Restructuring: Lawyer Faults Buhari, Says President Has Constitutional Powers To Effect Changes

A human rights lawyer and Executive Director of nonprofit organization, Centre for Underprivileged and Vulnerable Persons, Barrister Oghenejabor Ikimi on Friday told President Muhammadu Buhari that he has constitutional powers and fait to effect any change in the country including teething issues of restructuring.

Ikimi said that by virtue of Sections 5(1)(a) and 130(1) & (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, Mr. Buhari has the constitutional powers and fiat to initiate any national discourse on the social contract that could bind Nigeria people together as a nation including but not limited to the vex issue of restructuring.

He spoke in reaction to the statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, on Tuesday that “the President has no power to impose restructuring on the country by military diktat’.

The lawyer while aligning himself with the position of Southern Leaders Forum, who said only restructuring will ensure the unity, peace and development of Nigeria, emphasized that Buhari has right to restructure the country along the lines of true fiscal federalism within the  present democratic framework in a bid to ensure unity, peace and progress in the country.

He however expressed disagreement to the assertion of Shehu that it is only the National Assembly and the Council of State that can handle agitations for restructuring and other constitutional changes in the country.

According to him, it is erroneous for the Presidency to think it is only the National Assembly that can effect change in the country, stressing that they (National Assembly) are not the appropriate bodies to discuss the social contract that could bind us together as a nation”

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“By Sections 4(2)(4)(a) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the National Assembly can only make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation in respect to matters included in the Exclusive and Concurrent Legislative List as set out in Part 1 and the first column of Part II of the second schedule to the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“However, the vex issue of restructuring including other social contracts that binds us together as a united nation and agreed upon by our founding fathers cannot be found in any of the items contained in either the said Exclusive or Concurrent Legislative List which the National Assembly can constitutionally legislate on or alter under Section 9(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“The same no doubt applies to the Council of State whose membership and functions are as set out in the fifth and sixth column of Part 1 of the third schedule to the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“I am not oblivious of the fact that the 1999 Constitution which came into being by military fiat is a unitary Constitution that deceptively referred to Nigeria as a Federation, since Nigeria as a nation stopped being a Federation in the year 1966 by virtue of Decree No. 34 promulgated by the then Head of State and Supreme Commander, late Major General J. T. Aguyi-Ironsi who suspended the 1963 Republican Constitution, a full-fledged Federal Constitution and in its stead adopted a unitary system of Government.

“Surprisingly subsequent Military Governments rather than correct the apparent error, followed suit by promulgating the unitary Constitutions of 1979 and 1999 respectively which clothed our nation with a deceptive Federation, a country consisting of multi faceted ethnic nations.

“Under the 1999 Constitution as amended there are 68 items which the National Assembly can exclusively legislate on while there are 30 items which both the National Assembly and the 36 State Houses of Assembly can concurrently legislate on.

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“Over the years numerous ethnic nations have had genuine cause to complain of discontentment, injustice and marginalization within our deceptive Federation, which in effect has incubated into the present tide of separatist feelings and agitations nationwide, hence the urgent need to restructure our nation along the lines of true fiscal Federalism as agreed upon by our founding fathers to guarantee the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria as a nation”.

“Finally I wish to pontificate without mincing words that President Muhammadu Buhari by virtue of his position as Head of State, the Chief Executive of the Federation and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation vested with executive powers of the Federation in accordance with Sections 5(1)(a) and 130(1) & (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended has the constitutional powers and fiat to initiate any national discourse on the social contract”.

Continuing, he however said it was satanic and condemnable for some faceless persons to call Mr President “an enemy of Nigeria” because of the vex issue of restructuring, saying the comments on the social media was indeed in bad taste.

Maintaining that as a patriotic Nigerian, he knows restructuring will correct all the apparent errors in our present polity and disarm all separatist agitations/groups nationwide, Ikimi warned that any attempt by the Presidency to ignore the above by clamping down on agitators of restructuring nationwide could be counter-productive as the  Presidency and her security agencies would have succeeded in entrenching the culture of violence and disunity in our public life as a nation. God forbid!”

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