By HUMAN rights lawyer and public interest litigator, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, has urged the Federal Government to take urgent steps to avert what he describes as an impending national catastrophe, insisting that Nigeria is drifting dangerously towards the type of prolonged conflicts witnessed in Israel–Palestine, Congo, and Sudan.
In a strongly worded statement on Friday, Omirhobo warned that the country is “on the brink,” citing spiralling insecurity, ethnic distrust, violent extremism, mass killings, economic despair, perceived state-backed injustice, and deep constitutional cracks as indicators that “the centre can no longer hold.”
He cautioned that continued denial of the worsening situation could plunge Nigeria into a full-scale crisis that “no election or propaganda can prevent.”
Calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act decisively, Omirhobo declared that the only peaceful and democratic path forward is a national referendum.
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“My call to Bola Ahmed Tinubu is simple: choose a referendum, not another election,” he stated.
“A referendum is the globally accepted mechanism for nations experiencing internal contradictions so deep that ordinary elections cannot cure them.”
He urged that Nigerians be allowed to determine the structure and future of the country: whether to remain as one nation, pursue restructuring, return to regional autonomy, or peacefully separate.
“This is not treason. This is democracy. This is not war-mongering. This is conflict prevention,” he added.
According to the lawyer, allowing citizens to express their will through ballots rather than bullets is the only viable way to prevent a descent into widespread violence. “A referendum now is far better than a civil war later,” he stressed.
Omirhobo called on the National Assembly, ECOWAS, the African Union, the United Nations, civil society, and traditional rulers to support the immediate commencement of a referendum process.
“Nigeria must be allowed to disintegrate in peace, not in pieces,” he concluded.
