The poor health of the Nigerian president, Umaru Yar'Adua, is another reason to urgently review Constitution, opposition party Action Congress, has said.
The party, in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said that the controversies surrounding Mr. Yar'Adua health and the succession debate it has generated has made urgent the need for a review of the 1999 constitution to remove ‘the in-built confusion of its current state.' Mr. Mohammed said that the party was concerned by media reports that unnamed forces were putting pressure on Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan to resign, so that he would not assume the presidency as stipulated by the Constitution, in case the president is unable to complete his tenure.
"Despite the rush to deny the veracity of the story by the office of the Vice President, we know there is no smoke without fire and we are concerned that some dark forces can be plotting to thwart the Constitution for whatever reasons," the party said.
"We demand to know the identity of this dark mafia. We want to know who these people are, who want to continue to run this country on the basis of a cabal.
We ask the VP to show courage and tell Nigerians if indeed he is under pressure to resign, instead of rushing to deny the story." The party said apart from the executive arm of government, the only other arms known in law are the legislative and the judicial arms, and however wondered whether any one of the three arms is behind the alleged pressure on the Vice president.
The party acknowledged, however, that the issue of succession in the presidency is not as clear cut as it may seem, and that the provision for the Vice President to assume the office of his boss, for whatever reasons, is not automatic.
Succession complication
"This is because, according to the Constitution, the process for determining whether or not the President is capable of discharging the functions of his office can only be started by the members of the Executive Council, who are all appointees and presumed loyalists of the President," the party said.
"As things stand, does anyone really expect that members of this council can indeed elevate national interest above their parochial views and personal interests to declare that the President is no longer able to perform his statutory functions, even if he is not?
"Even if the council defies this characterisation and makes the declaration,
does anyone honestly think the PDP-controlled National Assembly will set up a medical panel that will be courageous enough to certify that the President can no longer function in his official capacity? The truth is that Chapter Six of the 1999 Constitution, which deals with this issue, is skewed against any orderly succession," read the release in part.
"This is why well-meaning Nigerians are calling for the review of this and other aspects of the Constitution that was loaded with booby traps by its authors, perhaps because of their personal interests at the time the Constitution was made." The reform of the Constitution is one of the issues being debated at the National Assembly, although this is currently bogged down in the supremacy battle between the two arms of the assembly.
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