Our Correspondent
“The nationwide activities of terrorists are deliberate acts of displacing indigenous ethnic nationalities from their ancestral lands for non-indigenes and foreigners to occupy the lands. The owners of the land end up as internally displaced persons (IDPs) in their own country.”
These were the words of Christian Elders, under the umbrella of National Christian Elder Forum, NCEF, while addressing a virtual press conference recently.
They called for an immediate step to halt further destruction of lives and properties, and advocated a new Constitution for Nigeria without any further delay, rather than an amended constitution.
The Christian Elders said they aligned with the conference resolution of the Patriots Group in March 2024 that Nigeria requires a new constitution, not an amended constitution adding that the new constitution would devolve power, which is currently concentrated at the centre, to the federating units and enable them to take charge of their security.
The NCEF stated their position in a paper presented during a virtual Press Conference on the theme ‘State of the Nation 2024: Racial Displacement Invasion,’ during which participants called on the ethnic nationalities to organize and give Nigeria a new constitution.
The Forum posited that the role of the National Assembly was to make laws not to produce a constitution for the country stating that the responsibility of producing the constitution rests on the ethnic nationalities, not on the National Assembly.
Participants at the virtual conference encouraged NCEF to liaise with the ethnic nationalities and commence the process of giving Nigeria a new constitution in 2024.
They also noted the comments of the representative of NINAS at the press conference and agreed that the five propositions of the group aimed at resolving the constitutional dispute in Nigeria should receive fresh consideration by the ethnic nationalities.