Omoyele Sowore , the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) , has declared that the continued existence of Nigeria as a single, united nation should not be forced.
According to him, a referendum should be conducted for the people to decide if they want to leave or stay.
The politician/news publisher added that the current 1999 constitution Nigeria is using needs to be changed as it was not ratified by the citizens of the country before it became binding on them.
He said in an interview with The ICIR: “Nigeria has reached a point where it is either we work on a perfect union, or we abandon the union altogether and one of the ways to work on the perfect union is to sit down and frame another Constitution. Get it ratified, get a referendum for everybody to say yes or no to it and you’re good to go.
“The Nigeria Constitution of 1999 is nothing. It wasn’t made and ratified by the people, so you can’t start amending it. And at any rate, the amendment of that Constitution has become a source for corruption. The guy who has been in charge of amending Nigeria’s Constitution is in jail in the United Kingdom (UK) for trying to sell somebody’s kidney. That’s the joke the Constitution review has been.”
Asked if he is not worried about being the President that will supervise the disintegration of the country, Sowore said he is not but added that he is not in the race to ensure the country breaks up but for it to have a perfect union.
He said even those who are not physically demanding a secession have mentally seceded from Nigeria.
According to him, the only way to reverse the growing trend is to address fundamental injustices in the system so the people can feel safe and happy in their own land.
In his words, “Yes, I said I don’t mind because Nigeria has become a bad marriage to a lot of people. So, that’s one of the several categories of people who are tired of Nigeria.
“The South-East has reached 70 per cent of secession because you can’t hang a Nigerian flag openly in the South-East right now. Most of the police stations have closed, except at the state headquarters. The radio that’s most popular in the South-East is Radio Biafra. I was there, they don’t hide it anymore. So, for you to bring them back, you’re not going to bring them back by starting the Third Niger Bridge. No. They have passed that stage. It’s not going to be feasible. You have to bring them back by addressing their fundamental grievances. Let them determine why they should continue to stay in Nigeria, and you will be surprised that if they are allowed to do a referendum under a perfect union, the referendum might fail. I am not saying it will, but it might fail.
“You have Yorubas saying they want to leave. There are people who want seccession, whether you like it or not. So, if you put Nnamdi Kanu in detention, has it in any way reduced his power? You drive Sunday Igboho to Benin Republic and he’s operating perfectly from there.
And you also know that there’s a fourth category and those are the people that want to ‘Japa’ (travel abroad). So, you have a country where a lot of citizens have mentally seceded. Everybody is tired of the country called Nigeria.”
