The Leaders After God’s Own Spirit Initiating A New State, The LAGOSIANS, have strongly condemned the National Assembly’s use of voice voting on the proclamation of a State of Emergency in Rivers State.
The group’s spokesperson, Mr Yinka Sotade, described the move as “a dangerous affront to democratic accountability and a brazen validation of executive overreach”.
According to Sotade, “the continued use of voice votes on critical national matters exposes the fraudulence of Nigeria’s democratic pretensions under the 1999 Constitution—a military decree masquerading as a people’s charter. Voice voting is not a democratic error—it is a design feature of a system built to evade accountability.”
The LAGOSIANS assert that the real threat to Nigeria’s democracy lies in its foundational structure. As long as the country operates under Decree 24 of 1999, true democratic governance, representation, and equity remain impossible.
The group called for the urgent resurrection and modernisation of the 1963 Republican Constitution, which is rooted in the federalist consensus of Nigeria’s founding nationalities.
Sotade stressed, “We must return to a constitutional order that recognises Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities as co-equal stakeholders—not subjects of a central command. Only then can we build a nation that is just, stable, and prosperous”.
The LAGOSIANS also highlighted the contradictory applications of State of Emergency laws in Nigeria’s history, citing instances from Balewa to Obasanjo, Jonathan to Tinubu. The group emphasized that voice votes and emergency decrees are symptoms of a deeper issue—the unitary structure falsely branded as federalism.
The LAGOSIANS insist that Nigeria needs a fundamental transformation, rather than cosmetic reforms or constitutional patchwork. As Sotade put it, “The time has come to reclaim Nigeria for ‘We the People.”
