Anambra Falls Victim to Yar’Adua’s Absence

[I Love Nigeria]

Anambra Falls Victim to Yar’Adua’s Absence
By Tunde Rahman, 02.05.2010
News Analysis
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.p...ter_friendly=1

The first casualty of yesterday’s judgment of the Federal High Court in Lagos that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as currently constituted lacks the required quorum to conduct elections is tomorrow’s governorship election in Anambra State.

But perhaps unknown to many, the court verdict has wider implications, which in the final analysis comes back to the problem the nation is facing at present. It’s like a long thread, which at the very end is connected to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health problem and medical trip abroad without transferring power to his deputy. This has left the country seemingly rudderless as it is now without a sovereign head that can legally take vital decisions. Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has not been sufficiently empowered to take charge.

But let’s first dwell on the immediate implication if the judgment stands. The first is that the Anambra election will not hold as scheduled. If it does not hold tomorrow, it has to hold within the next one week otherwise the election may run foul of the law that says that elections must hold not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days to the expiration of the tenure of office of the occupant of the position being contested for. Not holding the election, however, will create a succession problem by March 17 when the tenure of Governor Peter Obi expires. Who will take over from Obi in the absence of a legally conducted election by a legally constituted electoral body? Perhaps the Speaker of the state House of Assembly or in the absence of the Speaker, the Chief Judge of the state. The tenures of office of the Speaker and his state House of Assembly members and Governor Obi are not lapsing at the same time. Obi was sworn in on March 17, 2006 after a long drawn legal battle for his 2003 electoral mandate spanning three years. The state House of Assembly members were elected in 2007 and took their seats on May 29, 2007 and as such their tenure will expire May next year.

The bigger problem, however, is in respect of INEC. INEC needs to be properly constituted so it can have the full complement of its 13 members. Can Vice-President Jonathan do this? It is doubtful. President Yar’Adua has yet to transmit a vacation letter to the National Assembly in line with Section 145 of the constitution, which would have empowered the Vice-President to step in as acting president and take vital decision like the constitution of the board of INEC.

Indeed, THISDAY in a front page story on March 25, 2009 titled “Dearth of Commissioners Hits INEC” had drawn attention to the commission’s quorum problem. The newspaper had reported that but for the early decision on the April 25 date, the governorship re-run in Ekiti State might have been put in jeopardy following the dearth of national commissioners which had hit the commission.

The commission’s board had been depleted to four including Chairman Maurice Iwu over the years and new members were not appointed to join them. The tenures of seven commissioners who came on board along with Iwu then in August 2003 had lapsed in August 2008 and they were not replaced. The commissioners were Ekpeyong Nsa from Akwa Ibom, Zetley Daze from Plateau, Mr. Abubakar from Bauchi, Reuben Farukanmi from Ondo, Bello Bala from Sokoto, Emmanuel Anuka Uchola from Kogi and Mrs. Esther Zala from Taraba. The tenure of Dr. Muhammed Jumare from the North-west, however, expired on April 21, 2009, thus leaving the commission with the four members at present. Apart from Iwu, the three other commissioners are Victor Chukwuani from Enugu State, Phillip Umeadi (Jnr) from Anambra and Mr. Solomon Adedeji Soyebi from Ogun.

Presidency sources had told THISDAY last year the commissioners were yet to be replaced because President Yar’Adua was planning to deal with all outstanding issues in INEC along with the implementation of the final decisions on the reform of the electoral process.

[I Love Nigeria]

As Yar’Adua’s Absence Sparks Constitutional Crisis... Court Ruling Renders Anambra Poll Illegal
•INEC: Election will go ahead
From Davidson Iriekpen in Lagos and Charles Ajunwa in Awka, 02.05.2010
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.p...ter_friendly=1

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s absence from the country is about to claim yet another casualty – the Anambra State governorship election – scheduled for tomorrow.

Except a miracle happens today, the election will be rendered illegal as a Federal High Court in Lagos declared yesterday that the Independent National Electoral Commis-sion (INEC) as currently constituted is incompetent to conduct or organise any election in Nigeria.

Justice Mohammed Liman, who delivered the judgment in a case filed by the Action Congress (AC) challenging the composition of INEC, said the commission lacks the constitutionally recommended quorum of members to take decisions.
Only the President is empowered by law to nominate members into the INEC board.

The Vice-President currently lacks full presidential powers as he cannot nominate members of the board.
Justice Liman held that by virtue of Section 159 of the 1999 Constitution the quorum of INEC is five members and not four as is the case at present.

He submitted that the four members currently on the board of the commission are not competent to take any decisions in the name of INEC.
Justice Liman said: “On a very sad note despite the fact that INEC consist in the most important and indispensable bedrock on which our democratic institutions are built and its functions are central to the smooth evolution of our political structure, it is not an understatement to say that without a functional INEC no election into any political office would be possible. Then, how come that in the eleventh year of the nation’s journey into constitutional governance we do not have an electoral body with its full complement members?

“We continue to pretend that all is well with our electoral system when the membership continues to drop from 13 down to four and it seems that we remain complacent as if all is well. I think that something is wrong somewhere and the earlier both the Executive and the Legislative departments of the government act to reverse this shameful tread the better for the people of the country.”

Meanwhile, INEC said last night that it was yet to know the details of the judgment.
INEC  National Commissioner in charge of Information and Publicity, Mr. Phillip Umeadi (Jnr.), said the commission had not been served and so it could not react to the ruling.
But the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra State, Mr. Josiah Uwazuruonye, said the governorship election in the state would be held tomorrow as sheduled.

He also said he had not been served with any court notice to stop the election, and that no directive in that regard had come from any quarter.
Section 159 of the Constitution states that (1) “the quorum for a meeting of any of the bodies established by Section 153 of the constitution shall not be less than one-third of the total number of members of that body at the date of the meeting.”
Subsection 2 goes further to state that: “a member of such a body shall be entitled to one vote, and a decision of the meeting may be taken and any act or thing may be done in the name of that body by a majority of the members present at the meeting.”

Subsection 3 states that: “when such body is assembled for a meeting, the Chairman or other person presiding shall, in all matters in which a decision is taken by vote (by whatever name such vote may be called) have a casting as well as a deliberative vote.”
Subsection 4 states that “subject to its rules of procedures, any such body may act or take part in any decision notwithstanding any vacancy in its membership or the absence of any member.”

INEC is one of the bodies or commissions established for the federation and listed in Section 153.
AC had in December last year headed for the court, claiming that the INEC chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, and three other members of the board of the commission lack the required quorum to conduct the rerun election in Osun State.

Apart from Iwu, the party also joined Philip Umeadi, Victor Chukwuani, Mr. Solomon Adedeji Shoyebi, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Osun State and INEC as respondents in the suit.
The party through its counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, had sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from taking any decision on the election until the formation of sufficient quorum in accordance with Section 159 of the 1999 Constitution.

However, INEC in his reply to the suit through its counsel, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN), had insisted that the objective of the application was to review the judgment and orders of the Court of Appeal and to frustrate indefinitely the conduct of the election.

Agabi had also argued that the court was not competent and lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit because it related to an electoral matter and that other parties involved and that might likely be affected by the decision were not present before the court.
But Justice Liman disagreed with the submission of the INEC lawyer.
According to him, the case before the court had nothing to do with the election petition decided by the Court of Appeal but on the composition of the board of the commission.

The judge noted that the reliefs sought by AC were within the jurisdiction of the court and that the reliefs were never an issue before the Court of Appeal.
He, however, refused to grant any of the declarative injunctions sought by AC among which is that the election be reversed or nullified, saying the court could not undo a completed act.
Justice Liman also refused to uphold the prayer of AC that the tenure of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Osun State during the rerun election had expired.

He stated that the plaintiff failed to provide the court with any evidence showing the date the REC was appointed to enable the court take a decision.

AC had instituted the case when the Court of Appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, ordered for the rerun of elections into Osun-east Senatorial District in the National Assembly and Osogbo Local Government seat of the state House of Assembly.

INEC then fixed December 12, 2009 for the rerun elections into the legislative seats, which became vacant when the Appeal Court in Ibadan voided the election of Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Hon. Jide Omoworare of AC.
However, all efforts to stop the election by the party failed as INEC eventually conducted the election on December 29 last year, an election which was eventually boycotted by the AC’s candidate Hon. Omoworare.

[I Love Nigeria]

Abba-Aji Hopeful on Vacation Letter, Confirms THISDAY Story
•Says only 2 persons see Yar'Adua
From Sufuyan Ojeifo and George Oji in Abuja, 02.05.2010
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.p...ter_friendly=1

Special Adviser to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, said yesterday that the nature of the security and protocol arrangement around Yar’Adua at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is so tight that it is almost impossible for people to have access to him.

Specifically, Abba-Aji disclosed that the security around the President is controlled directly from the palace of the King of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.

There was also news from the kingdom yesterday as an unnamed doctor told Associated Press (AP) in Jeddah that Yar'Adua would be discharged from the hospital "within the next one week".

Fielding questions from State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abba-Aji stated that the part of the hospital where Yar’Adua is recuperating is also where the king of Saudi Arabia himself usually stays anytime he is undergoing medical treatment.

According to the Presidential Adviser, the only Nigerians who have direct access to the President are his Chief Security Officer (CSO), Yusuf Tilde, and the Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Mustapha Onoyiveta.

Abba-Aji, who said he had been in touch with the President since he left for Saudi Arabia last year, further stated that he had been communicating with Yar’Adua through the CSO and ADC and that he (President) is abreast of all the goings-on at the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, emerging yesterday from about two-hour closed session with the Senate, Abba-Aji raised the hope that Yar’Adua would obey the resolution of the Senate urging him to send a vacation letter to the National Assembly.
He finally confirmed THISDAY story of December 7, 2009 that indeed, the President wrote a vacation letter to the National Assembly last year which was not delivered.

He, however, said the letter was written in January 2009, not November – after initially denying knowledge of any letter at all while reacting to the THISDAY story two months ago.
Asked by journalists about the possibility of Yar’Adua transmitting the letter in line with the resolution by the Upper House, Abba-Aji said: “The Senate has resolved and the resolution has been transmitted and you all know the president to be a man that respects the rule of law.

“So, I have no doubts in my mind that… the president has never refused to comply with a law passed by the legislature, not to my knowledge.”
Abba-Aji, who was summoned by the Senate to respond to the information given to it by the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, in a closed session on Thursday, January 21, on the existence of a vacation letter, said Yar’Adua did not write a letter to the National Assembly before he travelled to Saudi Arabia on November 23, last year.
He, however, admitted that the president wrote in respect of his vacation in January 2009, which was to be transmitted, but which was later withdrawn because of the death of Yobe State Governor, Senator Mamman Ali, on January 27, 2009, a day after the president commenced his vacation.

In his address to the Senate, he said: “I would like to make it clear from the outset that the president has never transmitted any vacation letter to the National Assembly prior to any of his travels outside the country.
“The purpose of this presentation is therefore, specifically aimed at explaining the issue of the president’s vacation on January 2009 and in order to give a full perspective, I would like to start from the beginning.

“As you will recall, on 23rd January 2009, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, the president’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications announced that the president was going on a two-week vacation starting from the 26th of January, 2009.
“He also announced that the president planned to spend his vacation reading books and visiting the Obudu cattle Ranch at Cross River State and Dodan Barracks in Lagos.

“You will also recall that the sad news of the untimely death of Senator Mamman Ali, Governor of Yobe State broke on 27th January - just after the president commenced his vacation.
“While the late governor’s remains were being awaited from the United States, Mr. Adeniyi made another announcement on the 29th January, 2009 that the president had shelved his holiday travel plans because of the death of the governor.”
Abba-Aji told the Senate that consequently the president had to spend his entire vacation in Abuja, except for his trip to Potiskum, Yobe State, to attend the burial of the late governor.

He said: “When some people began to insinuate that there was a constitutional requirement for the president to write a vacation letter to the National Assembly in line with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, the National Assembly Press Corps contacted me.

“I told them in a press interview that there was no need for the president to write because Section 145 does not require him to do so; and that there was no such action ever undertaken by President Olusegun Obasanjo in his 8 years of presidency.
“Indeed, President Obasanjo enjoyed his annual vacation every year of his eight-year presidency, not to talk of his globe-trotting that generated lots of controversy. But surprisingly, the controversy did not even once, include a concern that he did not transmit a vacation letter to the National Assembly.

“More importantly, I am sure Mr. President and distinguished Senators will recall that the Senate also agreed with him on the issue.
“The Senate deliberated on a motion on this subject that was brought by Senator Thompson Sekibo on 27th January, 2009 and indeed resolved that Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution did not require the president to write to the National Assembly before proceeding on his two-week vacation.

“The Senate spokesperson, Senator Ayogu Eze, subsequently communicated this position to the public in a press interview that he granted to a newspaper of 29th January 2009.”
He said his response to the comments of the SGF was that “the president has never transmitted any vacation letter to the National Assembly prior to any of his travels to Saudi Arabia”, adding: “It was only during the president’s vacation of January 2009, and while the development that I have just outlined was unfolding, that a decision to write a vacation letter was made before it was rescinded.”

He stated: “The SGF should know what to do when he drafts a letter that fails to see the light of day particularly, since the idea behind the letter was not even his own.
“And if he still felt there was a January 2009 missing vacation letter, why didn’t he ask the president in the twelve months that elapsed, instead of choosing to have hindsight at a time like this?”

He explained that, in any case, since the process of issuance of the vacation letter of January 2009 was not concluded before the decision to issue it was rescinded, the letter cannot be said to have been issued.

Abba-Aji told the Senate that as Special Adviser to the President, his job was clearly spelt in Section 151 of the 1999 Constitution “as that of assisting the president in the performance of his functions,” stressing, “my job therefore is to facilitate good communication between the president and the Legislature; and I have never delayed let alone withholding any communication.”
Briefing Senate correspondents after the closed session yesterday, he restated what he told the Senators, saying: “It was a very fruitful chat that I had with the distinguished senators in a closed session.”

But while answering questions, he said that Yar’Adua was not likely to disobey the resolution of the Senate, urging him to formally notify the National Assembly of his current medical vacation in Saudi Arabia.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze corroborated, at the end of the closed session, what Abba-Aji said he told senators.
Eze, however, clarified that Abba-Aji did not discuss with the Senate whether the vacation letter from Yar’Adua would come and when it would come.

[agensheku]

The plot thickens!i see megida signing a backdated letter re-constituting the INEC to beat the court judgement!now,if he is in charge,why all these mess?even the new Saudi ambassador came to Abuja to present his letter of credence to Dr Jonathan yeaterday?why did he not do it at Aso rock Annexe,Jeddah!(the megida s new palace)from where Aondokaa said he can rule till kingom come.meanwhile,whoever wins tomorrow s Anambra gov election may not rejoice yet as the losers will go to court to say the election held against a court ruling.Nija,victim of pericarditis!

[No Smoking]

As Yar’Adua’s Absence Sparks Constitutional Crisis... Court Ruling Renders Anambra Poll Illegal
•INEC: Election will go ahead

What a shame!!!!! Goes to show that Iwu has learnt nothing...

[nijalaw]

Abba-Aji Hopeful on Vacation Letter, Confirms THISDAY Story
•Says only 2 persons see Yar'Adua
From Sufuyan Ojeifo and George Oji in Abuja, 02.05.2010
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.p...ter_friendly=1

Special Adviser to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, said yesterday that the nature of the security and protocol arrangement around Yar’Adua at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is so tight that it is almost impossible for people to have access to him.

Specifically, Abba-Aji disclosed that the security around the President is controlled directly from the palace of the King of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.

According to the Presidential Adviser, the only Nigerians who have direct access to the President are his Chief Security Officer (CSO), Yusuf Tilde, and the Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Mustapha Onoyiveta.

Abba-Aji, who said he had been in touch with the President since he left for Saudi Arabia last year, further stated that he had been communicating with Yar’Adua through the CSO and ADC and that he (President) is abreast of all the goings-on at the National Assembly.
.

I never knew that our presidency could get to this state of ridicule.

[agensheku]

I never knew that our presidency could get to this state of ridicule.

Actually,in nija politicians lexicograph,PRESIDENCY is defined as Obj & sons ltd from 1999-2007 and UMYA,Turai&daughters ltd!(2007-?)thats why inspite of being a graduate,megida does not know that Goodluck is part and parcel of his presidency,that he could have formally handed over to him without hassles and still got him to do his legal and legit wishes.well,after this debacle,lets hope the message will sink in that the Nation and the office are greater than anyone,sickly,healthy or whatever.