Date Published: 01/04/10

Yar'Adua: Ijaw Leaders clamour for constitution review

IJAW leaders on the platform of Ijaw Foundation, say they have commiserated with President Umaru Yar’Adua's family, and all Nigerians over the president’s unfortunate and incapacitating ill-health that has necessitated his indefinite hospitalization for intensive medical care abroad since November 23, 2009.

Leaders of the foundation in an e-mail to our correspondent on Monday said, ''we pray for his full and speedy recovery and also wish him and all Nigerians a very happy new year blessed with divine favor, joy, peace and progress.''

The e-mail which was jointly endorsed by Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo, President , Mr. Patterson Ogon, Vice President , Mr. Lincoln Snithers, Secretary and three others also said, ''w e commend Vice President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for having conducted himself excellently well, with utmost dignity, exemplary patriotism, impeccable integrity, sterling discipline, remarkable loyalty, superlative statesmanship, and trustworthy and compassionate leadership, in the absence of President Yar'Adua.

''Vice President Jonathan’s directive to the relevant ministers not to travel out of Abuja during the Christmas holidays but to stay with him to resolve the fuel scarcity crisis that made life extremely miserable for Nigerians was proof of the Vice President’s sincere determination to use the machinery of governance to meet the needs of Nigerians and improve their welfare.

''He has proven himself to be a leader with sincere concern for the suffering Nigerian masses, the type of leader Nigerians have always yearned for but has eluded them for so long. His honorable conduct at this moment of national crisis has brought pride to all Nigerians, and he has earned the confidence and trust of Nigerians to mount the saddle of leadership of the country''.

However, the failure and or inability of the sick President Yar’Adua, according to them,  to comply with the spirit of section 145 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN, 1999), to temporarily handover the powers, duties and functions of the President to Vice President Jonathan, before traveling abroad for his current hospitalization abroad, ''has prevented our otherwise capable Vice President Jonathan from discharging the much-needed functions of the President, which he was duly elected to do in the absence or incapacitation of the President''

The rest of their view went thus:.  

''Section 145 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stipulates as follows: “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President.” The avoidable failure to comply with Section 145 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has created an avoidable but contrived constitutional crisis, which must be resolved immediately to avert anarchy and disaster.

''Given President Yar’Adua’s prolonged and indefinite hospitalization abroad for ultra-intensive medical care, it is crystal clear and incontestable that he is incapacitated, at least temporarily, from performing his duties as President of Nigeria. In the circumstance, it is unpatriotic, unacceptable, illegal and unconstitutional for the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly to delay effecting a constitutionally mandatory smooth transfer of presidential authority to the Vice President through the invocation of sections 144 and 146 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN, 1999) to invest him as Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

''In accordance with Section 144 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN, 1999), therefore, we hereby ask the Federal Executive Council to pass a Resolution declaring that the President is currently incapable of discharging the functions of his office and that the Vice-President be invested as Acting President; we also hereby ask the President of the Senate to appoint a five-member medical panel of medical practitioners in Nigeria, including the President’s personal physician, to examine the President and certify that the President is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office; we hereby further ask that a notice thereof be signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation.

''Pursuant thereto, by virtue of section 146 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN, 1999), Vice President Jonathan assumes the mantle of leadership of Nigeria as Acting President.

''In the face of the Al-Qaeda sponsored attempted terrorist attack of United States’ Delta Airline Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit by a misguided and gullible Nigerian on Christmas Eve, it is particularly imperative for Nigeria not to allow or create a leadership vacuum at the highest level of governance. In the interest of national and international security, and peace, Nigeria needs a substantive commander-in-chief with the physical and mental capacities to act quickly and decisively. Therefore, the need and urgency to invoke and comply with the relevant sections of the Constitution to invest the Vice President as Acting President cannot be over-emphasized.   

''In the strongest terms, we discountenance and dismiss the alleged plots by a handful of unpatriotic, selfish and evil persons in the corridors of power to subvert the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and prevent Vice President Jonathan from assuming the mantle of leadership of Nigeria as Acting President. We are very confident that the Nigerian people of every constituency and creed will overwhelmingly insist on the advancement of democracy and the rule of law in the country; especially mindful of the unacceptable implications and the extremely dire consequences of subverting the Constitution in this regard.''