The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the Supreme Court judgement which upholds the power of the president to suspend democratically elected officials in state where there is a threat to peace, is dangerous to the country’s hard won democracy.
PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary Ini Emembong, expressed the fear that the judgement is capable of making state governments subservient to the Federal Government, which might use emergency rule as tool to force state governors “to seek to ‘connect to the centre’ by joining the ruling party.”
The party maintained that no person or institution, other than the state House of Assembly or a court of law, is empowered to remove a governor from office, “even temporarily, during the subsistence of a constitutional term.”
To hold otherwise, PDP stated, is to create a pathway by which a president, with the active support of the National Assembly, could compel political alignment or compliance through the instrumentality of emergency powers in ways not envisaged by the Constitution.
According to the party, the logical explanation of the Supreme Court pronouncement on the provision of Section 305(3)(c) that the president could take “extraordinary measures to restore peace and security” could, in future be interpreted to justify the suspension of other constitutional institutions, including the judiciary itself.
PDP wondered how in a federation that is not a unitary state, an elected president could “be empowered to dismantle the democratic structures of a federating unit, sack elected officials and appoint leaders there, without consciously promoting authoritarianism and entrenching tyranny.”
The party however said it is committed to the protection and consolidation of democracy in Nigeria, and called on the National Assembly to urgently initiate constitutional and legislative safeguards that clearly define and limit the scope of emergency powers of the president, to prevent imminent abuse and preserve Nigeria’s federation.
“We also urge Nigerians, civil society organisations, the media, and the international democratic community to remain vigilant in the defence of constitutionalism, federalism, and the sanctity of the electoral mandate,” PDP demanded.
It expressed the hope that the apex court would in future have cause to clarify the constitutional boundaries of emergency powers, in the overriding interest of justice, democracy, and the long-term stability of our Republic.
