In other words, we shall attempt an exploration of the meaning of the term sovereignty both from its political and legal perspectives, as well as its plain and ordinary meaning as defined in the dictionary of English Language. To be sure, the makers of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, devoted Chapter 2 of that hallowed document to this question of sovereignty. From the ecclesiastical point of view, sovereignty means the divine authority of the all-powerful God, the omnipotent and omnipresence. In a nutshell, such a power is mystic since God who is the repository of such a power cannot be understood or adequately rationalised. However, the political sovereign which has its origin in the emergence of man s social contract as propounded by the social contract theorists such as Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes, assumes a different meaning and connotation.
Sovereignty is limited externally by the possibility of a general resistance.
Internal sovereignty is paramount power over all actions within, and is limited by the nature of the power itself. . . . Thus, the idiosyncratic disposition of members of the Legislature and the Executive on this vexed question of Sovereign National Conference can only be rationalized on the class consciousness which propels the political elite class to strive at all times to present myopic minority views as the dominant views. This orchestrated swindle mechanism soon becomes the omnibus for our collective enfoolment as the people, having been coerced into giving their mandate to some charlatans and dubious characters, become hostage to their purported sovereignty. But from all indications, political sovereignty as we have demonstrated, is an all-time instrument for political supremacy which rests on the people without let or hindrance. Thus, functionaries of Government can either be recalled within a tenure of office, or rejected and dumped at the next election.