It is certainly incongruous and unacceptable in a country ravaged by ethnic tensions, corruption and impunity for President Muhammadu Buhari to be acting as if he is above the law and running a one-man show. It is indeed disheartening that Mr. President has continued to give Nigerians reasons to cast his administration in the mold of a lawless regime. This has further compounded the president’s befuddled thinking that betrays his predilection for appointing only people from a certain part of the country into commanding heights of authority positions in the army and public service. These repeated infractions in utter violation of the federal character principle, have left detractors and critics no other choice than to assume a hidden islamization and pro-northern agenda by the president. This nepotistic approach to governance ought to have gone with the inglorious past of official rascality and lack of direction by past military juntas, and Buhari must break this cycle of perfidious leadership if he really wants Nigerians to take him seriously on his much-touted promise of change to the next level; (whatever that means).
Section 171 (5) of the 1999 constitution stipulates that “the President in exercising his powers of appointment under this section shall have regard to the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity.” Coterminous with this provision, Section 14(3) provides that “the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.” A critical look at appointments made by Buhari since he took office in 2015 shows adherence to these provisions only in the breach. It will be a futile waste of time venture to categorize the nepotism; but from the service chiefs to federal agencies, Buhari has appointed his Fulani kinsmen into strategic positions in utter disregard for national unity and in gross violation of the constitution.
It is just as well that, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has come out to decry and denounce what the advocacy group called continuous breaches of federal character principle by President Buhari, notably the appointments of the Director General of the National Pension Commission (Pencom) and the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC). For the record; in 2017, Anohu-Amazu was sacked as Pencom DG alongside 22 other heads of federal agencies by the President. Anohu-Amazu was appointed in 2014 for a renewable five-year term by then President Goodluck Jonathan. Sections 20(1) and 21(1) and (2) of the 2014 National Pension Commission Act states inter alia that; “in the event of a vacancy, the President shall appoint a replacement from the geopolitical zone of the immediate past member that vacated office to complete the remaining tenure.” Anohu-Amazu hails from the Southeast but to the utter chagrin of many Nigerians, Buhari nominated Aliyu Abdurahman Dikko from another zone, alongside five executive commissioners and sent the list to the Senate for confirmation. This provoked a hailstorm of protests as Senators rejected the choice of Dikko which they argued was an illegality and a breach of the 2014 Pension Reform Act. Buhari subsequently withdrew Dikko’s name but nominated Aisha Umar from the Northwest geopolitical zone as acting Pencom DG ostensibly to circumvent the Senate confirmation process.
Likewise, the appointment of the chairman and members of the National Population Commission (NPC) has been another source of controversy and anger after Silas Agara; a Christian was shortchanged by Nasiru Kwarra as chairman, even though the list of nominees circulated by the presidency had Agara’s name as chairman. The other six nominees on the list were: Muhammed Dottijo (Sokoto); Razaq Gidado (Kwara); Ibrahim Mohammed (Bauchi); Joseph Shazin (FCT); Bala Banya (Katsina); and Bimbola Salu-Hundeyin (Lagos). Presidential spokesperson; Garba Shehu, explained that the list with the name of Agara as NPC chairman was circulated in error! This dangerous infusion of ethnic politics into Pencom and NPC is unacceptable. Once again, President Buhari has demonstrated his pro-Northern Fulani agenda which is tearing apart the fabric of national unity. Having sworn to uphold the constitution, the President as the only man with a pan-Nigerian mandate ought to be the embodiment of national unity; and so he cannot afford to act as if he is the president only for a section of the country.
Besides clannishness and pandering to base sentiments, going by subdued complaints over the president’s appointments, it would appear regard for the rule of law has been rather scanty. The rule of law is one of the canons of liberal democracy which nudges civilized societies away from authoritarian trappings. More importantly, it enhances democratic consolidation. Under Buhari, the law speaks different languages to different persons in Nigeria; and this is a serious aberration that undermines the principle of equality before the law. At a time Nigeria is groaning under the suffocating grip of ravaging corruption which has festered because culprits go unpunished, the need to entrench the rule of law and the willingness of all, regardless of status, to submit totally to it for the public good is overwhelming. Buhari should stop inflicting further pain on the nation’s psyche by failing to internalize the rule of law in the governance process.
In 2015 during the agonizing wait for Buhari’s cabinet, the president told foreign journalists that he did not really need ministers, as they were nothing other than noise-makers as against civil servants who, according to him, do the real work. Although he back-pedaled from the obnoxious idea, there is need to situate it within the context of his scant regard for collegiate governance. Put in perspective, it was the necessity imposed by the constitution that a government must have ministers that was the primary reason Buhari appointed them after months of dithering. As if that was not enough, there have been rumblings that some presidential nominees assume office before screening. The seriousness of such violation is underscored by the fact that, it impugns directly on democracy. With the tacit support of the presidency, and in ways that deepen the irregularity, some nominees are known to have initiated policies and disbursed funds from the parastatals they are supposed to head even before they were screened and confirmed by the Senate.
The law provides that certain appointees by the president must be confirmed by the Senate before they can assume office. It is a dangerous precedent and a costly oversight and disrespect of the Senate, for appointees to assume office in clear violation of extant laws and the 1999 Constitution. Therefore, the presidency must not only respect the rule of law and follow due process; it should be seen to do so judiciously. It bears emphasizing that democracy and its institutions are strengthened if the rule of law is observed by custodians of state institutions. The executive must be diligent and the legislature, as the gut of democracy, must exercise their independence for the good of the country. The tragedy of Nigeria is that its leaders are yet to imbibe the essential attributes of the rule of law. Unfortunately, once due process is jinxed, rule of law takes a back seat and gives way to an obnoxious philosophy, negative as it were, that makes holders of public office unaccountable and beyond reproach. This pernicious concept inures for all time and purposes with the result that a leader and his cronies invariably get away with atrocities committed while in office. The result on the society is a pandemic of corruption and impunity.
Yet, more than any other country, Nigeria needs a rigorous application of the federal character principle and due process and rule of law for there to be a new lease of life for a country tottering on the brink of implosion. Only purposeful leadership can ensure that, by giving the rule of law a chance and sentencing impunity to the dustbins of history. Buhari who promised change must chart a trajectory of values in sync with his promise. He must acknowledge that nations fail or succeed because of leaders and if Nigeria must overcome all its current challenges, including the centrifugal forces threatening national unity, it is up to him to lead by example.
