the constitution, is an act of dereliction, which confirms that the
All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Buhari Presidency are not
interested in governance but seeks to vacate our constitutional order
and foist an authoritarian system on our country.
Such dereliction of office can only come from leaders, who do not have
respect for the people they governed but always muscling their way to
power through intimidation, harassment as well as official
manipulations, as witnessed in the rigging of the February 23
Presidential election by the APC.
Moreover, Mr. President’s abandoning of governance, particularly at
this critical time when our nation is facing grave security and
economic challenges, signposts the level of impunity and recklessness
that will characterize our nation in the next four years, if the
stolen Presidential mandate is not retrieved from the APC.
What else, beside an authoritarian propensity, can explain why the
Buhari Presidency relegated our Constitutional Order by declaring the
application of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which
directs that the President transmits power whenever he is travelling
out of the country on vacation, as a mere “convention”.
Authoritarian tendencies are usually characterized by absolute lack of
trust on other government functionaries, which could likely explain
the failure to transmit power to the Vice President. Such proclivity
can also lead to a sequestering of institutions of government, if not
checked.
The import of this relegation of Section 145 is also a clear absence
of a constitutional command structure which leaves our nation at the
mercy of the extremely corrupt, vicious and anti-people cabal with
whom President Buhari presided over the most corrupt and most
incompetent administration, which wrecked our economy, divided our
nation and opened her up for escalated insecurity.
Such dereliction at the high levels emboldens bandits, bolsters
insurgents and fuels cruel acts such as extra-judicial killing,
illegal arrests, detention of innocent citizens, constitutional
violations, attack on institutions of democracy as well as reckless
looting of our national treasury by members of the cabal because they
know that “nothing will happen.”
The PDP therefore urges Nigerians to unite in condemning this act of
impunity in the interest of our nation even as they earnestly await
the retrieval of the stolen Presidential mandate at the tribunal.
Our nation, is in dire need of a legitimate, people-oriented,
responsible and responsive government that will foster respect for
rule of law as well as due regard to other arms and institutions of
government, particularly the judiciary and the legislature, in
ensuring the general wellbeing and security of all Nigerians.