- Lawyers highlight dangers in Tinubu’s intervention
- Lawyers highlight dangers in Tinubu’s intervention
- No price too big to pay for peace – Fubara
- Wike, others ’ll be sanctioned at the right time, says PDP chairman
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, BENEDICT NWACHUKWU & BRIGHT JACOB
Some legal luminaries in Nigeria have described the interventions of President Bola Tinubu in the political crisis that engulfed Rivers State as unconstitutional.
They cautioned President Tinubu to tread softly in order not to set bad precedent by supervising resolutions that appeared to rubbish the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction.
According to them, the judgement of the Rivers State High Court that legitimized the speakership of Edison Ehie cannot be set aside by the resolutions reached by President Tinubu on the crisis that has been rocking the oil rich state.
Recall that the political gladiators in the state reached a truce on Monday after a meeting with President Tinubu at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
The meeting had in attendance Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
Also at the meeting were ex-Rivers governor, Peter Odili; and some traditional rulers from the state.
The Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila were also part of the meeting.
After Monday’s meeting, the warring parties agreed that all matters instituted in the courts by Fubara and his team, be withdrawn immediately.
However, in their reactions during their separate interviews with The Point on Tuesday, some legal practitioners in the country said though Tinubu was trying to make peace and prevent the breakdown of law and order, his roles in the political theatre of war do not have any constitutional backing.
A lawyer, Oladipo Olasope, SAN, said, “It is not constitutional for the President to have intervened and moderated such suggestions.”
On whether it is possible for the 2024 budget of Rivers State passed and signed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara be undone or be re-presented except the Supreme Court invalidates it, Olasope opined that, “It can happen for lawmakers who move from one party to another party, different from the party that elected them into the office. You know there have been many decisions to the effect that they lost their seats. So, the President intervening is just a means of trying to settle the issue there because you know that after their defection, he (Fubara) went to demolish the House of Assembly.
“So, I think it is just a way of trying to resolve the dispute, that is why the President said they should go back to their previous party so that the governor can represent the budget because I read, if it is true, that the governor presented the budget to just four members of the House of Assembly and that obviously it is not also constitutional. So, I think the President was just doing that out of his own freewill to resolve a dispute.”
He added, “The lawmakers can go back to their previous party and they will be saved; then, the man (Fubara) will present the budget to them. That is possible. There is no law that says they cannot go back to the party to go and take their rightful place. It is very possible. The President might succeed in resolving the dispute if those people return to their former party and then the budget will be presented and everything goes back to normal. But, constitutionally, what he (Tinubu) is doing, he has no constitutional backing. But, it can have a force of law if those people go back to their previous party. The budget can be represented and regularised.”
Another lawyer, Lekan Alabi, argued that setting aside the judgement of the Rivers State High Court that recognizes Ehie as the Speaker without appeal could be contemptuous and one that could set a bad precedent to the nation’s judiciary and democracy at large.
Specifically, Alabi noted that the resolutions lacked power to overrule the judgement of the court and warned President Tinubu and the political gladiators against dabbling into court matters, as making Martin Amaewhule the Speaker would be tantamount to waging war against the judiciary.
According to him, “It is contemptuous for anybody to wage war against the judgment of any court, particularly a court of record. When court speaks, it is the final; if you are not pleased with it, you go on appeal. With this Rivers issue, especially as it regards to the speakership position, for anybody to use fiat to now try to change or dabble into court matters or judgment, it will be disastrous and if we continue like this in our society, there is no way we will ever progress.
“With the way things are going, there will be a time one would not be able to walk on the street because he or she is not a member of a particular political party. The President derived his power from the grand norm, which is the constitution and he should not pander to or allow barbarism.”
For the re-presentation of the budget, he stated, “The truth is that it was funny that the governor presented the budget to a sitting that does not form the constitutional quorum. That was wrong. So, since it failed to meet up the required stand, the presentation of the budget ab initio cannot stand. Why go before four lawmakers and present a budget?”
“When the fuller house reconvenes, he can return there and re-present the budget,” he added.
When asked if the 25 assembly seats that were declared vacant, and communication sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission notifying it of the vacancies be reversed, Alabi said, “Having written to the INEC to conduct another election, we are yet to hear from INEC. So, let us see what the INEC will say about their return.”
On whether Rivers people would expect the Commissioners that resigned after citing personal reasons for leaving the cabinet, to be true to their convictions and stick to their personal reasons for exit, the lawyer described politicians as architects of Nigeria’s problems.
“We have more time for better things than all this child’s play. Some are already saying that some parties did not sign the agreement. President Tinubu should stop treating states like children University of Abuja. Let political parties settle their problems inwardly. The President should have more time for the crisis this country is facing, rather than dabbling into state affairs.
“The Awolowos, Azikiwes of that time fought for us but we are not building on their achievements. There is no development in this country and that should worry us more than attending to frivolities,” he stated.
Alabi added, “Nigerians are not finding it very easy at all, things are very difficult everywhere now and politicians of today must tread softly; they must be very careful. It is becoming one too many. They dabble into anything; there is no norm, no tradition, no culture again. Everything in this country is working upside down. Our leaders must be very careful.”
In his submission, elder statesman and lawyer, Robert Clarke, SAN, said that President Tinubu does not have any constitutional right to have waded into the Rivers controversy and power tussle between Fubara and Wike.
Clarke said that the idea of independent candidacy in elections, where one is free from political party affiliations, will solve the majority of the political issues in Nigeria.
Responding to the question of the presence of the president’s constitutional role to intervene in state matters, Clarke said, “The constitutional role of the President in all this fracas, there should have been none. Because we were not expecting it, none has been provided for.
“The only time, the only constitution that allows the Federal Government to put its mouth in a local thing is during the First Republic when a declaration of emergency was declared in the west.”
He added, “The president has no power, he knows that. The best legal brain cannot help him. You can’t bring Robert Clarke to come and change the law to enable the president to come and intervene. Under what constitutional provisions? So, the law by itself as of today did not provide (a constitutional right for Tinubu to intervene in state matters).”
A senior lawyer, Fred Aigbadumah, who frowned at the resolutions adopted said that Tinubu should not override the courts.
“Right from the days of Buhari, I have been saying that Nigeria is descending to a state of anomy. We claim to project the constitution but is that (Tinubu’s resolution) the provision of the constitution?
“Is it that the president is now more powerful than the constitution?
“The Executive arm has succeeded in emasculating the Legislative arm and now they’re extending that same emasculation to the Judiciary.
“Otherwise, immediately all the orders of the court were made, they were supposed to be enforced and there wouldn’t have been any need for Tinubu’s resolution.
“Tinubu is not superior to the constitution. And this should not be a question of party issue, it should be a question of the rule of law, but where are we in Nigeria today with that?”
Aigbadumah added that as long as the position of the court had not been set aside by another court, the resolutions were “just words of men.”
“I am of the view that the position of the court (on the crises in Rivers State), since it has not been reviewed or has been set aside or vacated (by another court), should have the way because these (resolutions) are just words of men, and not only that, anything can change before the next 24 hours.
“For instance, if Wike prevaricates and says notwithstanding the president’s intervention, he still wants to deal with Fubara, can Tinubu come back and say he must not?
“The worst that would happen is that he (Tinubu) would remove Wike from his government, which I’m not sure he is ready to do now as we speak,” Aigbadumah said.
On the “reversal” of the 25 assembly seats declared vacant and in which communication was sent to INEC notifying it of the vacancies, Aigbadumah said INEC had become an appendage of the Presidency, otherwise “they are supposed to do the expected.”
Reacting to the budget that was recently passed into law, Aigbadumah said it should not be undone.
“As at the time it was done, it was just four members that were the viable members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. So, to me, it has some great teeth of legality. I don’t think it should be undone.
“But if they’re saying because of political expediency…which political expediency is that? One man’s super-imposed position should not override the decision of the majority,” he argued.
Moreover, the Notary Public of the Supreme Court doubted the loyalty of the commissioners who resigned their appointments but their names are to be resubmitted to the legislators for approval, and alleged that they would deal with the governor if they came back.
“What is the guarantee that their loyalty will be towards the governor? Their hearts are no longer with the government and I don’t see why they should be coming back.
“They will deal with the governor if they come back. Fubara has to check his political permutations and calculations very well because Wike is an experienced politician even though a lot of people see him as a demigod,” Aigbadumah concluded.
A lawyer and social commentator, Sylva Nosike, said the President has shown that he does not know where his powers begin and end.
“Can you imagine such steps our President took being beamed to the world? I don’t even want to believe he uttered those words as resolutions for the crisis. Maybe he advised them to go and find a lasting solution then they came out and began to say what they like to the media. If it’s true that President Tinubu asked the governor and Wike to trade on that path, then Nigeria is finished. The implications are numerous even as they will negatively impact on our constitution, governance and worst of all elections and political history.
“The brilliant question you asked, can the resolutions reached by President Tinubu on the Rivers crisis set aside a judgement of the Rivers State High Court that legitimized the speakership of Edison Ehie is a million dollars question. As a lawyer for many years, I have not seen where the President’s decision sets aside a High Court judgment but if it happens in this administration, it’s a confirmation that the judiciary is dead and buried paving way for anarchy. A group of people dumped their seats in the state House of Assembly, abandoned the party that sponsored them, defected to another party and their seats were declared vacant which is legally right then someone whose powers are built on the constitution is saying something in the contrary and journalists are reporting it. It’s a big shame to us as a giant of Africa. It’s a big shame to our 24 years of uninterrupted democracy.
“What we expect from the President in this crisis is to look Wike to his face and call him to order. Wike is his appointee, he can remove him if he is giving his administration troubles not to play the ostrich in order to please Wike. There is no justification whatsoever to place a former governor on the same scale with a sitting governor. Whatever Wike did for the President or is doing for him must be treated at their personal level but when it comes to state matters, President Tinubu should tell Wike and his cronies to respect the office of the executive governor. The people of Rivers State trooped out in their hundreds of thousands to elect him on March 18 and he should be allowed to do the work they elected him for.
On the issue of budget, the legal luminary argued that if the 2024 budget of the state already passed and signed by Governor Fubara be undone or the bill be re-presented, a statement that would hunt down the country’s democracy and governance would have been made.
He said it’s only the Supreme Court that could invalidate it.
Reacting, Remi Lombert said Nigeria is a country governed by law.
He said precedence had been set and there is no way the judiciary and even INEC can go back on the 25 assembly seats declared vacant, and communication sent to INEC notifying it of the vacancies.
“There’s no contemplation at all. The 25 lawmakers that defected to APC have legally abandoned their seats at the state house of assembly and that is legal. How did Senators Godswill Akpabio, the current Senate President and the former Senate President, Ahmad Lawal return to the Senate of the 10th Assembly? The Supreme Court said it’s the party that sponsors a candidate and has the right to decide who becomes its candidate. On the grounds of this judgment, these 25 lawmakers were sponsored by the PDP and now that they have jumped out of the PDP and jumped into APC, the law is that they are no longer members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. Anything contrary to this whether by the court or whatever agency, is illegal and will be seen to be illegal.
On the area of resigned Commissioners, Lombert said “they resigned citing personal reasons for their resignation and I don’t think the Rivers people would support their governor to bring them back because they have shown that their loyalty is to an individual not the state. No man puts a snake in his pocket. If Fubara decides to bring them back, it’s his opinion and should be respected but what should not be accepted is the President giving that as a condition for settling the crisis. That’s my take. And I think President Tinubu should know that Rivers State is not a ministry and moreover, we are not in a military regime where the military Head of State will give orders to the governors in their states.”
No price too big to pay for peace – Fubara
Meanwhile, Governor Fubara has said there is no price too great for him to pay for peace to reign in the state.
Fubara made this known while addressing a special convocation ceremony at the Pamo University of Medical Sciences, where he promised to abide by the truce brokered by President Tinubu.
“Let me say this to my dear state. I call you my dear state because the support you have shown to me within this period is unmeasurable.
“Ordinarily, I don’t even know them or have any contact with them but they stood by me.
“There is no amount that is too big to pay for peace. I will continue to pay it,” an emotional Fubara said.
Wike, others ’ll be sanctioned at the right time, says PDP chairman
In another development, the acting National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagum, has said Wike is not above the party.
Damagum who stated this while responding to questions at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday hinted that the party leadership will sanction Wike and others who were involved in anti-party activities at the right time.
This is coming on the heels of the admonition by some stakeholders within the PDP asking Damagum to sanction Wike and others for alleged anti-party activities during the just-concluded general elections.
Damagum said, “Our stand about Wike, I have always said this thing that as long as you are a member of the PDP, there is a time for everything. My duty is to stabilise this party and not to cause a crisis. And I will continue to do that within the confines of reason.
“When things go out of hand, we will act. But meanwhile, we still see it within the ambit of the law. Mind you, we have other litigation going on in this party and we won’t want to plunge our party into another crisis.
“And let me tell you something, it’s not only Wike, there are other people who worked against this party. When we get to that level we will sanction everybody. If Wike believes he is above this party, we will be able to show him that he is not above this party.”
Damagum, who noted that there was never a time Wike said he is not a member of the PDP, added that the party’s yet-to-be-inaugurated 2023 review committee will present a report and recommend appropriate sanctions against those involved in anti-party activities.
“They are to review what happened in 2023 and come out with a report not only about one person, but every person who has in one way or another engaged in anti-party activity. Then after that, we will see what kind of measures to take”, he added.
