By Egghead Odewale
Last Wednesday (11/02/2015), the President in a media chat with
selected journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja attended to
questions bordering on various issues that affect Nigeria and the
polity. If anything, rather than clear the air around the issues raised,
the president merely succeeded in adding to the confusion and aiding
the distrust that already pervades his administration.
Particularly, through his own whims and grimaces, he offered
Nigerians another opportunity to re-assess his sentiments and the
thinking around government quarters with respect to those important
national issues.
JEGA’S TENURE
Even if Mr. President is no longer disposed towards Jega, he should
be told that he cannot remove the latter from office until the
expiration of his tenure on June 30. While responding to questions
during the media chat, President Goodluck Jonathan opined that he held
constitutional powers to appoint or remove the Chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega.
He said, “…if you ask Jega, he would tell you. I appointed all the
Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners in INEC. They are my
appointees. So, if I feel that Jega is not good enough for obvious
reasons, then I can by that provision of the constitution, that gives
the person power who appointed him the power, to remove him. But I have
not told anybody that I am going to remove Jega”.
I think it is unfortunate that despite all the years spent in public
service, which invariably is his main claim to suitability for the
highest office, Mr. President continues to commit such solecisms on
issues that draw obvious references in the Constitution of the Federal
Republic as well as from legal texts, history and tradition in public
office. To wit, the Constitution is clear on the powers for appointment
and removal of the INEC Chairman and head and/or members of other
federal agencies duly listed in S153, Chapter VI, Part I(B). Listed at
S153f, amongst 14 other federal agencies (S153a-n), the Commissioners at
INEC, including the Chairman (S161) “may only be removed from that
office by the President acting on an address supported by two-thirds
majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed for inability to
discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from infirmity of
mind or body or any other cause) or misconduct (S161d)” as clearly
enumerated in S157 of the same chapter of the Constitution.
With all the human and financial resources at the disposal of Mr.
President, one would expect that he has unhindered access to the best
advice or ideas that you can imagine. He should, by now, know that once
nominated, ratified by the NASS and appointed into office, it has gone
beyond his powers to sack any of the Commissioners at INEC, including
the Chairman. What do his aides viz: Attorney-General, Special Adviser
(Legal) and his personal lawyers, tell him with respect to his powers in
this instance? I wish that he be so reminded and that he must
immediately withdraw his embarrassing comments but also ensure he
guarantees the tenure of office of the INEC Chairman and his
Commissioners. This call has become imperative in light of the
coordinated orchestrated attacks on the person and integrity of Prof
Attahiru Jega by the President’s men, friends and party.
I am sure that Nigerians have not forgotten how the president in two
instances overreached the powers of his office in the removal of former
President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, and the former
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. This is a
man who claims not to apply more than 40% of the powers of his office
yet has consistently misapplied or misappropriated such Constitutional
powers. A president who touts separation of powers should be mindful
that the exercise of certain powers are subject to the ratification of
the relevant arms of government. Despite being a major beneficiary in
both instances, if the removal of Salami and Sanusi did not cause him
enough political heartache, Mr. Jonathan would know that the country is
at that point where the inkling of any unwarranted suspicion of the
electoral process can inflame tenebrific clouds over the nation. My
reproof is for him to price the crisis very well before he procures it.
INEC AND MILITARY DO NOT CONSULT THE PRESIDENT
In another instance and in a clear attempt to scorn S158(1) of the
Constitution, Mr. President intoned what seemed like a complaint stating
“In 2011, INEC didn’t consult me.”
May I make it clear to Mr. President that the ‘I’ standing for
‘Independent’ in INEC is not a pejorative affixture but one whose
ramifications have been stated and founded a backbone in S158(1) of the
Constitution. Sir, INEC is not expected to consult you more especially
when you have a vested interest and you’re a contestant in the
elections. Nonetheless, this does not in any way preclude you from
providing all necessary administrative supports to ensure hitch-free
elections as against the slipshod manner in which your security chiefs
have reprobated relevant provisions of the Constitution.
Contrariwise, the same is not correct for the conduct of the Service
Chiefs who seemed to have turned the president to not more than a
‘figurehead’ Commander-in-Chief by his own admission.
In the selfsame chat, the president suggested that, “I am not the
Chief of Defence Staff that wrote the letter…. the security services did
not consult me. Of course, I was not consulted and did not want to be
consulted”. With no other person than the president who should double as
the Commander-in-Chief now openly admitting that he was not consulted
before the security advisory to abort the initially proposed February
elections was passed to INEC, one must be deeply worried that the
security services no longer subscribe to or are no more under the firm
control of civilian authorities as expected in a democratic dispensation
and as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
Whereas the Chairman of INEC claimed during his infamous press
conference that he received a security caution from the NSA, President
Jonathan has now apportioned that claim to the Chief of Defence Staff.
We are left as a nation with nothing more than frenetic jitters to
demand the truth with respect to the author, nay Constitutional
coupist(s), of the missive that eventually occasioned last Saturday’s
involuntary postponement of the elections.
It should bother all men and women of good conscience that the
National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) and the Service
Chiefs have become too powerful that they contumaciously usurp
provisions of the Constitution and contemptuously disregard constituted
civilian authorities and no less than the man in whom the sovereignty of
Nigerians has been vested till May 29th, 2015.
By his own very admission, President Jonathan has not only
demonstrated his infirmness to continue to hold office as the President
and Commander-in-Chief but also exposed the NSA and Service Chiefs as
abusing their offices and irresponsibly abdicating the lawful security
tasks assigned to them thereby making them, incompetent to continue in
their offices.
Of course, the president showed a deceitful befuddlement when he
later admitted that, “as Chief Security Officer, of the Federation, I
have an idea” of the memo sent to subvert the original plans toward the
February 14th national elections and February 28th state elections. This
development where the president vacillates or prevaricates unsurely
publicly, has given rise to a situation contrary to known practice where
it is now the NSA and Service Chiefs who give assurances with respect
to the ‘inviolability of next advertised dates’ of the General
Elections.
USE OF GOVERNMENT RESOURCES FOR CAMPAIGN
With all gusto, President Jonathan declared, “In 2011, INEC didn’t
consult me (before shifting the election). If they had consulted me, I
wouldn’t have wasted my time and government resources. For any trip I
make, I know what the government spends”.
This is a clear testimony from Mr. President that he has been
applying government resources to his political campaigns. Whether in
periods of surplus or time of austerity, such wanton misapplication of
official resources for Mr. President’s personal political activities is
totally uncalled for. If for nothing, this puts additional unnecessary
pressure on dwindling government resources.
One would expect Coordinating Minister for the Economy (CME), Mrs.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to immediately commence the implementation of her
austerity measures from such wasteful endeavours that eat into
government expenditures.
I think it behooves a punctilious leader and one who has the interest
of his people at heart to do away with such unnecessary draw-downs on
public funds.
MORE REASONS FOR POLLS SHIFT
If the inconsistency of the NSA’s original claims for the calls for
polls shift with those of the service chiefs who claim inability to
protect the polls was anything to go by, Mr. President debunked all of
these when he asserted that “Yes, the Boko Haram is there; but also the
tensed factor in the country. When INEC came up with the dates for
elections, there was no much threat and the security agencies saw a lot
of red points and they believed elections should be shifted, otherwise
the whole country would go into flames”.
A president who has already claimed not to be consulted in serious
matters of national security declares that some other “tensed factors”
was responsible for the polls postponement, then we may begin to demand
further explanations; what items constitute these tensed factors? This
latest suggestion is an unambiguous confirmation of what we have always
maintained that Mr. President and his band of appointed security chiefs
take Nigerians for a ride as they wish. Nigerians are reminded how the
clamour for polls shift started with the NSA under the pretext of rate
of PVC collection, then to the irresponsible claim that the security
agencies cannot guarantee security for the elections and now the
president himself cited tensed factors. At some point, the government
through the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA),
resorted to scaremongering when Mike Omeri avows of plans to blow up
polling units across the country. A threat to which his government’s
only response to avert the envisioned carnage was to collect signatures
from Nigerians across all 774 Local Government Areas.
Nigerians should demand to know the truth as these indications call
for concern regarding the genuineness of the new dates announced for the
elections. Nigerians are already exasperated and having to endure a
grueling campaign schedule is bad enough. President Goodluck Jonathan
and his men should save the nation the distressing troubles of going
through this cycle again, because suddenly, the electoral developments
have become a déjà vu reminiscent of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida’s series
of aborted transition programmes. Nigerians are forewarned to beware!
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