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Opinion

The National Assembly is constitutionally competent to summon Buhari

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Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, LL.M, Ph.D

I have just read, with angst and trepidation, a statement credited to the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, to the effect that the NASS has no power to summon the President over his “operational use of the Armed Forces”.

I am more disturbed with the AGF’s stance because the President has already voluntarily agreed to appear before the NASS.

Under sections 217, 218 and 219 of the 1999 Constitution, the President cannot carry out the “operational use of the Armed Forces” without the NASS concurring or empowering him to do so. Infact, under section 219(b), the composition of the Armed Forces of the Federation must reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria, and it is only the NASS that has the powers to make laws regulating how the President as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, carry out the operational use of the Armed Forces.

The President can never do so alone. So, Mr. President is subject to the scrutiny of the NASS as to why the strategies so far employed by Mr President to combat insecurity have abysmally failed Nigeria; and why he has continued to retain Service Chiefs, whose tenure of office has since expired, and who have since outlived their usefulness, efficiency and effectiveness.

There is nothing secret or confidential about the Nigeran security situation, as the AGF want us to believe. The AGF must be living in another utopian world, not the same world of reality, where the entire Governors of the North East, and the entire Northern establishment and elites, including the Sultan of Sokoto, the ACF and the NEF, who have all decried the terrible insecurity situation in the North.

Indeed, the Sultan said, without contradiction, that the North is the most hazardous and perilous place to live in Nigeria today. So, where is the AGF getting his information about reclaiming of over 14 Local Government Areas allegedly previously controlled by the Boko Haram from? Is there anybody in Nigeria today, including even the toddlers, who do not know that the entire security architecture and apparatchik of Nigeria is over 98% controlled and located in one section and one religion of this pluralistic, multi-ethic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic country called Nigeria?

I therefore whole heartedly and most vehemently disagree with the said statement credited to the Hon AGF, to the effect that the National Assembly is not constitutionally competent to invite Mr. President to come and address it on national security issues.

That piece of advice is wrong, wrong and wrong. I am amazed that the Presidential aides and spoke persons to Mr. President, such as Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, the AGF, Mr. Femi Adesina and Mr. Garuba Shehu, do not give Mr. President the right and correct advice as to how to move the nation forward. They constantly engage in sophistry, inanities and ineffective liberal disquision, which do not in any way help to re-engineer the national weal; what late K. O. Mbadiwe, will refer to as “national resurgimento”.

President Muhammadu Buhari must realise that history will judge him for good or for bad; not his Attorney General or spokepersons. What Nigerians will remember in the future will be “the Buhari Administration”, not the Abubakar Malami, Lai Mohammed, Femi Adesina, or Garuba Shehu administration. This is because, as former American President, Harry Truman, once put it, “the Buck stops here”.

The Nigerian presidential system of government is modeled after the American Presidential system of government. And since 1776, when America became independent from the British Empire, and up to April 30, 1789, when George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, and took the oath of office as the President of the USA, every American President has always given an annual “State of the Union Address”. And this is actually prescribed in the American Constitution, in Article 2, section 3, clause 1. Although such a specific provision is not found in the Nigerian Constitution, it is however clear that under section 4 of the 1999 Constitution, it is the National Assembly that is vested with the constitutional powers to “make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation, or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive legislative list…..”.

It therefore means that the President can only execute laws made by the National Assembly, by virtue of section 5 of the same Constitution, either by himself directly, or through the Vice President, Ministers or Officers of the Public Service of the Federation.

Similarly, under section 81(1), the President is expected, every financial year, to prepare and physically lay before the National Assembly, estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Federation for the next financial year. This is commonly called the National Budget.

In such a situation, the Red and Blue Chambers of the NASS, meet together at a joint sitting, which is presided over by the Senate President, and in his absence, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, under section 53(2) of the 1999 Constitution. Can anyone, including the AGF, rightly argue that the NASS cannot constitutionally, not only invite, but also command, the President to, appear before it? I think not.

Furthermore, by virtue of section 88(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the National Assembly has the powers, by resolution published in its journal, or in the Official Gazette of the Federation, to direct or cause to be directed, investigation into ANY MATTER that it has powers to make laws on, as such matters include the conduct of affairs of ANY PERSON, authority, ministry or government department, which is in charge of executing or administering Laws enacted by the NASS, and also disbursing or administering monies appropriated or to be appropriated by the Executive under sections 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 162 of the 1999 Constitution. And these powers of the NASS are exercisable to “correct any defects in existing laws”, and to “expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution of laws made by the NASS”, and in the disbursement of funds appropriated by it. “ANY PERSON” stated in section 88(1)(b) above, of course includes President Muhammadu Buhari himself. No more, no less.

In the face of this, can the AGF still argue that Buhari cannot be summoned by the NASS to explain the following:

(a) The monumental corruption currently ravaging the country, which has since made recovered loots to be further relooted?

(b) Corruption which has made the once Anti-corruption Czar, Mr Ibrahim Magu, to himself face the Justice Salami Panel and CCB, over allegations of massive corruption, abuse of office, insubordination, etc, which was ignited and initiated by Abubakar Malami himself?

(c) That corruption in Nigeria has become so incrementally monumental and cancerous, strutting about like a proud peacock, that Nigeria has carried the unenviable trophy of the 148 out of 180 most corrupt countries in the world; and the shameful diadem of the 3rd most corrupt country in West Africa, according to the 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI)?

(d) Why “inefficiency” (section 88(1)(b)) and ineffectiveness, have made the present Buhari government to become lame-duck, clueless, visionless and compassless, that the country is literally on auto-pilot?

(e) That insecurity has become so alarmingly rampant that Boko Haram that was so tamed under the Jonathan government that elections seamlessly took place in the North East in 2015, has today become so monstrous that Northerners themselves are now singing to Nigerians that Boko Haram literally controls the entire North East space, mounting road blocks and checkpoints, and collecting revenue, taxation, and ransom from indigenes, whom they issue pass to, before they are allowed to move freely about in their own territories?

(f) That Boko Haram has even been rendered a child’s play, when compared with rampaging armed banditry, vicious and murderous Herdsmen, who kill Nigeran citizens in their farms and rape their mothers, wives and daughters, in their bedrooms, right before their very eyes?

(g) That Boko Haram has since been overtaken by violent and savagery cases of kidnapping and murders across the length and breadth Nigerian space?

(h) That the Nigerian economy has become so parlous that under the Buhari regime, Nigeria has entered into a second recession, and has since become the poverty capital of the world, overtaking India; whereas, under the Jonathan government in 2015, Nigeria was rebased as the biggest economy in Africa, overtaking South Africa in the process, with over $500billion, which made her one of the 7th fastest growing economies in the world?

With these, the AGF should never advise Mr. President not to appear before the NASS. It is not only moral and ethical to do so; it is also legally and constitutionally mandatory for Buhari to honour NASS summons.

President Buhari should go and face the NASS and answer questions why his government has failed Nigerians so abysmally. Buhari should not be protected. He should not be masqueraded. He should not be screened. He should face Nigerians, eye-ball-to-eye-ball, and account for his stewardship of nearly 6 years. It is not only a duty to do so; it is also an obligation he owes the Nigerian People. And this is constitutional. This is also moral. This is also ethical. This is also decent.

Opinion

Sule Lamido, PDP, and the politics of defection.

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Former Governor of Jigawa Sate,. Alhaji Sule Lamido

By: Adamu Muhd Usman

“Success is not by our thinking, our wish, our personal opinion, or selfish aggrandisement. It is destined and accompanied by good attitudes of honesty, gratitude, commitment, perseverance, sacrifice, endurance, selflessness, and determination.
—– Sule Lamido

When elections are approaching, political activities hasten. There has been speculation that Sule Lamido of Jigawa State will defect from the PDP and join a new party. It appears the speculators based their thinking on PDP’s unexpected devastating defeat in the 2023 general election. However, many people see the defeat as an outcome of a referendum on the PDP’s mistakes and adamant or foolish behaviour of an ordinary Nigerian, rather than a rejection verdict on the PDP, thus the party is expected to bounce back.

This is expected to happen with the help of people like Sule Lamido and other party stalwarts. Nonetheless, with speculation rife, it’s pertinent to ask, will Sule Lamido lead a revolt to ditch the PDP and form a new party or join SDP as H.E. Malam Nasir El-Rufai calls for?

Knowing Lamido’s styles of leadership and political antecedents, notably his being and ardent disciple of late Mallam Aminu Kano of blessed memory one may without mincing words say that Sule Lamido will not leave PDP he helped to give birth to; nurtured and played a very prominent role in.

The above assertion is provided by the fact that Sule Lamido does not have a history of inconsistencies in his political career, and he is not a politician that takes decisions based on the desire to play to the gallery.

Furthermore, Lamido, being one of the founding fathers of the PDP and a man with well-established connections, with political friends and associates all over and who enjoys tremendous support across the country, is not likely going to ditch the PDP.

If Lamido wanted to leave the PDP, he could have done it with the G7 governors who defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2014/2015. And, Lamido could have been one of the most celebrated ‘defectors’ the APC would now be flaunting.

Some people have mistakenly interpreted the recent news story of the former Kaduna state governor, H.E. Malam Nasir El-Rufai, defecting from APC to SDP, whereby he called bigwigs, though he dares not to mention the name of Sule Lamido in his list or invitation because he knows perfectly well Lamido’s space to that regard is a no-go area. But Lamido has dispelled the rumours via the interview he granted with the British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) Hausa service.

Governor Lamido asserted, I have no intention to leave the party. We dey kampe for PDP; we dey shelele for PDP. PDP has honoured and dignified me, and I am not leaving it for tenants. I am from a home background while others are from mere house backgrounds. We are well-groomed right from our homes, and we will not leave the party for anyone, especially for anger.

This is not a time for a blame game; the PDP should all accept that they made mistakes and find ways to correct them in the future.”

What people should best expect from Sule Lamido is rebuilding, reorganising, re-energising, and remodelling the PDP into a strong opposition party for the ruling APC. For instance, Lamido is well experienced in the art of politicking and governance; he will for sure lead other PDP founding fathers and party adherents to rebrand the party. Those that were instrumental in destroying the fabric that makes the PDP a strong national party may sooner or later become inactive in the party because they do not have the party in their hearts. Only causing trouble in order to be relevant and satisfy their pocket.

Sule Lamido has unequivocally assured their teaming supporters, party followers, and other stakeholders that he has no plans to join another party, leave the PDP, or allow intruders and interlopers to take over the house they have laboured to build.

The big question is, what should they do to correct their mistakes and reengineer a new beginning for the PDP?

Firstly, political pundits strongly believe that Sule Lamido and his likes will make sure the PDP returns to its cherished initial status—accommodating all people across the nations, running on democratic ideals that allow dissent and contrary views, but moves in harmony and as a family.

Secondly, Lamido will work painstakingly to rebrand the PDP and restore its hitherto attractive national ‘face.’ The PDP is like a bee, with six legs; once one leg is removed, the party becomes handicapped, unattractive, and motionless. This is what the intruders’ and interlopers that besieged the party do not understand.

Thirdly, Lamido is an expert in persuasion, trust building, patiently listening to contrary views, and also a political guru.

These skills of Lamido will be highly useful in time to come in order to return the PDP to the foundation on which its founding fathers built it.

The PDP will not regain its position as a strong and nationally spread political party without having individuals who share the spirit of the founding fathers of the party, individuals who passionately believe in one of the preambles of its constitution: “To mobilise like-minded Nigerians under the leadership of the party to build a nation responsive to the aspirations of its people, able to satisfy the just hopes and aspirations of the Black people of the world, and to gain the confidence of the nations.”

Many of PDP’s followers trust that Sule Lamido will be one of the like-minded individuals that will lead the way in the reclamation of the PDP’s lost glory.

Dr. Sule Lamido (CON) will remain in the PDP. He had the opportunity to defect, but he did not because he believes that defection is not the best way to develop and entrench democracy.

Whatever you see today is designed by God. It is not compulsory to be on the winning side always. One can see the spirit of patience and willingness to accept the will of the people in the duo of Lamido. Many Nigerians are expecting the duo to lead in the rebirth of the PDP, rather than ditching it.

Remember, Lamido is a party Founding Father, one of the original stoics who defied the brutal military dictatorship and formed a patriotic group of committed democrats that later formed the nucleus of the PDP.

Sule Lamido is among the nine people (G9) who formed the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 1998 along with Senator Iyorchia Ayu, Professor Jerry Gana, the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the late Mallam Adamu Ciroma, the late Chief Solomon Lar, the late Chief Bola Ige, the late Senator Ella, and the late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi. They confronted former Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha, on the need to quit the office and allow democracy to prosper.

Lamido and Rimi were picked and locked up in DSS cells, Rimi in Ilorin and Lamido in Maiduguri. They were only released after the sudden demise of Abacha.

Lamido, Jerry Gana, and Iyorchia Ayu are the lone PDP founding fathers still alive and on the landscape in politics and PDP.

Lamido has been consistent in PDP. He displays his sagacity in full force. He also deployed his unmatched energy and political skills in campaigning for PDP candidates from the top to the bottom from 1999 to date.

He has a history of radically confronting the military junta of Abacha for the sake of restoring democracy (PDP) to Nigeria, and he was sent to jail several times during the PRP days and the military era.

Lamido was imprisoned for his emancipation of the masses. Some of these things will give him an edge and advantage over other compatriots on the corridor of Nigerian politics and the PDP.

Lamido’s almost five decades of experience in the rough terrain of Nigerian politics is being brought to bear in this election cycle. He is so often in the news for a combination of reasons, including his imposing physical presence, his simple style of doing things, and his solid records of commitment, loyalty, achievements, consistency, and sacrifice, etc., to PDP since its creation in 1998 to date.

Sule Lamido is one of the most experienced politicians in Nigeria and is arguably the most successful governor in Nigeria since 1999 to date. Before then, he was a former unionist (PRP national youth leader), Social Democratic Party (SDP) national secretary, the party that made the late chief abiola to win as a president in the most freest, fairest, credible and peaceful election in Nigeria, a parliamentarian, and a former diplomat (minister). He has made a lot of sacrifices for this country, Nigeria. His contributions have reunited and reawakened Nigeria, and as far as politics is concerned, Lamido is one person you cannot bury or shove away.

Sule Lamido always says his mind, which in all cases aligns with the interests of the common man. He never succumbs to sentiments. He was never accused of bigotry or nepotism. He is a nationalist, liberal.

May Allah continue to prolong and preserve your life’s span. Lamido will keep working for Nigeria for the rest of his life to be peaceful, efficient, united, progressive, and great (excel).

May Nigeria rise again and work positively well. 2027 is a testing year for Nigeria. May God see us through and make it easy for us.

Adamu writes from Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State.

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Opinion

“We are all Natasha”: Senator’s sexual harassment claims roil Nigeria

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By Eromo Egbejule in Abidjan

Last July, Nigeria’s third-most powerful man gave a rare apology on the floor of the senate which he heads.
Godswill Akpabio had chastised his colleague Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for speaking out of turn, saying: “We are not in a nightclub”. But after receiving what he said was a deluge of insulting text messages from Nigerians, he apologised publicly a few days later.

In recent weeks, the two have been at the centre of a political row that has gripped the country, after an interview that Akpoti-Uduaghan gave to the broadcaster Arise TV in late February in which she accused Akpabio of sexual harassment.

She alleged that in one incident, Akpabio had told her that a motion she was trying to advance could be put to the senate if she “took care” of him. In another, she said that on a tour of his house he had told her – while holding her hand – “I’m going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here. You will enjoy it.”
Akpabio has denied the allegations.

Akpoti-Uduaghan submitted a petition to the senate alleging sexual harassment, but on 6 March the ethics committee struck it out on procedural grounds. It also handed her a six-month suspension without pay, citing her “unruly and disruptive” behaviour during an unrelated argument in the senate about seating arrangements.

The accusations have dominated conversations and highlighted longstanding women’s rights issues in the socially conservative country, where no woman has ever been elected governor, vice-president or president.

Only four women serve in the 109-member senate, a drop from the seven female senators elected in 2015. The number of women in the 360-member House of Representatives has also declined, from 22 in 2015 to 17.

In a phone interview from New York on Monday last week, hours before speaking on the matter at a joint session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, Akpoti-Uduaghan railed against her suspension.
“This was orchestrated to silence my voice,” she said. “That action is an assault on democracy … I am not apologising for speaking my truth.”

Women’s rights groups have condemned her suspension, and hundreds of women and girls marched in the states of Lagos, Enugu, Edo and Kaduna on Wednesday during a “We are all Natasha” protest convened by the civil society coalition Womanifesto.

“Her suspension and the process that led to it was a shambolic show of shame,” said Ireti Bakare-Yusuf, a radio broadcaster and founder of the non-profit Purple Women Foundation, which is part of Womanifesto.

Ahmed Tijani Ibn Mustapha, a spokesperson for Akpabio, said Akpoti-Uduaghan’s petition alleging sexual harassment had not followed guidelines because she had authored and signed it herself rather than asking another senator to do so.

He also said that after she had refiled the petition correctly, the senate began a four-week investigation into the claims.

Akpoti-Uduaghan, an opposition People’s Democratic party (PDP) senator from the central state of Kogi, first tried to enter politics in 2019 with a run for Kogi governor. Thugs reportedly loyal to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) jeered her during the campaign, calling her a sex worker, and on one occasion attacking her and her driver. “This is definitely not an election,” she told reporters at the time. “This is almost like a war zone.”
Four years later, on the eve of the senate election she was contesting, portions of the main roads leading to her district were excavated overnight. She accused the APC of attempting to prevent her from campaigning. Authorities said they were protecting residents against terrorist attacks, citing a December 2022 bomb blast by an Islamic State affiliate.

She lost the election, but in November 2023 a tribunal overturned the results, paving the way for her to become one of Nigeria’s youngest senators.

Akpabio, a political veteran, was the subject of another sexual harassment allegation from a former public official in 2020. He denied the allegation at the time and recently said he would sue his accuser. He had previously made headlines in 2018 when he predicted an election victory for his APC party by drawing comparisons with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Last year, shortly after becoming senate president, he was involved in another controversy when a senator was suspended for saying there were inconsistencies in the budget.

After Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension, other senators coalesced around Akpabio, a powerful ally of the country’s president, Bola Tinubu.

One male senator said Akpoti-Uduaghan had fabricated the claims because she was angered by her removal as chair of a coveted senate committee in February. Current female senators dismissed her claims on national TV, while one former senator said Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims were “a sign of weakness” and that sexual harassment happened only in schools.
“Male senators do not surprise me,” said Bakare-Yusuf of the reaction. “They mansplain even the basic of black and white to justify their selfishness. As for the female senators, disappointed is an understatement [but] like all hegemonic structures, patriarchy also has gatekeepers.”

In the aftermath of her accusation, a false claim that Akpoti-Uduaghan had borne six children by six different men surfaced on social media. The senate spokesperson said a kiss she shared with her husband on the senate premises before submitting her petition was “unspeakable” and an act of “content creation”. Over the last two weeks, crowds of pro-Akpabio protesters have turned up in public to abuse her in Abuja.

“Politicians sided with the senate president whom they believe has the power to grant them favours … and the poor were paid by those who have the most money to protest,” said Glory Ehiremen, senior analyst at Lagos-based geopolitical risk advisory, SBM Intelligence.

Some opposition senators have visited Akpoti-Uduaghan to show support. She also said she had received supportive emails from women across Nigeria, including some who were afraid to speak up about their own experiences. “In Nigeria, most women who are sexually harassed in workplaces don’t even tell their husbands because they are afraid of being judged,” she said.

As the episode unfolds, more women are praising her bravery, but few think Nigeria’s #MeToo moment has arrived.
Ehiremen said an entrenched culture of impunity was a barrier to justice. “The elite Nigerian cannot get justice unless they have alliances with the ‘powerful’,” she said. “Never mind the ordinary Nigerian.”

This was first published in Guardian Newspapers

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Opinion

Ekiti’s next leap!

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By Abiodun KOMOLAFE

One of the off-cycle elections next year will take place in Ekiti State, where Governor Biodun Oyebanji will face reelection. Oyebanji has several strengths to leverage when campaigning begins, particularly his efforts to redirect the state’s political economy in a positive direction, as widely acknowledged by conventional wisdom.

Ekiti State has navigated the current economic transformation in very steady ways. The state’s poverty level is relatively manageable, rather than crippling. The governor’s strategic intervention in agriculture has built up buffers of price-modulating as well as supply-adjustment mechanisms. This approach has effectively withstood economic headwinds, serving as a model that other states would do well to emulate.

In many ways, Oyebanji’s agricultural policies echo those of Gabriel Akinola Deko, a former Minister of Agriculture from neighbouring Ondo State. Deko, known for his astuteness, established Marketing and Commodity Boards to shield the masses from inflationary pressures. Oyebanji continues this approach!

The governor also excels in two key areas: infrastructural development and management of the political class. His efforts have secured the Federal Government’s approval for the reconstruction of the Ado-Iyin-Igede-Aramoko Itawure Road. The Bola Tinubu government has allocated N5.4 billion for this project, aiming to enhance connectivity and economic growth. As the state's resources continue to improve, the expectation is that the ongoing Ado-Ekiti Ring Road project, connecting the new airport, will also be dualized.

The dynamics of Ekiti State provide the incumbent governor with a highly favourable position, particularly in terms of electoral advantage. In a country seething in the grip of its own helplessness, Oyebanji has proven himself to be a quality leader! Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for the polity, there is currently no coherent alternative emerging from the grassroots to convincingly challenge his position.

To upset an incumbent, one needs a coherent position, even if the incumbent is laughably incompetent. It is tragic that no such alternative position is in the offing, which says a lot about the current state of politics, not just in Ekiti State but nationwide.

May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

*KOMOLAFE wrote from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)

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