‘99 Constitution can’t sustain us — Akintoye

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  As Sunday Igboho insists on Yoruba nation

By Deola Badru

IBADAN—LEADER of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, NINAS, Professor Banji Akintoye, and Yoruba freedom fighter, Mr Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, yesterday, insisted on the formation of the Yoruba nation, urging Yoruba people to support the cause.

They spoke at a press conference following the expiration of what they described as the 90-Day Notice of Grave Constitutional Grievances issued by NINAS to the Federal Government.

Akintoye, in his speech, faulted the 1999 Constitution, saying no progress can be made under the current arrangement in the country.

Akintoye said: “As the distressed federation of Nigeria continues to wobble through what seems its terminal throes, it will be recalled that the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination, NINAS, aggregating the indigenous nations and Peoples of Southern and Middle-Belt of Nigeria, who have found themselves at the receiving end of a most vicious ethnic cleansing onslaught by heavily-armed invading Fulani militia, masquerading as herdsmen, formally declared a union dispute with the Federation of Nigeria as represented by the Federal Government of Nigeria via the Constitutional Force Majeure Proclamation of December 16, 2020, in which it made a Five- Point Demand upon the Federal Government of Nigeria, to formally commence the Remediation of the Grave Constitutional Grievances enumerated in the said Proclamation, within a period of 90 days beginning from the midnight of December 16, 2020.

This 30-day period of consultations offers the Federal Government of Nigeria a fresh window of opportunity, beyond the 90 days period of notice that expired March 16, 2021, to bring itself to the table of dialogue set up by the constituent components of Nigeria, by way of the December 16, 2020 NINAS proclamation.

We must now be honest with ourselves and turn off the tap from which these evils flow without further delay. The 1999 Constitution is that tap.

“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 legitimately, under appropriate international instruments to extricate them from the union of death, attrition and backwardness that Nigeria has become for them.

We don’t want one Nigeria again, but…—Sunday Igboho

Also speaking, Mr Sunday Igboho said the only solution to challenges facing the country was for the Yoruba nation to stand.

Igboho said: “We are fighting for our rights. All Yoruba youths in this land must support Baba Akintoye.

“I, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, will support our father. This is the real father who we know will fight for our rights. There is no peace, there is no security.

“Starting from now, we don’t want Fulani herdsmen in our land to disturb our farms again. If we meet any Fulani herdsmen, we are going to face and destroy them.

“If any police attack us for that, we are ready for them. We don’t want Nigeria again, but Yoruba nation. There is no essence for one Nigeria when major resources in the country are in the hands of the northerners.”

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