We may as well ditch what what has become an illusion of democracy and transform into a full fascist state since other arms of government that should hold the executive accountable and check its excesses have become its pliant appendages.
On Monday, December 16, the Supreme Court after dillydallying and foot-dragging for months on what should have been a straightforward, open and closed case, finally decided to deliver its ruling on a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in April challenging the suspension of Governor Sim Fubara and all the state assembly lawmakers by President Bola Tinubu following the declaration of State of emergency in the state.
When the governors filed the suit, many felt it was the perfect opportunity for the apex court to redeem its image and recapture the confidence of the public as a litany of worrisome and questionable judgments and pronouncements by its justices has exceedingly eroded the trust and confidence of the majority of the citizenry in the ability of the Supreme Court to deliver sound and logical judgment that conform with the letters of our constitution while forming a strong line of defence against executive rascality and tyranny.
The hope many had in the Supreme Court to quash what is ostensibly a violation of the Constitution and save our democracy quickly fizzled away after the apex court began filibustering and deliberately delaying its ruling on what is obviously one of the most consequential suits in the country’s history. Even though not many still show keen interest in the case anymore and are not expecting the apex court to act in the best interest of the name and save our floundering democracy, but when the news of the court eventual ruling broke yesterday, they could not believe how far the men who should be the bulwark of fascism and palladium of our democracy are willing to go justify the actions of a president who brazenly violates the constitution and has launched a frontal attack on our nascent democracy with soul aim of destroying it.
Six of the seven justices upheld the right of the president to unilaterally suspend governors and other elected public officials. Ebonyi-born Justice Obande Ogbuinya, was the dissenting voice. In his contrary judgment, he asserted that the Supreme Court’s refusal to explicitly condemn and void the president’s unilateral suspension of government officials in Rivers amounts to setting a dangerous precedent. He noted that granting the president the power to suspend or remove elected state officials is contrary to the spirit of true federalism.
While there those who claim the court did not explicitly affirm the president’s power to suspend elected public officials, what they fail to realise is that the judgment of the six justices, by skirting around the legality and constitutionality of the president’s action and choosing not to outrightly invalidate it, have, whether wittingly or unwittingly, rubberstamped and upheld the decision of the president. Their refusal to make a definitive and conclusive ruling that leaves no room for ambiguity and misinterpretation is tantamount to excusing and justifying the action of the president.
The Supreme Court missed a glorious chance to definitely and authoritatively settle the momentous constitutional impasse around presidential emergency powers and the suspension of democratic paraphernalia. It cowardly dodged, striking out the suit on technical grounds while making lame arguments, weak assertions and non-binding remarks said in passing that the media rightly interpreted to be an “affirmation.” This is judicial abdication at its worst, hiding behind procedural lapses and technicality to avoid clamping down on executive overreach, leaving Nigeria susceptible to future abuse. The Apex Court failed democracy when it mattered most.
One thing everyone who has dispassionately followed the Rivers imbroglio can confidently say is that the state of emergency declaration in oil rich state is purely political. An agenda crafted to fulfil the sinister political goal of certain actors in the corridors of power. The declaration was in bad faith and did not in any way meet the constitutional requirements needed. The state of emergency provision in the constitution is designed to ensure the stability, peace and security of the nation. It is enshrined in the constitution to facilitate a quick and effective response to natural disasters that threaten living conditions and the existential status of the people. It is not designed to be used as a political machination for power-hungry politicians.
The Supreme Court, with its latest shenanigans and assault on our democracy, has effectively elevated the president to the position of an absolute monarch whose words are now the law, his actions are the constitution and his decisions become the judicial precedents. The ruling of the court is against the spirit, intendments and letters of our constitution and what they have done is to lay the premise for its further desecration. We may as well ditch what what has become an illusion of democracy and transform into a full fascist state since other arms of government that should hold the executive accountable and check its excesses have become its pliant appendages.
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