A former Minister of Police Affairs, Ibrahim Yakubu Lame has called for the suspension of the country’s constitution, advocating that emergency powers be accorded to President Muhammadu Buhari, so he would no have to follow “tedious processes” before taking action.
Lame made the call on Wednesday, August 5, 2015 in Bauchi State while fielding questions from journalists.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain enthused that bestowing emergency powers on President Buhari will not destroy democracy, but would only make the system more effective, adding that since Nigeria now has a leader who has the desire and capacity to effect change, an environment must be created so he fulfills the mandate.
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Recall that in 1984, General Muhammadu Buhari suspended the constitution of Nigeria when he toppled a democractically elected government led by Shehu Shagari. Suspending the Nigerian constitution is essentially a coup, it eliminated the National Assembly and makes Buhari a maximum supreme ruler without any checks and balances.
He said: “We can do that for certain number of years, say in the next four years let’s do away with certain obstacles that will stop Buhari from functioning. After that, if it is not possible we add another four years, eight years in a life of a nation is not much to re-establish and re-position it is just doing what is expected. So if there are issues within the Constitution that are abused or being manipulated to stop Buhari from succeeding, we must remove or set them aside for now without compromising the fundamental position of the constitution.
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“Yar-Adua was sick, the same Nigerians called for doctrine of necessity. Such call was never in our Constitution but we invoked the issue of doctrine of necessity and then Goodluck Jonathan was made to act to avoid possible collapse of the system, so I believe we need to look at that. Though the situation has not reached that position but there are signs, like the leadership crisis in the National Assembly which is uncalled for.”
Grave Implications
Observers fear that such a move would pave the way for Buhari to carry out dictatorial actions like setting arbitrary jail sentences for political opponents, and setting excessive punishments for crimes as Buhari did during his military dictatorship of 1984 – 1985 in which politicians were jailed for 300 years, 500 years even after the courts discharged and acquitted them of any crimes.
“This treasonable call for the suspension of the constitution, brings back memories of Buhari’s maximum khaki regime which saw Buhari set death sentences for drug peddlers based on his Islamic beliefs,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi, chairman of Intersociety, a Nigerian human rights organisation. “This call reflects our fears that the 1999 constitution is a source of frustration to Buhari as it restricts his powers and protects the human rights of Nigerians.”
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Political analysts say that suspending the constitution of Nigeria would pave the way for Buhari to make sweeping decisions that would negatively impact sections of the country. Recalling Buhari’s comments in the United States in which he suggested that areas that voted for President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 elections would not be treated as well as areas that voted for him making reference to the 97% of the votes and 5% of the votes.
Suspending the constitution would also permit Buhari to make political appointments without reference to Federal Character leading to the marginalisation of some regions in the country in favour of the North. Also it would make room for what many who opposed Buhari in the last election feared, the full Islamization of Nigeria because there would be no National Assembly to provide checks and balances.
In 2001 at an Islamic seminar in Kaduna, General Buhari was given an opportunity to choose between Nigeria’s secularism and fundamentalist Islam, this is what he said; “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria”, he then added that; “God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country”.
Buhari an advocate of sharia was chosen to address that seminar in Kaduna because of his advocacy and he did not disappoint because he is one of the boardroom voices of Sharia.
Last week, it was revealed that Buhari has already approved amnesty to the deadly Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram and is in secret negotiations with the group, even as it continues to bomb, kill, and spread terror in the North Eastern region of Nigeria.
During Buhari’s July 2015 trip to the United States, Buhari told CNN’s Christian Amanpour that he was willing to negotiate with Boko Haram and ”ask them what they want, and give them what they want”. The terrorist group has always maintained that its intention is to turn Nigeria into an Islamic caliphate.
“Their religious ideology, often described as a form of Salafi Jihadism, focuses on purging Islam of corrupting outside influences and returning to the ‘pure’ Islamic practices of the past. Nigeria’s secular democracy is fundamentally at odds with this vision,” the New Internationalist Magazine reports.
