) The Owners of the Geographical Land Mass described as Nigeria are now sufficiently organized to recover their enterprise or dismantle it forthwith. That’s all the debate about Restructuring or Self-Determination.
(iii) the Third Question Inevitable in the talk of reverting to the agreed basis for the Union of Nigeria is the matter of the PROCESS and SEQUENCE of proceeding from where we are now.
An elaborate up-to-date Executive Summary of the MEANING, PROCESS and SEQUENCE for “Restructuring” is can be found in widely circulated November 16, 2018 “OPEN MEMORANDUM TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI ON RESTRUCTURING” written on behalf of the LNC and it’s MNN Alliance Partners in response to the Queries on WHAT Restructuring means and HOW exactly it can be undertaken, earlier raised earlier same November 2018 by President Buhari in Paris (see link:https://www.facebook.com/618603708275794/posts/1406123622857128/ ).
NOW TO THE QUESTION OF WHAT OPTIONS ARE BEFORE THE IGBO FOR ADVANCING THE RESTRUCTURING DEBATE BEYOND THE EMPTY RHETORIC OF “WE WANT RESTRUCTURING”.
As various Emergency Retreats and Strategy Meetings are being Convened, ostensibly to iron out the Igbo Position on the so-called 2019 Elections, It is pertinent to remind us all of the Far Reaching Decisions of the August 10–12, 2018 Igbo Conclave in Enugu had in attendance, the Leaderships of the Various Pan-Igbo Organizations, (including the Coalition of Biafra Groups) at Home and Abroad, which undertook and an exhaustive examination of the difficult Igbo odyssey in Nigeria, coming up with a Communique that: (i) Repudiated the current Imposed Unitarist Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria, as basis of Nigeria.
(ii) Rejected Further National Elections premised on and Mandated by the already Repudiated 1999 Constitution, starting with the 2019 General Elections as being advertised and therefore Proposed that in place of the already doomed 2019 Elections, Processes Be Immediately Initiated to Reconfigure the Damaged and thoroughly disputed Constitutional Foundations of Nigeria.
(iii) Proposed the Immediate Institution of a Transitioning Mechanism that retains nominal Governance Structures on a Transitional Basis while a Body with Constituent Powers be Emplaced to Midwife the 2-Stage Process of Reworking the Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria with a view to either return Nigeria to its Federal Basis or the immediate Dismantle the Failed Lugardian Experiment of 1914 which for Eastern Nigeria, has become a Union Of Death and Attrition.
Those from Eastern Nigeria, no matter how described, who are calling various Meetings to decide which side of the Partisan Divide Igbo will Support for 2019 Elections, should know Upfront that they are advancing the cause of the Enemies of Eastern Nigeria who seek to retain and reinforce the obnoxious Master-Servant 1999 Constitution.
Any such discussions are certainly not on behalf of the Igbo and Let it be known that the day after the the 2019 Elections (God Forbid it holds), there will only be two sides in manage the aftermath of the calamitous outcome in Igboland: Those who stood with the enemy in our collective name, to validate the 2019 Elections that would only reinforce our Servitude AND Those who stood with the People (ie the Igbo Populace) in the frantic effort to halt the journey to the Renewal of our Enslavement by way of the 2019 Elections Mandated by the Rogue 1999 Constitution.
Individual Responsibility will attach to whatever choices we make now when the rickety Union Snaps as it is bound to.
ABURI of 1967 was a Demand for Restructuring by an embattled Eastern Nigeria to return to and reinforce Nigeria’’ Federal Basis. Nigeria Agreed but later dithered and rather Resorted to Massive Violence of Genocidal Proportions, Imposing a Unitarist the State we now have, masquerading as the “Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
We must now decide WHETHER we wish to be on the side of those in Eastern Nigeria taking steps to compel a better behaviour by the belligerent Caliphate-Nigeria in the Unending Debate on the Restructuring Imperative, OR we wish to cling with the Enemy and the Status Quo forces that are now railroading the dying Nigerian Union to one more Electoral Round that is designed to reinforce the Miseries of Eastern by reinforcing the prevailing Master-Servant Constitutional Order.
This would be my personal Memorandum to both the ongoing ADF Retreat of January 4-5, 2019 at Enugu and the Proposed Ohanaeze Strategy Committee Meeting being called for the 8th of January 2019.
Tony Nnadi
LNC
January 5, 2019.
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 