THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS:

INVOKE SECTION 144 OR

IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT!
Monday, 15 February 2010

The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) is obliged to reject as unconstitutional the

February 9 resolution of the National Assembly supposedly vesting the office of
Acting President upon Vice President Goodluck Jonathan following the absence
from office by President Umar Yar’Adua for more than 60 days. The long
absence of President Yar’Adua from the country without transferring the powers
of the office to the vice-president has thrown the country into a constitutional
and political crisis and brought the machinery of state to a near-halt. It is
understandable in the circumstances that every sector of Nigerian society has
been vociferous in their call on the National Assembly and the Federal Executive
Council (FEC) to exercise the constitutional powers and duties reposed in them to
resolve the problem quickly. The resolution of the National Assembly vesting the
powers of Acting President on Vice-president Jonathan is however not among
those constitutional powers. It is therefore not a lawful resolution of the
problem.

The CLO believes that the government of Nigeria cannot choose to abide by the
constitution only when that suits it. The very edifice of democracy is raised on
the foundations of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Playing irresponsible
games with that foundation as the FEC and the National Assembly have been
doing weakens and will eventually bring down the entire structure. This is
unacceptable, for Nigerians paid a dear price in life, liberty, and limb for the
regime of civil rule we have today.

Section 144 of the constitution provides that, ‘The President (or Vice-President)
shall cease to hold office if 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 function of this office.’
Available evidence strongly support the conclusion the president is at present
incapable of discharging the duties of his office. He has been away from those
duties for about 70 days. No one has been able to see him since he left the
country in November, not the leaders of the ruling PDP, not any member of his
own cabinet, not the leadership of the National Assembly. In the meanwhile, the
ship of state has been left rudderless and has drifted into dire constitutional and
political straits. If this is not a clear case of incapacity to perform the offices of
the president, it is one of such colossal dereliction of duty that the National
Assembly would be justified to commence impeachment proceedings against the
president immediately.
In refusing to uphold the constitution in this matter, the FEC and the National
Assembly have betrayed the duty entrusted to them by the people of Nigeria.
None of them having been in the trenches in the long and costly fight against
military rule to realise the civilian regime they today preside over, they can
afford to treat the constitution – which for all its faults remains the law of the
land – with contempt and levity. Their deliberate and cynical disregard of its
provisions in this matter is clear to all and is completely insupportable. This is
particularly so given that its entire purpose has been to protect the selfish
political and economic interests of a small cabal.

The February 9 resolution of the National Assembly on this matter is an

unacceptable attempt to lend a semblance of legality to the clearly illegal refusal
of the FEC to uphold the constitution. The CLO therefore calls upon the FEC to
perform its constitutional duty and invoke Section 144 of the constitution. Only
on this ground can the transfer of power to the Vice-president be constitutional.
In the absence of a resolution declaring the president incapable, everyone would
be justified to conclude that the cabinet wants us to believe that president has
abandoned his duty post. The National Assembly must then commence
impeachment proceedings to remove him from office for negligence of duty, so
that the vice-president may properly and lawfully become Acting President.

Osaze Lanre Nosaze

Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation