Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, Mohammed Ndarani Mohammed, has advocated for a total overhaul of the nation’s 1999 constitution to remove “mischievous sections”, citing particularly, the immunity clause which he argued is hindering the fight against corruption and development of the country.
He maintained that having researched globally the constitutions of various countries, he could not find where such immunity clause operates even in Africa to the extent of extending the clause to cover governors, except in Nigeria.
The SAN wondered how Nigeria can succeed in the fight against corruption or achieve development when the governors cannot be prosecuted even when they commit crime while in office or be compelled to appear in court to give evidence.
Ndarani Mohammed, who spoke to Journalists during interactive session, specifically condemned the continued retention of Section 308 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, said it contradicted some fundamental provisions of the constitution.
He further said that there are certain parts of the constitution that are not justiciable and cited right to education which he argued that nobody can take anyone to court because of denial of education.
Also, he said Section 44 (3) of the constitution which is an impediment to resource control should be removed or whittle down so that the state governors can be able to develop their various states through earnings from their resource economy.
According to him, “I can even easily agree with immunity clause for Presidents and Vice presidents, but I am not totally happy or overwhelmed with the provision of Section 308 of the constitution of Nigeria that bestowed immunities on the state governors across the 36 states of the federation.
“Because, immunity clause that is embedded in our constitution, is mischievous, it’s contradictory, it undermines their scope of what we call rules of law; it also did not take cognizance of rules of law, it does not also take cognizance of what we call equality before the law, it does not take cognizance of what we call fair hearing and it does not also take cognizance of what we call equal access to court.
“So, if you’re saying that some certain governors across the the 36 states of the federation are immune from prosecution, are immune from being compelled to come before court to give witnesses; or if someone is a governor or at the period you’re a governor, you are immune and cannot be taken to court for prosecution even if you err, or commit any offence or even if you travel outside the wage of law, you are not liable to be disciplined on court order; so what can you say about in the same constitution when you say you have equality before the law.?
“So, how can you marry the same together? You’re saying you have equality before the law, and that same constitution is going ahead to say there are some groups of governors who are 36 who are governors of the 36 states of the federation that they are immune from even prosecuting them during their tenure. They cannot even be compelled to come before the court to come and give even witness.”
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria further stressed that through feasibility study of various constitutions of countries in the world, he discovered that no any part of the countries in the world has this type of “mischievous sections” (immunity clause) in the enabling ground law of the country.
He urged the National Assembly to expunge immunity clause from the constitution or water it down to enable citizens to demand accountability from the governors while in office, not after they had left office and destroyed evidence against them.
He said: “You are talking about fighting corruptions and then you are saying some people are immune from prosecutions, how will you fight corruption when you knew that there are some people that cannot be compelled to go to court.?
“And you are also saying in the same constitution that there should be rule of law, access to court. Access to court simply means that everybody who is a citizen of that particular country will equally go to court. So, where is equally before the law, when you’re talking about immunity clause.
“There are some governors who are using the section 308 as a shield. Honestly speaking if we are ready to fight corruption, if we are ready to develop the country, most of these mischievous sections we have in our constitution ought to have been removed so that at least, we can have access to development, we can have access to fight corruption in the country and then we can have rapid development.”
