Nnamdi Kanu’s Lawyer Wants 2027 Ballot To Include Option For Nigeria’s Break-Up, Regional Autonomy
Nnamdi Kanu’s Lawyer Wants 2027 Ballot To Include Option For Nigeria’s Break-Up, Regional Autonomy
According to him, the 2027 ballot should contain three additional options alongside the presidential and legislative elections.
Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has called for the 2027 general election ballot to include referendum questions on Nigeria’s political structure, where Nigerians should decide whether the country should remain united under a restructured confederation, become a federation of autonomous regions, or allow geopolitical zones seeking independence to determine their future through a vote.
Ejimakor made the call in a statement titled, “The 2027 ballot must ask the questions that actually matter,” where he argued that Nigerian elections have for too long focused on personalities and the question of who should govern rather than allowing citizens to determine how they want the country to be governed.Nigerian government updates
He said the “foundational political question” of Nigeria’s political arrangement remains unresolved and warned that continuing to avoid it would only perpetuate the country’s political crisis.
According to him, the 2027 ballot should contain three additional options alongside the presidential and legislative elections.
He proposed that voters should be allowed to choose, “remain one Nigeria but restructured as a confederation; split into autonomous regions; any geopolitical zone that desires to become a separate nation should be allowed to decide so through a vote.”Buy Maps
Ejimakor argued that such a referendum would not amount to a radical step, insisting that democratic countries around the world have used referenda to allow citizens to determine questions of constitutional arrangements, autonomy and independence.
“This is not a radical proposal. It is the standard democratic practice across the world,” he said.
He cited Canada, where Quebec held independence referenda in 1980 and 1995, as an example of a country allowing citizens to directly determine questions concerning its constitutional future.
He also referenced Switzerland, saying the Jura region voted to separate from Bern in 1974, eventually becoming a new canton within the Swiss confederation.
Ejimakor further cited Greenland’s 2008 vote to expand its autonomy from Denmark, the 2019 independence referendum in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum.
He also pointed to referenda in the United Kingdom concerning the constitutional status and devolution of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
According to him, South Sudan and Montenegro also became independent countries after popular votes in 2011 and 2006 respectively.
“These nations are not weak or failed states. They are democracies that understood a simple principle: A referendum does not predetermine the answer; it allows the people to give the answer,” he stated.
The lawyer argued that allowing Nigerians to vote directly on the country’s future would provide a democratic avenue for resolving longstanding disputes over restructuring, regional autonomy and self-determination.
He warned that continuing to exclude such questions from the electoral process would not eliminate them, but could instead push them outside democratic institutions.
“Excluding these options from the 2027 ballot does not make the questions disappear; it only guarantees that they will, some day, be answered outside the ballot box, and that will be chaotic,” Ejimakor said.
He maintained that placing the questions before voters would not impose any particular outcome, but would give Nigerians the opportunity to determine the country’s future through a democratic process.
“But including them costs nothing and settles everything. Let the people vote on what Nigeria should be; not just who should run it,” he added.
