*YYF rejects the 1963 Nigerian constitution.*

A number of Yoruba governors and leaders have called for the adoption of the 1963 constitution in the ongoing Senate Constitutional Review of the 1999 constitution. However, the YYF on behalf of the young Yoruba rejects the 1963 constitution.

It should be noted that the first indigenous constitution of Nigeria was written between 1957 and 1959 in London by the three major ethnic groups of Nigeria, namely the Yoruba, Ißo and the Hausa/Fulani who represented the minority groups within the then three regions of Nigeria.

The three ethnic groups agreed, inter alia, to live together as a country of nations, named the country the Federation of Nigeria and adopted the parliamentary system of government based on regional government with a proviso that allowed the minority ethnic groups in the three regions to have their own separate regions subsequently.

The constitution entered into force on the 1st October 1960, the day of Nigeria's independence from the English colonial thugs. The Ißo and the Fulani established the first indigenous government in Nigeria following the departure of the English colonial thugs after both had formed a coalition government.

In May 1961, exactly seven months after the English colonial government had left Nigeria and handed over power to Zik and Balewa, Chief Awolowo, a Yoruba, and the leader of the opposition in the Nigeria's parliament moved a motion in which he called for the minority ethnic groups in the Western, Eastern and Northern regions to be granted their own separate regions based on the agreement we entered before Nigeria's independence of 1960.

The motion was adopted on a yeas and nays basis. However, Zik, an Ißo and the then Governor General of Nigeria was against the minority ethnic groups having their own separate region and advised Balewa, a Fulani and the then Prime Minister of Nigeria to reject the Awolowo's motion because it was voted on by a voice vote rather than a physical votes cast of members of the parliament. Balewa immediately voted the motion down.

Awolowo did not give up and a year after, he again in May 1962, moved the same motion to have the minority ethnic groups granted their own separate regions out of the three regions of Nigeria. On this occasion, the motion was passed, not by a voice vote, but by the physical votes of all the members of the Nigerian Parliament present.

In anger, Zik and Balewa, accused Awolowo and 21 other Yoruba of planning a coup to remove them from power and had them arrested.

The Ißo and Fulani immediately after Awolowo's arrest presented a motion to the parliament to amend the Nigeria's 1960 constitution.

And whilst the amendments to the constitution was ongoing without the participation of the Yoruba because their leader, Awolowo had been arrested and held in prison, the Ißo and the Fulani removed from the Western Region the Edo, Urhobo, Akoko-Edo, Itsekiri and Western Ijaw areas and created for them the Mid-West Region. But they refused to allow the Yoruba in the Ilorin and Kabba divisions which are Yoruba people to be added as parts of the Western Region. They also denied the Kanuri, Tiv, Nupe and other minorities of the northern region their own separate region as well as refused the Eastern Ijaw, Efik/Ibibio and the other minorities in the eastern region to have their own separate region.

In September 1963, Zik and Balewa jailed Awolowo and 21 other Yoruba to 10 years in prison based on a false allegation of planning a coup to remove Zik and Balewa from power. In the same September of 1963, the Ißo and Fulani amended the 1960 constitution, changed the name of Nigeria from the Federation of Nigeria to the Republic of Nigeria and made the central government of Nigeria stronger and powerful than the regional governments. The Yoruba nation was not a party to the 1963 constitution.

The constitution of 1963 stands rejected by the Yoruba people. The Ißo and the Fulani wrote the 1963 constitution essentially to turn Nigeria from a Federation of Regions to a Republic that makes the central government stronger and powerful at the expense of the regional governments against the agreement before Nigeria's independence.

The 1963 constitution was written by the Ißo and the Fulani to rotate the central government between the two ethnic groups, and for them to control the wealth and resources of the Yoruba nation.

The Yoruba nation has the majority of the population in Nigeria and the economic backbone of the country. What the Yoruba nation wants is a return to the parliamentary system of government based on 10 or 15 ethnic regions with each region in control of its laws, police, military, judiciary, taxes, mineral and natural resources, and contribute 10% of its income to the central government. And for only the Yoruba nation to produce the President of Nigeria. Anything else is the Oduduwa Republic or an outright war.

Adeyinka Grandson,
President of the YYF.

Ok

Who are those?

Let’s adopt 1960 constitution then.

I'm nuh in support of any restructuring. We want a referendum.

But...for d sake of this post, what will happen if everyone sits down nd write a new constitution rather than adopting old ones? Will their hands wither away?

as an igbo man I don't think breaking this country is realistic. Nigeria got most of its revenue from offshore oil fields. no reasonable person or region will ever forfeit such massive resources to other region.
what can work perfectly well here is restructuring. the offshore resources shares by component regions that make up Nigeria. or other resources will be managed by region its domiciled.

Veqtor:
I'm nuh in support of any restructuring. We want a referendum.

But...for d sake of this post, what will happen if everyone sits down nd write a new constitution rather than adopting old ones? Will their hands wither away?

The old constitution was agreed upon by all the ethnic groups in Nigeria.The new ones were created by the Military in the likes of Obasanjo and copied by Abdulsalami.

Awolowo was arrested for the bloody crisis in western region and for wanton destruction of lives and property