BEYOND THE EUPHORIA OF “ATIKULATION” AND THE “ANYTHING-BUT-BUHARI” BATTLE-CRY: THE PLACE OF ELECTIONS AMIDST THE DISPUTED CONSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR NIGERIA – LNC October 24, 2018.
“We must suspend all discussions about building-up Nigeria, it’s Democracy, Economy etc, to first engage the more fundamental Question of : WHAT IS NIGERIA?. If we don’t, and we continue to build on that Nigeria defined by the rogue 1999 Constitution, we will wake up under the rubble of our folly” -LNC, October 23, 2018.
Responding to the LNC prescription as encapsulated above, Tonye Fiberesima had posted on his Facebook Wall, suggestions to the effect that all the Groups from Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt, canvassing Restructuring, Self-Determination or some other Reformist Proposal for the distressed Federation of Nigeria, should synergize their efforts and find some way of incorporating the Atiku/Obi 2019 Ticket into their collective efforts, in order to ease out the Government that is adamantly opposed to the Consensus of the Peoples of Nigeria on Restructuring, and so get the Fundamental Reconstruction of Nigeria’s Constitutional Architecture underway.
Tony Nnadi, on behalf of the LNC responded to the Tonye Fiberesima suggestions as follows:
“On the Question of what would better facilitate the Goal of Extricating our Peoples and Territories from the Apartheid Prison Called “Nigeria”, there can be no doubt whatsoever that the Buhari Government already banished itself from the table of Options with it’s Adamant opposition to the Restructuring Imperative and Consensus.
Also, there can be no doubt that for the realization of the Goal of the Project, it will be infinitely better to have “a Government in place that understands our Mission or Meets us Halfway”.
However, the cold reality is that between what we have in place and what we would prefer to have in place, there is an Election hurdle and the Government that will preside over the entire process, has demonstrated in every conceivable way, that it neither believes in Democracy nor the Rule of Law, and has acquired a global notoriety for impunity and violent imposition of its will, especially in the few Elections it has so far managed. It will therefore be utterly naive to hinge any hopes of easing out that Government merely on the permutations of where the majority of Votes are likely to go.
Reminiscent of the CHANJI Campaign of 2015 that held out the EXTERMINATION OF CORRUPTION as its Mantra, the euphoria about what is now being hoisted an iron-cast guarantee on RESTRUCTURING seems to suggest that Buhari already resigned and handed over to Atiku and that Atiku already rolled out a concrete action plan that show the CONTENTS, PROCESS and TIMELINES defining the Restructuring he is advertising.
More importantly, for the LNC and myself, the more urgent imperative is the ousting of the Monstrous, Rogue 1999 Constitution rather than the ousting of the Obdurate Government that already Ousted itself by its every conduct.
If we get carried away by the aforementioned euphoria and proceed with the journey to the voting stage of the 2019 Elections Mandated by the Repudiated 1999 Constitution, we will not only be validating the Continuation of the Operation of that Constitution to our Collective Damnation , we would find out too late in the day that have unwittingly aided the coronation of the same atrocious incumbent Government, when, (as it has openly boasted through one of its megaphones, Joe Igbokwe,to do), it declares itself the winner of that Election, irrespective of how we all vote. (Ekiti and Osun Test-Runs still stare us all in the face).
This, in the estimation of the LNC, is too costly a gamble to plunge millions of lives into, but the Political Merchants across Party lines certainly do not care, as long as they get to, or retain power.
Guided by these realities and the need put a firm timeline on the termination of the Operation of the 1999 Constitution, the LNC and it’s MNN Alliance Partners, had long before the emergence any Candidates for the 2019 General Elections, determined to focus their energies on Shutting Down, inside 2018, preparations towards 2019 Elections, as a logical next-step from the Countrywide Regional Proclamations Repudiating the 1999 Constitution as the Basis of Nigeria.
This Action Path which had been placed in the public domain as SHUTDOWN-2018, is basically an ELECTORAL FORCE MAJEURE and a PEOPLES COUNTERMAND which comes far ahead of the Voting Stage in the current Electoral Cycle (2019), to the effect that no Election will happen, is totally different from the ELECTION BOYCOTT you mentioned which will happen only at the voting stage of the Election in 2019, (we have also described this as BOYCOTT-2019) and so the concern about the SHUTDOWN-2018 prescription falling into the same trap as the BOYCOTT-2019 prescription, does not arise. (Under the Fraudulent 1999 Constitution, Boycotts will merely facilitate the schemes of the enemy you seek to oust as shown in this link: https://www.facebook.com/1635975953/posts/10215374386986324/ )
It is right now within the reach of the traumatized Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria, Entrapped by the failed Lugardian Experiment of 1914, into a Union of Death and Attrition, to Strategically and Courageously act to put a timeline to the termination of their Misery, by going the SHUTDOWN-2018 Route instead of plunging heedlessly to ELECTIONS-2019 and helping validate the reinforcement their enslavement under the 1999 Constitution, NO MATTER WHO WINS.
(Open this link: https://www.facebook.com/618603708275794/posts/1380695772066580/ )
The major lesson of the venomous CHANJI-2015 wrapped as CHANGE-2015 should be to boldly unwrap the ATIKULATION-2019 currently wrapped with the foil of “RESTRUCTURING”.
Similarly. the major Lesson of 1962-1966 regarding Elections amidst Disputations on Constitutional Arrangements and the resultant 1967-1970 War, compels an immediate halt to preparations for 2019, inside 2018
If all the groups from the South and the Middle Belt championing RESTRUCTURING and SELF-DETERMINATION (as you listed) act together now, there is no reason the doomed journey to 2019 cannot be halted for the inevitable Constitutional Reconfiguration and Reconstruction to be undertaken first, while a Transitional Governance Arrangement that substantially accommodates existing Governance Structures, (at least for the balance of its tenure ie May 29, 2019) is emplaced forthwith, inside 2018”.
(Here is another link to a wider articulation of the Position of the LNC on the Subject under scrutiny: https://www.facebook.com/618603708275794/posts/1383717445097746/
Also view on YouTube a 2016 video from AIT titled “NIGERIA AT THE VALLEY OF DECISION” where the subject of RESTRUCTURING was comprehensively engaged by the LNC after sessions of interrogative interactions with Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar on his thoughts and perception regarding the Restructuring he was proclaiming loudly at the time).
Please feel free share as widely as possible on all available platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp in order to help bring Clarity and Perspective to the confused discourse amongst an endangered Populace being led to an avoidable catastrophe.
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Tony Nnadi
LNC
October 24, 2018.