Nigeria is sliding toward anarchy and imperial presidency, says ACN

Lai Mohammed, called on “all lovers of democracy and the rule of law to come together to say no to the emerging Emperor Jonathan”.

An opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned that the country is tottering on the brink of anarchy and imperial presidency.

Condemning the action taken by President Goodluck Jonathan on the lingering judicial crisis, the party in a statement made by its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, called on “all lovers of democracy and the rule of law to come together to say no to the emerging Emperor Jonathan”.

The criticism is due to the alleged unconstitutional inauguration of a new president of the Court of Appeal as ordered by Mr Jonathan, following a recommendation by the National Judicial Council (NJC) that the incumbent president, Justice Ayo Salami, be retired.

“While a nation may survive the antics of an incompetent president - and indeed Nigeria has survived a series of such presidents under the PDP since the country’s return to democratic rule in 1999 - having an incompetent and dictatorial president can only precipitate calamity for any nation,” the statement read.

According to the party, “a President who can so willfully trample on the Constitution and thumb his nose at the rule of law, as President Jonathan has done in filling a non-existent vacancy in the Presidency of the Court of Appeal, even within the first 100 days of his administration, must be checked within the provisions of the Constitution before he brings down the house on himself and everyone.”

The party noted that a closer reading of the Constitution has shown that the President, perhaps is standing on a sandy pedestal by acting on the recommendation of a lawless NJC.

“Nowhere in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the NJC imbued with the power to suspend or recommend the removal of the President of the Appeal Court, as the NJC did in the case of Justice Ayo Salami,” it said.

The ACN also noted that “it is trite law that all concerned cannot act on a matter over which the court has been seised. But on the issue at hand, it was a case of double whammy”. Explaining that the NJC “ignored this long standing judicial tenet and the President joined in trampling it, for whatever reason”, the party stated: “Not only that, a democratically-elected president went ahead to show total disregard for the opinion of the people and even of a relevant professional body like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which had promptly advised him not to act on the self-serving recommendation of the NJC. This is the beginning of what can only prove to be a ruinous dictatorship and it must be checked by all lawful means.”

The party hailed the actions taken by the NBA, which pulled its members out of the NJC, as well as the threat by the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives to boycott the sitting of the House to protest the NJC’s and the President’s action. It also commended the civil society organisations which had come together to protest the illegality.

“Only actions like those of the NBA, civil society organisations and the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives can save our fledgling democracy from being hijacked by dictators pretending to be democrats,” the statement read.