A group of self-determination activists under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination on Tuesday warned all political parties to stop preparation for the 2023 elections.
According to PUNCH, the alliance stated this at a press conference in Lagos after the 120-day expiration of the Constitutional Force Majeure Notice to states in the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria and One Million March to the United Nations General Assembly in September.
NINAS comprises self-determination groups in the South-West, South-South, South-East, and Middle Belt.While the leader of Ilana Omo Oodua, Prof. Banji Akintoye, represents the South-West and Yorubaland, Mr Tony Nnadi of the Lower Niger Congress represents the South-South and South-East.
Prof Yusufu Turaki of the Middle-Belt Renaissance Movement represents the Middle Belt.Akintoye, who is the chairman of NINAS, declared that all lawful means would be used to ensure that the 2023 general election did not hold unless the Federal Government agreed to hold a referendum for the “aggrieved indigenous nationalities” to decide whether they wanted a federation known as Nigeria.
Akintoye, whose speech was read by an activist, Dr Don Pedro Obaseki, at the event, asked political parties to “save Nigerians from slavery by refusing to submit candidates for the 2023 general elections in order to halt the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria being used to renew the woes currently battling Nigeria in all fronts.”
Excerpts from his speech read, “It is no longer a matter for debate that the 1999 Constitution is a fraud and a forgery that is directly responsible for practically all the miseries tormenting Nigerians, including the killings, mass poverty, gross insecurity, and general hopelessness, now leading to the demise of the Nigerian Union itself.
“It does not matter, therefore, which political party or which individual wins power; that constitution guarantees the evils we lament day in, day out.“
“It is now, therefore, a matter of choice whether we want to renew the source of our miseries once again in 2023 or we want to free ourselves by rejecting now in 2021 the invitation to join in the preparation for another round of national elections in 2023.
“These cycles of renewal must be broken if we must be free.”