Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has dismissed as false the long‑standing claim that Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution was written by the military, insisting that close to 95 per cent of the document was lifted from the 1979 Constitution, a text drafted entirely by 49 civilian legal experts with no soldiers involved. The former military ruler made the disclosure in his newly released 264‑page autobiography, Call of Duty, which was publicly presented at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on Saturday, June 13, 2026, as part of activities marking his 84th birthday. The book, which spans 27 chapters, contains detailed revelations about the events that shaped Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999.
According to Abdulsalami, upon assuming office in June 1998 following the death of General Sani Abacha, he established a 25‑member Constitution Debate Co‑ordinating Committee (CDCC), chaired by the late Justice Niki Tobi, with Dr Suleiman Kumo as Deputy Chairman. The committee’s mandate was not to write a new constitution, but to coordinate a national debate on Abacha’s 1995 Draft Constitution, which had remained unpublished and widely unpopular. “At the inauguration of the CDCC on 11 November 1998, I raised several contentious issues in the Draft 1995 Constitution and mandated them to come up with fresh ideas,” Abdulsalami wrote. “I need to reemphasise here that their job was not to write a new Constitution but to coordinate a debate on the draft. I have heard many critics say the Niki Tobi Committee was set up to write a new Constitution. That is absolutely false.” The committee received a total of 405 memoranda from ethnic, cultural and regional associations across Nigeria and from Nigerians in the diaspora. The Afenifere/NADECO bloc, which had fiercely opposed the Abacha regime, insisted that the 1995 draft was an “Abacha Constitution” that should be discarded entirely. Nigerians in the United States also held a separate forum on the document at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. In his report to the Provisional Ruling Council, Justice Tobi stated: “In the light of the memoranda and the oral presentation on the 1995 Draft Constitution, it is clear that Nigerians basically opt for the 1979 Constitution with relevant amendments. … The common denominator in the mouths of Nigerians the world over is the 1979 Constitution with relevant amendments.”
Abdulsalami admitted that the idea of reverting to the 1979 Constitution had not initially crossed his mind, but that the committee’s recommendation came as a welcome relief because it offered the fastest route out of a looming political crisis. “Adopting the Draft Constitution wholesale would definitely be opposed by the Afenifere/NADECO bloc, which never wanted to have anything to do with Abacha. There was the real danger that we could go into another phase of crisis over that. For someone who wanted to get the transition programme done with as quickly as possible, I was quite comfortable with the option of adopting the 1979 Constitution,” he wrote. The former Head of State also revealed that some military “hawks” within the administration did not want to leave power and had pushed for the transition programme to be extended by up to three years in order to write an entirely new constitution. However, the adoption of the 1979 Constitution helped to thwart that agenda and accelerated the handover to a democratically elected government on May 29, 1999.
Addressing the recurring claim that the military authored the 1999 Constitution, Abdulsalami insisted that both the 1979 Constitution and the 1995 Draft Constitution — from which the 1999 document borrowed heavily — were prepared by eminent civilians, even though they were produced under military administrations. He traced the origin of the 1979 Constitution to the Constitutional Drafting Committee established by General Murtala Muhammed in 1975, chaired by the renowned senior lawyer, Chief F.R.A. Williams. The committee originally had 50 members, but Chief Obafemi Awolowo declined to participate because he intended to contest elections in the Second Republic, reducing the membership to 49. The committee studied constitutions from different parts of the world before submitting its draft in 1976, after which a 230‑member Constituent Assembly, headed by Justice Udo Udoma, reviewed it clause by clause. Only 20 members of the assembly were appointed by the military; the rest were civilians. “It is false to say the military wrote it. The 1979 Constitution and the Draft 1995 Constitution, both of which the 1999 Constitution borrowed from, were not written by the military, even if they were produced under military rule,” Abdulsalami wrote. “They were written by some of the best brains the country had to offer. I need to put this on record because there are many Nigerians who are not aware of the history and keep repeating the same falsehood.” The former Head of State also expressed surprise that many politicians who now attack the 1999 Constitution had participated in drafting and operating under the 1979 Constitution. “It is ironic that many of those attacking the 1999 Constitution today participated in debates over the 1979 Constitution and even contested elections under it. They embraced it then but now describe its replica as the worst legal document ever,” he observed.
The book launch, which was attended by President Bola Tinubu (represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima as Special Guest of Honour), former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, and other dignitaries, also featured the presentation of two other volumes: Nigeria’s Grand Patriot and Mediating for Peace in Africa.
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