The Convener of the Midwest Movement, Dr Don Pedro Obaseki says the Nigeria 1999 constitution is a lie.
He said this while answering questions on Arise TV.
Obaseki argued that the constitution was put together by a few people who probably were on Nigerian local gin, then named it “we the people”
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“It is based on a lie, we operate a unitary system of government, put together by a few persons who sat behind the sanctuary of locked doors, we didn’t even know whether they take “kparaga”. and they wrote at the first page “we the people” and that was a lie.
“The structural defect of the 1999 constitution makes restructuring an imperative. I am also the convener and the President General of the movement where we have been advocating without excuse, an apology for a deliberate federalization of Nigeria where Nigerians are allowed to seat and determine their future and that is based on three major things:
“Political restructuring is okay but the most important restructuring is physical restructuring. Nigeria must return to the physical federalism that was agreed upon by our old and our founding fathers who saw the need to create very simple arithmetic of formula for revenue sharing.”
Obaseki advised that the way forward is to revert to the recognition of the four legally created region in the constitution.
He blamed the military for the illegally created constitution that has seen Nigeria and Nigerians at loggerhead at one another.
“Now we have revenue allocation where the federal government does not originate anything allocate ab Initio did not originate. Nigerians are not aware that between 1960 and 1966 January 15, when Nigeria had four regions: the northern region, the western region, the eastern region in Enugu and the midwestern region in Benin,” he said.
He added, “We had four equal federating units but today that that federation has been decimated and bastardized by the intrusion of the unwelcomed military boys into our polity. So people sat down and redrew the map of Nigeria without recourse to the people within the country.
“The Midwest, for example, is an example in emasculation. We were created by a plebiscite or a referendum on the 13th of July, 1963 as the fourth and equal federating unit in Nigeria and it is the only unit that was created legally and by the Nigerian people.
“Today the Northern region now has 19 states, the western now has 6 states, the eastern region now has 9 states while the Midwestern region, the then bread basket and still the breadbasket the trigger of this nation just has two states, that is already an emasculation.”
Talking on the previous revenue allocation, Obaseki said: “Look at the arithmetic, those days it was simple 50,30,20 that was the revenue allocation formula whereby the originating unit, the western union keeps 50 per cent for the development of its people, the federal government takes 20 per cent while the federation account gets another 30 per cent that is shared pro-rata across the board by all the federating units according to demography, population and spread.”
The Midwest Movement convener said the then Bendel governor, Ambrose Alli dragged the Shagari’s government to court was won, however, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, who is the current President of Nigeria overtook the government and the court order was pushed aside.
“By that so doing, Nigerians were not quarrelling. So, the civil war and the intrusion of the military changed all that until again in 1980, the governor of the then Bendel state which was actually the old Midwestern Region, Prof Ambrose Alli went to court to force the Shagari led government NPN government to allow us to keep our resources according to the agreed formula in the constitution.
“He won that court case then the military came back into politics after the overthrow of the Shagari’s government by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari on the 31st of December, 1983.
“There was a clampdown again, the constitution was suspended and everything about it was dismantled and we were back to point zero where we have to go cap in hand to Abuja until then again, James Ibori, the then governor of Delta State led the resource control fight, which is a form of physical federalization of the country where we now got a 13 per cent derivation.
“That is where the problem is, structurally, Nigeria needs to be deconstructed as it is presently constituted and then reconstructed along non-federal paradise. We are the only federation in the whole world that practices what we presently practice.
“For us in the Midwest Movement, we want this country to be restructured and restructuring is a paramount pillar for determining the future of this country.”
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