Yar Adua: Clerics’ Visits, Breach of National Security

From Onwuka Nzeshi in Abuja, 04.09.2010

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=170522

Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday declared that the recent visits by religious leaders to Aso Rock Presidential Villa were in breach of national security and irrelevant to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

Some prominent Islamic and Christian clerics had in the last few days visited Aso Rock ostensibly on invitation to meet with President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who has not been seen in public since November 23, 2009 when he took ill and was flown to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Gbajabiamila, a constitutional lawyer and leader of the Action Congress (AC) in the House, faulted the timing of the visits, the choice of visitors and the utterances credited to some of the visitors.

He said the fact that some persons could visit Aso Rock to meet with Yar’Adua when the acting president, Senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the chief justice of the Federation had not been able to see him since his return from Saudi Arabia has very grave implications on the polity.

According to him, such visits were in breach of national security to the extent that they were arranged by unknown persons operating within the Presidential Villa without the knowledge of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan whom, he said, remains the defacto president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until President Yar’Adua fully recuperates.

Gbajabiamila argued that if the visits were intended to distract the acting president from the job of administering the country, then those behind it were obviously not working in the best interest of the country.
He urged Jonathan not to take such security breaches lightly for his own safety and in the interest of the nation as the visits raise questions as to who really is in charge of the Presidential Villa.

He, however, maintained that the gimmicks employed through these visits could not change the power equation as Jonathan was made the acting president and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces through a resolution of the National Assembly to save the country from drifting into chaos and anarchy.

Such visits, Gbajabiamila said, might only be relevant to the extent that it had confirmed the suspicion of Nigerians that President Yar’Adua had been incapacitated all along and some persons had kept the nation in the dark to avoid the constitution from taking its due course.

“The visits and the reports that the president is able to sit and shake hands with people is a welcome development because that means he is recovering. But it misses the point completely. Funny enough, it actually confirms the fears of some of us that the president has been incapacitated all along. Whether the president can shake hands, can recognize you and even if he could talk…

“They said he couldn’t talk but even if he could talk, the point is it does not meet the constitutional test of capacity to function and that is the issue. It is not whether he is well or he is not well or he was sitting on his own. Those are irrelevant as far as the constitutional test of capacity to function in office is concerned. Honestly, it is a comedy of errors but of very tragic proportion,” he said.

He charged the newly sworn in Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) to rise up quickly to its responsibility by activating Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution to resolve the lingering controversy over Yar’Adua’s health status as the constitution does not envisage a situation where an acting president is made to rule the country in perpetuity.

“If you look at the constitution very well, really an acting president should be there for about one day, two days, three days, one week or maybe two weeks when the president has gone on vacation or medical leave. But the issue of an inordinate acting president for a year while you have a president is an anomaly in any constitution. It doesn’t make any sense so I think that the new cabinet should do the right thing,” he said.

Section 144 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 states in parts: “The President or Vice-President shall cease to hold office, if - (a) 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 functions of his office; and (b) the declaration is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under subsection (4) of this section in its report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

Grunting a 'Amen' and then slumping back into a coma doesn't indicate a capacity to be able to run a country.

Impeach!