Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Wole Olanipekun and the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) have decried the call by a senior lawyer, Mr. Robert Clarke, on President Muhammadu Buhari to stay in office beyond the constitutionally stipulated eight years of two terms.
Recall that Clarke had on Monday called for a tenure extension for Buhari to enable him to tackle the nation’s problems before elections could be held.
He contended that the few months remaining before the 2023 elections are not sufficient to put an end to the insecurity in the country to make the conduct of the election possible.
The senior lawyer said the constitution provides that the president can extend his tenure for six months in the first instance if he feels that conditions are not good to carry out elections.
He averred that it was wrong to believe that the President cannot stay in office for more than eight years of two tenures.
“The Constitution provides that the President can stay longer than eight years. I’ve always said it. It is in the Constitution. If the situation in which we’re in now continues, and it is impossible to vote in the 2023 election, the Constitution says if a situation persists, the President will inform the INEC in view of all insurgencies, in view of kidnappings, in view of Boko Haram, I don’t think in these different areas of Nigeria, we can have a good election.
“The Constitution says I am going to stay for six months and in the first instance. So, the fact that the Constitution says the president cannot stay for more than eight years is wrong. Because the same constitution says he can be giving himself six months if those conditions persist.
“Now, I don’t see any green light. I don’t see how what is happening today can be stopped within a period of six months from today or before February next year when the elections will be held.
“The alternative then is for Mr. President to continue as president, allow the security watches to carry up the mopping up and Nigeria will become stable.
“Because I swear to God Almighty, without stability in Nigeria, without security, Nigeria is going nowhere. No foreigner will bring his money and put in any business in Nigeria when he knows that any of his expatriates who are sent to Nigeria can be kidnapped at any time.
“So, until all these things are sorted out, I don’t see any green light.”
“If nothing happens before the elections, God forbids, this country will be in flames,” Clarke said.
In his reaction, Olanipekun described Clarke’s call as unconstitutional, immoral and a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
Olanipekun said in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday that that no provision in the Constitution supports Clarke’s proposition.
He noted that the only situation where election could be shifted is when the nation is at war a foreign country as provided in Section 135(3).
He contended that the current security challenge in the country could not be equated with war envisaged under Section 135(3) of the Constitution and urged President Buhari to resist every temptation to stay in power at the expiration of his tenure.
Olanipekun therefore wondered why Clarke, who condemned former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s bid for third term, would turn around to advise Buhari to engage in direct breach of the Constitution.
He said Buhari is not expected to deal with all the nation’s challenges before vacating office.
“I am afraid, I cannot agree with the postulations and prognosis of my learned friend of the Inner Bar (Clarke) as, same, with much respect to him, are not constitutional, legal, legitimate, moral, democratic, acceptable, reasonable, or in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“While it is glaring that Nigeria is bedeviled by a mountain of daunting challenges, including insecurity, this cannot be any justification for a call for PMB or any President, howsoever, to extend his tenure outside the constitutionally provided maximum period of eight years, as prescribed by the combined provisions of sections 135(2) and 137(1) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“With further respect, the suggestion is a direct call to breach of the Constitution, as well as its spirit, tenor and letter. There is no gainsaying the fact that the end result of such a proposition would further compound the conundrum that we have steeped into and, plunge us to a latent state of anomie.
“It is quite disturbing, unfortunate, uncheering, and very worrisome that since 1999, Nigeria has been migrating from one problem to another, oscillating from one crisis to another; graduating from one degree of catastrophe to another; as a result of which the landscape has become a practicing pitch for all sorts of theories, ideologies, ideas, suggestions, prognosis and hypothesis, the last of which has just come from the respected Chief Robert Clarke, SAN.
“To PMB, my honest, friendly, professional and civic advice is that he should treat this advice or any invitation to him to extend his tenure by a millisecond beyond 29th May, 2023, with a pinch of salt. It is in our collective interest if this proposition is nipped in the bud.
…The president does not have the power to extend his tenure; no President has that power or vires to so do.
“The tenure was given to him by Nigerians and, as at the time of donating that tenure to him, the covenant between the donors and the donee was that in the first instance, it was for a term certain of four years; and upon renewal in 2019, it was for an extended term certain of four years; no more, no less!
“If, for example, as rightly surmised by Chief Robert Clarke, that Obasanjo did a ‘negative act’ by seeking a third term in office, wanting to goad the National Assembly into rubber stamping his unconstitutional bid, why then is the High Chief Clarke prompting PMB to follow the same illegal and undemocratic route?
“To my mind, this is a suggestion akin to advising PMB to embark on a third term bid or adventure like OBJ, who Chief Robert Clarke pointed out as having done a ‘negative act.’
“The celebrated case of Marwa V Nyako (2012) 6 NWLR (Pt. 1296) 199 resolves all issues and doubts relating and pertaining to the certainty and sanctity of the eight-year maximum period permitted by the Constitution for a Chief executive, either of the state or federation,” Olanipekun said.
Similarly, HURIWA opposed the call and cautioned Clarke against destabilising the country.
In a statement by its national coordinator, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko in Abuja, the group called on Nigerians to oppose Buhari’s subterranean schemes to extend his presidency by using surrogates who would flood the media with unsustainable and irrational requests for a third term for the president.
“We think that when elders talk they should show wisdom rather than make people begin to wonder what type of warped logic is being unleashed.
“For those who want us, the younger ones, to call them elders and respect their old age because of what that concept means in a lot of African cultures and cosmological deduction as symbolising wisdom, then these elders must not speak like little minds and make proposals that may imperil the entire nation all because of the pursuit of some selfish ambitions for some alleged or perceived paymasters.
“President Buhari is the major cause of the escalation of violence and terrorism in Nigeria since the last seven years that he came on board controversially through two very disreputable elections.
“Is it by giving him six months that he will solve what he refused to resolve in seven years? Even if you give President Buhari till eternity, he can’t improve the security situation because he is grossly incompetent and is a bigoted Islamic religious extremist,” HURIWA said.
Meanwhile, the president Buhari said he was ready to step down at the expiration of his tenure on May 29, 2023.
Spokesman for the president, Mr. Garba Shehu, said the president is committed to extending and entrenching democratic values across the country having been a beneficiary of transfer of power from an incumbent to the opposition candidate.
“Chief Clarke, a very well-respected elder, may be sincere in his wish for the President to extend his term by six months. We wish to categorically restate that the President will step down on May 29, 2023, after serving two terms – as per the Constitution.
“Having been the first recipient of a democratic transfer of power from an incumbent administration to an opposition candidate in Nigeria’s history, the President is committed to extending and entrenching democratic values across the country. He shall, in turn, hand the privilege of serving the people of Nigeria to whomever they choose through free, fair and credible elections.
“However, Chief Clarke is right to say that without security, Nigeria would not likely realise its true potential as a peaceful and prosperous nation. That is why it has been at the core of this administration. The results are there for all to see. Boko Haram has been forced back from controlling whole swathes of this country. Internally Displaced Persons are now returning to rebuild their communities. These achievements have been accomplished through the bravery and determination of the Nigerian armed forces and the fortitude of the people of our nation.
“New challenges have arisen and tackled in turn – whether it’s the National Livestock Transformation Plan to alleviate herder-farmer clashes, elimination of the leadership of ISWAP, or new efforts to combat banditry. Till the last day of the administration, the security of the citizens shall remain the administration’s paramount concern. We shall finish the job. Yet, in any case, respect for the Constitution and Nigerians’ democratic rights remains the best path to securing and then maintaining peace.
“Yet there are others, such as Chief Afe Babalola that believe elections should be suspended, with the current elected government replaced by an interim unelected administration. This, he claims, is necessary to create a new Constitution for the people, made possible, paradoxically, by ignoring their democratic rights. Down that path lies crisis and instability,” Shehu said.
