There is a lot of misconception, even among
lawyers, not to talk of laymen, regarding the
position of President Goodluck Jonathan’s
tenure vis-à-vis the 2015 election. While many
people are putting pressure on the president to
go ahead and contest the next presidential
election, others are urging him to renounce his
intention to contest, in the interest of peace
and stability of the country and to concentrate
on providing good governance.
A new dimension was, however, added to the
issue when on New Year’s Eve 2013, the
president’s supporters decided not only to fly a
kite by flooding Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city,
with Jonathan’s 2015 presidential election
campaign posters, but went a step further to
ensure that some of the posters bore the
inscription “No Vacancy”. This may indicate that
the president is still toying with the idea of
contesting the 2015 presidential election.
From all indications, all those calling on
Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential
election, and others who are trying to dissuade
him from pursuing his ambition, appear to be
unaware that as per the provisions of 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
(as amended), the president is serving his
second and final term in office and, therefore,
ineligible to contest the 2015 presidential
election.
The latest judicial authority on the issue of
tenure of office of president and governors is
the Supreme Court’s decision in the unreported
case of Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba
Marwa Vs Admiral Murtala Nyako and others on
tenure elongation delivered on January 27,
2012. In the judgment, the Supreme Court,
while giving the proper interpretation of the
tenure of governor said inter alia:- “From the
language used in section 180 of the 1999
constitution, it is very clear that the
constitution intended that a governor of a state
shall have a tenure of four years from the date
he took Oaths of Allegiance and of Office and
nothing more, though he may spend less where
he dies, resigns or is even impeached. In all, a
governor has a maximum tenure of eight (
years under the 1999 constitution”. Section 180
is similar to Section 135 dealing with the
tenure of the president and, therefore, the
interpretation applies to the president as well.
Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, who
delivered the lead judgment, went further to
state as follows:- “I have also found and held
that from the totality of the relevant provisions
of the constitution including Section 180(1) &
(3) and Section 182 (1) (b), a person first
elected as governor of a State shall vacate his
office at the expiration of a period of four years
commencing from the date he took the Oath of
Allegiance and of Office though he could be re-
elected for another term of four years giving
him a maximum two tenures of eight years.
It is very clear from the relevant provisions that
no person elected under the 1999 constitution
can remain in that office for a day longer than
as provided, otherwise, the intention of the
framers of the constitution would be defeated”.
From the foregoing, it is clear that to allow the
president to contest the presidential election
in 2015 and be sworn-in for the third time will
not only be against the spirit of the
constitution, but will certainly be a direct
violation thereof because it will mean that he
will spend a total of nine years instead of eight
years allowed by law since by 2015, he would
have been in office for five years.
To add another four years is to exceed the
maximum limit permitted by the constitution.
Those calling on President Jonathan to contest
the 2015 election argue that he was not the
one who was “first elected”, but late President
Umaru Musa Yar’adua, forgetting that it was a
joint ticket which is why the Oaths of Allegiance
and that of Office is first administered on the
Vice president or Deputy Governor before
administering same on the President or
Governor to avoid creating a vacuum in the
event of any eventuality.
That is also why when President Umaru Musa
Yar’adua died on May 5, 2010, he became the
natural successor and was automatically
sworn-in the following day without resorting to
the novel idea of invoking the “doctrine of
necessity” by the National Assembly to even
make him Acting President when the Federal
Executive Council refused to rise up to the
occasion and declare the President
incapacitated to pave the way for the current
president who was then his Vice to assume the
position of substantive president. Former
Governor Boni Haruna of Adamawa State is a
case in point. He was sworn-in and served the
term of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
who was the person first elected as governor of
Adamawa State after the latter was nominated
as Vice Presidential candidate by former
President Olusegun Obasanjo and eventually
elected as Vice President.
Boni Haruna was sworn-in
as substantive governor
because it was a joint ticket. The issue was a
subject of litigation which ended at the
Supreme Court and was decided in favour of
Boni Haruna. The decision in Boni Haruna’s case
is consistent with the provision of Section 187
of the constitution which is similar to section
142 dealing with the establishment of the office
of the Vice President which stipulates as
follows: – “…a candidate for the office of
Governor of a state shall not be deemed to
have been validly nominated for such office
unless he nominates another candidate as his
associate for his running for the office of
Governor, who is to occupy the office of Deputy
Governor; and that candidate shall be deemed
to have been duly elected to the office of
Deputy Governor if the candidate who
nominated him is duly elected as Governor…”
This scenario also applies in the case of
President Jonathan, who was sworn-in as the
substantive President (not acting) for one year
twenty-two days in their first term in office after
the demise of President Yar’Adua. He formed his
own cabinet and ran his own government, and
not Ya’Adua’s government, thereby completing
their joint mandate first, as Vice President and
then, he finished as President with Mohammed
Namadi Sambo as his Vice President. It was at
this point that the umbilical cord which joined
Jonathan and Yar’Adua was cut, thereby
separating the administration of the former
from that of the latter.
It, therefore, means that it does not matter how
many months or years a President or Governor
spent in completing a term of office or how
much time he lost in his fixed term of four years
provided that the period he served is within the
four-year term certain as specified by the
constitution. This is because the Supreme
Court with a note of finality said: – “It is settled
law that the time fixed by the constitution for
the doing of anything cannot be extended. It is
immutable, fixed like the rock of Gibraltar.
It cannot be extended, elongated, expanded or
stretched beyond what it states”. If the
pronouncements of the Supreme Court are any
guide, it is clear that President Jonathan is in
his second and final term as President of
Nigeria and is, therefore, not eligible to contest
the presidential election in 2015.
Therefore, any eligible Nigerian who aspires to
be the next tenant in Aso Rock Villa effective
from 29th May, 2015 particularly members of
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
should disregard the no vacancy notice and,
accordingly, proceed to seek the nomination of
their respective parties to contest the 2015
presidential election.
Having done that, they should feel free to
approach the landlords and the landladies i.e.
the electorate for the approval to occupy the
State House for a renewable period of four
years. In fact, it was on the 29th May, 2011,
when President Jonathan was sworn-in as the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for
the second and final term, that he was
effectively put on notice on the duration of his
tenancy in Aso Rock Villa which will expire on
28th May, 2015 without an option of renewal
because it is a definite tenancy in accordance
with the provisions of the constitution which, in
this case, constitute the terms and conditions
of the Tenancy Agreement he entered into with
Nigerians which he swore to uphold.
In case the president and his supporters don’t
know, they should be made to understand that
there is a world of difference between
jettisoning of a party’s zoning arrangement and
flagrant violation of a country’s constitution.
Mu’azu writes from Jimeta – Yola. source~ www.dailypost.com.ng

Wow,what an eye opener, lets wait and see how they'll try to shift the goal post.

Me_Aboki: Wow,what an eye opener, lets wait and see how they'll try to shift the goal post.

Wetin open your eye... Lol. What the writer and poster failed to recognize is that constitutionally he served out the term of his boss during the first year and then into elected office after the elections. See keep bursting your eyes. It is up to him to contest or not. There is no constitutional crisis.