It is disheartening to observe what
current politicians are recklessly doing to Nigeria and to our hard
earned democracy – shamelessly exhibiting to the whole world that we are
basically incapable of running our affairs peacefully. It is this
over-blown ego and greed of African leaders and their inability to
accept and obey constitutional provisions that have led to several
crises and to underdevelopment in the continent. It is indeed a shame
that leaders who should lead by good examples are often the biggest law
breakers who openly display arrogant disregard for the laws of the land.
The moment they assume power, they consider themselves above the laws of
the land and indulge in a system of lawlessness forgetting that when
court’s orders for those who peacefully go to courts to seek redress for
wrongs done them are ignored, they are creating an atmosphere that may
sooner or later compel the aggrieved citizens – to take laws into their
own hands (arms) to enforce their rights. We cannot pretend not to know
the consequences of such executive rascality. We have enough examples
across Africa and even in Nigeria’s history to learn from.
We seem a people who forever are incapable of learning. We are
underdeveloped because too often we put our individual short term
interests before that of the state. It is indeed sad to follow the
deterioration of the feud between the president and the VP. It does seem
that if the president had respected the provisions of our constitution
to quit after two terms, we probably wouldn’t have this macabre
situation.
Indeed, I have difficulties to follow why the president feels so
passionate about punishing the VP for apparently not supporting his
ill-fated third term efforts. I should think that the allegiance of any
good Vice President must be first to the constitution and the country he
swore on oath to defend and only then to the President and not the other
way round. Subordination can not be a licence to be pushed into
illegality or forced to violate the constitution, else to unilaterally
break agreements previously reached between two parties. I should
further think that blind subordination is suffocating our progress and
is not good for us. The lack of civil courage to challenge the wrongs
being perpetrated before our eyes makes us a party that enables a clique
of a few people who hold allegiance to one another to do as they are
please with our resources. Under this administration, Nigeria has become
a besieged country where the head of an agency openly boasts about his
plans to arrest, jail and humiliate a seating VP. Yet we know that the
same agency pretends to be blind and deaf when it comes to friends of
their camp. It is indeed a pity that those charged with the
responsibility of protecting our constitution and maintaining law and
order have themselves become the biggest breakers of our laws and source
of threat to our collective peace and unity. These are people who should
not have come near the corridors of power in the first place.
To applaud the president over his decision to declare the seat of the VP
vacant is not to fully understand what is happening. Anyone who has read
and understood the 1999 Nigerian constitution should know that there is
no where in it that gives the president any authority to remove the VP.
So, why is he doing it? Has he not understood the constitution? Or is it
that the PDP and the president simply have no respect for the Nigerian
constitution and take the National House of Assembly and the Nigerian
people for granted? Or is the president willingly trying to create
enough havocs and chaos to make an election in four months impossible –
thereby extend his tenure? The unfolding events shall tell! However, one
thing that is unacceptable is a situation where our president appears to
be becoming more desperate by the day, searching for legal and illegal
ways to humiliate the VP, thereby throwing all decorum and decency
aboard and conducting himself like a rascal, with total disregard for
all laid down procedures in our constitution. This pattern of behaviour
is unacceptable whether or not he senses he cannot get the number of
votes in both Houses of the National Assembly to impeach the VP.
The problem with the president’s action is that even under the
assumption that the PDP and his interpretation of section 146 (b) “And
for any other reason” were correct, and those provisions that were laid
down section in 142 for the pre-election phase as being interpreted by
the PDP and the president were applicable, the PDP and the President
still do not have the authority to declare the seat of the VP vacant.
Only the National House of Assembly can make such a declaration. A
president that apparently does not understand our constitution or worse
still is wilfully misrepresenting it is indeed a serious and dangerous
matter that must be addressed seriously. The Nigerian state is bigger
than the ego of any one person and the interest of the PDP for that
matter. One would expect a good and law abiding president to know how to
legally pursue his objectives without grossly violating the
constitution. If the president had thought that he could no longer work
with the VP and he has reasons to believe that his interpretation of
section 146 is strong enough to support his efforts, he should have
known that due process demands that he informs and initiates an
impeachment process through the only body that has the exclusive powers
to remove a President or the VP, which is the National Assembly. To
unilaterally assume the powers of both Houses and make such reckless and
infuriating declaration is to put it mildly an insult to both houses and
a grave affront to our constitution and sensibilities.
By now the PDP and the president should know that they are in error to
assume that the constitution equates the offices of members of the
Senate/House of Representative and State houses of Assembly with those
of the offices of the President/VP or Governors/Deputy. The spirit of
the constitution is that it recognises the senators as partisan
positions and their removal from office are clearly spelt out
accordingly. On the other hand, offices of the President/VP and
Governors/Deputy are presented as executive offices to represent the
interest of all the people of the federation or of their states
respectively, irrespective whether these people are members of the
platform on which they were elected or not. Thus, it is far fetched to
expect the process of their removal from office to be the same. The
procedures for the removal of the executive offices are clearly
stipulated in section 143-146. Lets for the sake of argument assume that
the constitution favours such removal as being propagated by the PDP and
the president with reference to section 142, how can an enduring
institution be built when their approach is selective. How does this
administration intend to explain condoning the defection of almost a
whole set of members of a House of Assembly of one state along with its
Governor and Deputy to the PDP but takes actions when members of the PDP
decamp to other parties. We know that several members of the Senate have
defected from one party to the other without any action. So, what’s the
point! The spirit of the Nigerian constitution demands that all
Nigerians must be treated equally? This seeming selective approach is
actually a violation of section 17 subsection (2) of the constitution.
It reads “every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and
opportunities before the law.” How can all citizens have equality of
rights, if for the same offence, some are punished for defecting from
the PDP and others applauded for defecting to the PDP?
The spirit of the 1999 constitution as it relates to the removal of the
President or the VP, as already mentioned, lies exclusively with the
National House of Assembly as elaborated in section 144. In this
section, it becomes evident that not even in the case where the VP
becomes permanently incapacitated or death can the President
unilaterally declare the seat of the VP vacant: Section 144; "(1) The
President or Vice President shall cease to hold office, if - (a) by a
resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members of the
executive council of the Federation it is declared that the
President or Vice President is incapable of discharging the functions of
his office; and (b) the declaration is verified, after such medical
examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under
subsection (4 see below) of this section in its report to the President
of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.)
Consequently, even in the case of death or being incapacitated, the
President alone can not make this declaration, and the spirit of the
constitution is that even such a declaration is not enough and must be
verified by a team of medical experts (including one of the affected)
whose report must be addressed to the President of the Senate and
Speaker of the House of Representative. Further, subsection 2 stipulates
as follows: "Where the medical panel certifies in the report that in its
opinion the President or Vice President is suffering from such infirmity
of body or mind that has rendered him permanently incapable of
discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof signed by
the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives shall be published in the Official Gazette of the
Government of the Federation. It is only after such publications in
the Gazette that the seat is officially vacant. Please note that sub
section 4 reads in part as follows: The medical panel to which this
section relates shall be appointed by the President of the Senate.
The point is that the spirit of our constitution clearly delegates the
process of removing either the President or VP exclusively to the Senate
and House of Representative. It is their declaration and collective
signatures, after due process has been followed that removes either the
President or the VP from office. It is thus shocking that despite this
clear provision in our constitution the president genuinely believes he
can assume the powers to unilaterally declare the seat of the VP vacant,
pick a replacement and have the replacement imposed on Nigerians. What
is even more worrisome is that he and the PDP apparently expect the
Nigerian institutions and Nigerians to accept this recklessness. I
should think that not even in banana republics are states run this way;
there remains certain minimum of standards people don’t fall below. It
is indeed really a shame to see how low and bottomless Nigeria is
falling.
For the sake of clarity, the President of Nigeria under 1999
constitution has no power whatsoever to declare any seat of any elective
office vacant. Thus, the President has not only no such powers to
declare the seat of the VP vacant but also no such powers to withdraw
his privileges and security details; as these privileges are not
dependent on the President’s good-will towards the VP, but are accorded
him in the constitution, just as the president himself derives his
privilege from the same constitution. I find this excessive display of
ruthless power (that is clearly unconstitutional) not only disgusting
and disappointing but totally unacceptable. The PDP and the president
should please take note that Nigerian is not a private company owned by
the PDP that can be run according to their moods. It is indeed a serious
and dangerous development that a political party is assigning to itself
the responsibility of our National Assembly, taking vital constitutional
decisions and giving instructions to our institutions.
In the interest of the development of our democracy and Nigeria, I
implore the VP to return to Nigeria when his vacation ends. We cannot
allow this unconstitutionality to stand and become precedent. This
administration will be ill-advised to illegally arrest the VP on his
return and subject him to further humiliation, as the VP has all his
constitutional privilege intact. It is indeed disturbing that the
president is being quoted as having given orders for the arrest of the
VP. This appears another misunderstanding of the constitution by the
president. The president has no powers to issue an arrest warrant on a
peaceful citizen of Nigeria. Only a judge of the court of law has such
jurisdiction. History will not forgive President Obasanjo if he carries
out his threat and continues on this reckless path of
unconstitutionality.
Finally, it is my hope that since the VP has gone to court that the
supreme court would be making a pronouncement on the matter before long
and the Honourable members of the Senate and House of Representative
would swiftly and courageously once again rise, irrespective of party
affiliation to declare enough is enough by bringing all these farce to a
quick end and save Nigeria’s democracy from further deterioration, chaos
and debasement, just as they did during the TTA.
