{"id":4289,"date":"2013-05-27T08:27:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T08:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/emergency-fiat\/"},"modified":"2013-05-27T08:27:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T08:27:05","slug":"emergency-fiat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/emergency-fiat\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency fiat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2022 President Jonathan must refrain from turning emergency rule into an exercise in tyranny<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The president pitched the declaration of emergency into another high of tension. In a surreptitious move, President Goodluck Jonathan introduced the state of emergency that gave him more powers than he implied in his broadcast.<\/p>\n

Playing on the emotional vulnerability of many Nigerians who were frustrated by the spasms of violence in the north, he applied wholesale force, without letting on the other form of coercion. That is, he planned to render the democratic structures not only impotent but virtually non-existent in the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, where the emergency measures have taken effect.<\/p>\n

He was praised by his own party governors and some other members of the civil society for respecting the integrity of the democratic structures. He relished the high noon from those he had goaded on.<\/p>\n

But the truth has been unveiled at last. What the president wanted were powers that were less obvious but equally lethal in the callow tradition of President Olusegun Obasanjo who slammed emergency rule on some states when he presided over the affairs of the nation.<\/p>\n

The Senate swallowed up the dangerous portions of the emergency bill that was gazette before the two chambers of law sat and upturned it, and the House of Representatives adopted it. The emergency law will go down in history as one of the irresponsible acts in our democratic history.<\/p>\n

When President Jonathan read out his broadcast to the nation, he asserted that the governors would function in the meantime. The phrase was routinely ignored by the commentators and the political society. In the usual Nigerian naivety, some trusted that the president, being apparently less boorish than his forbears on the throne, would act with honour.<\/p>\n

Now, let us examine section 3 of the Emergency Powers (General) Regulations, 2013 as proposed by the president: \u201cThe President may give directions to a state governor or local government chairmen directly or through his designate or duly authorised with respect to the administration of the emergency area and it shall be the duty of the state governor and local government chairman to comply with the directive.\u201d Does this look like the governors and local government chairmen are allowed to perform according to their rights in the constitution? Are we paying any respect to federalism in any way?<\/p>\n

The compromise version changed it only perfunctorily.<\/p>\n

It provides a room for the president to undermine the governor and turn a designate into the de facto sole administrator and local government chairman, thereby rendering the elected officers completely sterile. Also important in the democratic structure is the state assembly, also elected by the people. Under the emergency law, they are in no position to checkmate the activity of anyone acting on the orders of the president.<\/p>\n

The other contentious part of this act, which the National Assembly accepted uncritically was section 2 (e), which states that the president can \u201cprovide for the utilisation of the funds of any state or local government area.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does a government operate without access to funds? More importantly, how does a governor operate without control of his state resources? What it means is that the governor has to beg for his rights within the constitution. It is standing democratic principles on its head. It implies a further desecration of the federalist principle.<\/p>\n

Is it not with money the governor maintains the state programmes and runs the institutions of state? When the president exercises such powers, he has suspended the constitution, to all intents and purposes. The governors, lawmakers and local government officers are in office by name only. They have become appendages of a centre that can decide on a contemptuous whim to starve them until they squeak.<\/p>\n

The senate hurriedly accepted the emergency without looking at the terms. This is the height of legislative incompetence for a body the people assigned the task to check executive recklessness. The House of Representatives, after grandstanding, only worked superficial changes. In the end, the compromise law compromises the integrity of the constitution and republican ideals. The National Assembly, whose task it is to advance the balance of forces for a sense of equality and harmony, genuflected to an act of high tyranny.<\/p>\n

The impression has been allowed to fester that because it is a state of emergency, the president is allowed to wield autocratic powers that obscure the commonsensical principle of a democratic society. Nothing is further from reality. The president derives his emergency powers from the constitution of a democratic society. The emergency cannot subvert democracy that gave birth to it. Otherwise, that would mean that we can manipulate a democratic tenet to impose despotism. The result? Democratic self-defeat.<\/p>\n

In the lead up to the declaration of emergency, we have on good authority that the president had intended to dissolve the democratic structures but the leadership of the House of Representatives had resisted.<\/p>\n

In apparent terms, he did not dissolve the structures. But by taking away their life source, he has subjected them to the desperate debility of slow lynching. What this means is that the president was economical with the truth. It was a sly, despicable, backroom strategy to undermine the finer principles of democracy. He imposed a draconian principle with a sunny face.<\/p>\n

Happily, the states can recourse to the law and fight back. This matter ought to be resolved at the level of the Supreme Court, and this newspaper urges the governors and local government chairmen to seek a judicial answer to what is clearly an unprecedented show of force in the name of democracy.<\/p>\n

What the president has done may have repercussions beyond the states now clobbered by emergency law. If he does it to any other state, he could simply use the precedent of this law to dislodge the influence of the governor and recruit his cronies for political influence. The fears were openly expressed recently when jitters of emergency rule ran through the arteries of River State.<\/p>\n

When the president removes the funds of a state and puts it in the service of anybody he designates, it turns the state into an extension of his political sphere of influence. It becomes less about a matter of law and order, but a matter of muzzling what he could see as political foes. It becomes a flexing of muscles for swathes of the political landscape and not about the higher principles of ensuring that the people live in peace. It is a cynical thing, and it must be condemned without reservation.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: The Nation Newspaper<\/p>\n

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