Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has
told Federal lawmakers that they have no constitutional powers to summon
President Muhammadu Buhari.
Only last week, members of the House of Representatives passed a
resolution summoning the president over the rising insecurity in the
country.
Soon after the House resolution, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Femi
Gbajabiamila, announced that the President has agreed to address the
lawmakers.
But in a new twist, the AGF said the lawmakers have no such powers.
In a statement on Wednesday, Malami said it was outside the
constitutional powers of the national assembly to summon the president
over his “operational use of the armed forces”.
“President Muhamamdu Buhari of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has
recorded tremendous success in containing the hitherto incessant
bombing, colossal killings, wanton destruction of lives and property
that bedeviled the country before attaining the helm of affairs of the
country in 2015,” the statement read.
“The confidentiality of strategies employed by the President as the
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria is not open for public exposure in view of security implications
in the probable undermining of the war against terror.
“The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was instrumental to the
reclaiming of over 14 Local Governments previously controlled by the
Boko Haram in North East is an open secret, the strategies for such
achievement are not open for public expose.
“While condoling the bereaved and sympathising with the victims of the
associated insecurity in the country, Attorney-General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN maintained that national
security is not about publicity and the nation’s security architecture
cannot be exposed for the sake of getting publicity.”
According to the statement, the president’s efforts on security matters
are exclusive and confidential, and as such, “the National Assembly has
no Constitutional Power to envisage or contemplate a situation where the
President would be summoned by the National Assembly on the operational
use of the Armed Forces.”
Malami added that the decision to appear before the national assembly
should be at the president’s discretion and not subject to summons by
the lawmakers.
“The right of the President to engage the National Assembly and appear
before it is inherently discretionary in the President and not at the
behest of the National Assembly,” the attorney-general said.
“The management and control of the security sector is exclusively vested
in the President by Section 218 (1) of the Constitution as the Commander
in Chief of the Armed Forces including the power to determine the
operational use of the Armed Forces. An invitation that seeks to put the
operational use of the Armed Forces to a public interrogation is indeed
taking the constitutional rights of law-making beyond bounds.
“As the Commander in Chief, the President has exclusivity on security
and has confidentiality over security. These powers and rights he does
not share. So, by summoning the President on National Security
operational Matters, the House of Representatives operated outside
constitutional bounds.
“President’s exclusivity of constitutional confidentiality investiture
within the context of the constitution remains sacrosanct.”