General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd),
Former Military Head of State of Nigeria,
Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.

Sir,

ermit me, though insignificant I may be, but as a fellow country man that still shares this geographical space the British named Nigeria in 1914, with you, to address you and your group, codenamed, ‘National Peace Committee’ (NPC), with the following few lines in form of an ‘Open Letter’. And on the topic of national importance, following today’s Newspapers’ news reports on the statement accredited to you as the chairman of the National Peace Committee. That is, the Newspaper report which quoted you as saying, that your-led National Peace Committee was “pressured to ask INEC to cancel 2023 Presidential elections” (- Cf. Vanguard Newspaper, August 17, 2024.)

Sir.,

In any case, I hope you are going to receive my letter in good faith and with an open mind. On my part, I am also writing this letter to you with good spirit and an undivided attention towards finding a lasting solution and transformation as the case may be, for the perennial problem with Nigeria as a nation state. And especially, as part of our collective struggle for human survival in that British colonial created contraption called Nigeria. How do we resolve and transform the age-long problem of difficulties in finding ways of resolving and transforming the problem associated with mutual way of relating and co-habitation among peoples of different ethnic nationalities, languages, cultures, religious beliefs, philosophy of life, worldviews, etc., that the British coupled together under a colonial fiat and named it Nigeria? The country’s perennial problem of failed political leadership, instability and insecurity of lives and property, that have become like the second nature of the Nigerian state since its creation by the British colonial masters in 1914?

Sir, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar,

once again, I ask you to receive my humble letter with open mind and in good faith. And also with the resolve to respond to its urgent demands as a very respected elder statesman and former head of state you are.

Sir.,

In the first place, methinks that you and your National Peace Committee ought to be apologising to Nigerians instead of giving all those lame excuses, trying to play on the intelligence of people, just to impress.

Sir, your coming out today, after over a year of that most fraudulent, shambolic and criminally conducted and rigged 2023 elections the country has ever witnessed since the so-called return to democratic rule in 1999, to give a press conference, is very irritating and annoying.

One may ask, ‘Why has Gen Abdulsalami have to wait this long before coming out to say those things accredited to him and his NPC group in today’s pages of Nigerian Newspapers?

Moreover, if actually you were pressured by some ‘conscientious individuals’ as you claimed, “to pressurise INEC to cancel” that fraudulent, shambolic 2023 elections, then why didn’t you do exactly that, when that request and most patriotic, statesmanship duty beckoned? Look, let it be put to you, Sir., and others in that your National Peace Committee’ of a supposedly Eminent Nigerians, that your actions and inactions before and since after that fraudulent, shambolic, most criminally rigged elections in Nigeria, and since the last nine years your NPC came to limelight, also contributed largely to the mess that Nigeria has found itself today!

And you, Sir., Gen Abdulsalami in particular, you shared the biggest blame for it all, both as a former head of state, a retired army general, and especially as the architect of the controversial flawed and fraudulent 1999 Nigerian Constitution which was your creation in all its ramifications! If people are today complaining that the 1999 Constitution is the genesis of Nigeria’s present problem as a nation state, that means that you, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar created that problem in Nigeria, since the birth of that Constitution in 1999, which was your ‘brain-child’, is the root cause of the Nigeria’s problem in question! I stand to be corrected!

Sir, Gen Abdulsalami,

you shared the biggest part of the blame for the mess in Nigeria today since that your draconian, medieval, Islamic Jihadist-inspired 1999 Constitution was created by you and foisted on the country without a referendum and without conducting any consultation with the citizens, the different ethnic nationalities/ geopolitical regions that constitute that geographical entity the British had forcefully and arbitrarily coupled together its diverse peoples of different ethnic nationalities, under a colonial fiat in 1914, and named it Nigeria?

Sir, Gen Abdulsalami,

you played a very unpatriotic role and dirty politics when you forced that fraudulent Constitution on the citizens of Nigeria in 1999. And allowing the power-monger, corrupt politicians in the land to jump on it and contest for the so-called ‘elected positions’ in the country from 1999 to the present-day. Knowing how irreconcilable the diverse peoples of different ethnic nationalities, with often conflicting religious beliefs, cultures, value systems, philosophy of life, languages, worldviews, modes of living and acting, and styles of life of those different peoples of different ethnic nationalities, languages, and religious beliefs, that the British had forcefully merged together in 1914, are. You ignored all these things and went ahead to allow the power-monger and corrupt politicians and elites in Nigeria to begin to vie for political leadership positions and contest for the so-called democratic elections, a non-existent ‘democratic elections’, if truth be told.

Sir, Gen Abdulsalami,

you know all these, but instead, you went ahead, as a military head of state that foresaw that most inglorious transition from military dictatorship to what was supposed to be a democratic rule in 1999. You went ahead and foisted that fraudulent 1999 Constitution on the citizens of Nigeria. The result of that your inconsiderate action is what the citizens of this country are suffering today. The 1999 Constitution that is anything but a forced Islamic Sharia-inspired legal system in the guise of a liberal Western democracy common law constitution, in an environment of a very primitive ‘unitary system of government’? This was the Constitution with which you claimed you returned Nigeria to a democratic rule in 1999? What a scam?

Sir.,

And as if that was not enough, when the opportunity beckoned on you and your co-travellers, the so-called ‘National Peace Committee’, to provide a way forward, especially during the 2019, and 2023 General Elections in Nigeria, instead of persuading those in-charge of power in Abuja to return to the drawing-table, to renegotiate and correct the faulty foundation of the Nigerian state, the fraudulent political system or structure, and the fake, flawed 1999 Constitution itself! What did you do? You and your group, the so-called ‘National Peace Committee’, unfortunately, decided to force a fraudulent irreconcilable “Islamic Sharia legal system” cum flawed “Western liberal law system” and unitary system of government Jurisprudences, again on the poor citizens of this British contraption, called Nigeria!

Today, as is evident, even from the Newspapers’ reports under review, it is obvious that you and your group, NPC, have been trying all these years, to use these two irreconcilable foreign Jurisprudences, Islamic Sharia law jurisprudence, and Western liberal democracy jurisprudence, under a primitive unitary system of government, to suppress the Jurisprudences of over 250 indigenous ethnic nationalities of the African peoples that inhabit that geographical space the British colonial powers named Nigeria in 1914?

Sir, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar,

permit me to add that, many people in Nigeria and outside the country, in fact, most of us have looked with disappointment as you and your Committee, NPC, have been trying all these years, to suppress and force the two irreconcilable foreign Jurisprudences on the over 250 indigenous Jurisprudences of the African peoples in Nigeria! And this is the root of the problem with Nigeria under your watch! Especially, since the enactment of that your 1999 Constitution which you forced on the citizens of this country and under which your so-called National Peace Committee members have been pretending that they can build their elusive peace for their wrongly conceived ‘One-Nigeria’, during and after each elections, since 1999 to date!

Such that the blood of the innocent Indigenous Peoples, Christians and Muslims alike, shed so far, by the Muslim extremists, insurgents — Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen terrorists, as well as by other non-state actors or militias, and the state actors, e.g., those Nigerians killed through the Military and Police brutality and violence all these years in different parts of the country, during and after each election, there is no way you and members of your NPC will deny that you do not share in the blame for those people whose blood were wasted and are still being wasted even as we write in the name of One-Nigeria and of defending the 1999 Constitution! Both the members of the NPC and other enforcers of the fraudulent 1999 Constitution, mind you, all of you share in that blame.

Conclusion:

Sir, Gen Abdulsalami,

methinks, that you in particular, and members of your NPC, owe it a duty to apologise to the indigenous peoples and communities in Nigeria for the role you played and is still playing in bringing about the mess that has befallen Nigerian State and its citizens today, especially, since 1999 to date, when the Constitution you enacted came into effect. Because, if truth be told, all those responsible for the birth of the fraudulent 1999 Constitution and its Enforcers, must know that they all, are part of the reasons Nigeria is in a mess today. Their hands are therefore, not clean. They are tainted with the blood of the innocent!

This is why there is an urgent need for you Sir, Gen. Abdulsalami, in particular, to apologise to Nigerian citizens, and for your members of NPC, to do so as well. And especially, for all of you, as ‘eminent individuals’, you are called, to begin immediately to initiate a process for Nigeria’s renegotiation! That is, for the renegotiation of Nigeria’s faulty foundation, fraudulent political system or structure, as well as the fake 1999 Constitution itself, through referendum for self-determination.

Nigeria as things are today has gone beyond the call for a new constitution, and even for restructuring! We need to get back to the drawing table and take a hard look on Nigeria’s founding story, the faulty foundation of the Nigerian state, and tackle the problem with the country from its foundation, head-on, once and for all. Referendum for self-determination among the different major ethnic nationalities or geopolitical regions that make-up the Nigerian State as it is today, is the only possible way out of the problem with Nigeria!

On this, lies the solution and the transformation of the age-long problem with Nigeria!

Thank you so much for your undivided attention!

I remain,
Yours sincerely, Francis Anekwe Oborji

Fr. Francis Anekwe Oborji is a Roman Catholic Priest, is Professor Ordinarius of contextual theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome.