From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Leaders and members of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) are to hold a one million march in front of the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, U.S to press home the demand for a referendum on self-determination and abolition of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
The group is an umbrella body of self-determination movements in South South, South East, Middle Belt and Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO) for Yoruba bloc.
The announcement was made by NINAS leaders and members who signed the Constitutional Force Majure (CFM) declared on December 16, 2020, rejecting the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and calling for a U.N supervised referendum. The one million march is scheduled to hold between September 14 and 21, 2021 when the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) would hold in New York, US.
Communications Manager for the group, Maxwell Adeleye, in a statement said the freedom march would be led by renowned historian and emeritus professor, Banji Akintoye and would have the following as participants, Prof. Yusuf Turaki, a respected scholar; Secretary-General of NINAS, Tony Nnadi; pioneer Commissioner for Education in Osun State and National Chairman of Ilana Omo Oodua, Prof Wale Adeniran, amongst others.
He said the group sought to dismantle the purported ‘fraudulent 1999 Constitution’, end the ‘unworkable’ unitary union that the constitution has foisted on the people and champion the processes for self-determination by which sovereignty would be restored to the constituent regions.
Adeleye called on all indigenous people from southern Nigeria and Middle Belt around the world to unite and stand together in solidarity in their demand for the restoration of their sovereignty, inalienable right to their self-determination, assets and right to freely choose their association with any state.
He said during the freedom march, a demand would be made to the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to Nigeria to save embattled indigenes who are daily massacred by criminal elements among Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists, including Boko Haram and ISIS.
Said Adeleye: “What will be happening at UNGA is that the members of Ilana Omo Oodua under the leadership of Emeritus Professor Banji Akintoye, alongside other members of NINAS from the Lower Niger and Middle Belt of Nigeria hold a one million march opposite the U.N Headquarters in New York, from September 14 to 2, 2021 to demand for a referendum to decide on the rights to self-determination of the people, who want an end to unitary systems of Nigeria, which has been turned into an apartheid state.
“We shall also be demanding, first and foremost, for the abolition of 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which we have shown to be a fraud perpetrated against the people of the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria given that the people did not make it. All sons and daughters of the Lower Niger (South East, South South), South West and Middle Belt’s clans, living in the US are being mobilised to stand up for their indigenous nationalities by participating in the one week one million march for the liberation of their people.