• Ozekhome, Oyetibo, Adegboruwa, Akingbolu, Ubani say president lacks power to override Supreme Court order
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja And Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos
President Muhammadu Buhari’s nationwide address on the redesigned bank notes in the midst of pending litigation on the subject matter at the Supreme Court, has received criticism from the legal community.
In his broadcast on Thursday morning, President Buhari announced that the old N200 note remains legal tender till April 10, but the old N500 and N1, 000 notes have ceased to be legal tender.
In his reaction, a seasoned lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, said the president’s address was a gross violation of and disobedience to the existing order of the Supreme Court.
“The President issued a dicta, more in the form of a military decree, that, “in line with section 20 (3) of the CBN Act, 2007, all existing old N1000 and N500 notes remain redeemable at the CBN and designated points”.
This order, Ozekhome said, was a clear violation of and disobedience to the existing order of the apex court, which had already maintained the status quo ante bellum of all parties involved in the Naira re-design dispute. The activist lawyer stated that “every Nigerian had expected that the Federal Government would respect this apex court’s position. But President Buhari demurred. He made himself supreme leader; an emperor; potentate, Mikado and overlord.
“Buhari’s broadcast to the nation therefore literally overruled the Supreme Court of the land, in a way and manner only a military tyrant could ever contemplate. To have whimsically and capriciously varied the order of the Supreme Court was to pick and choose what order to obey or disobey. This breaches the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution provided for in section 1(1) thereof. It also frontally assaults the provisions of section 287(1) of the Constitution, which provides that, “the decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court.
“Buhari’s broadcast rather than be re-assuring and calming the frayed nerves of a traumatised citizenry and a beleaguered nation. It was a clarion call for total disenchantment, disillusionment, despair and desolation. The speech was not only highly unpresidential, but was vividly insensate and insensitive to the suffering of Nigerian citizens, who, due to no fault of theirs, can neither now use the old currency, nor access the new one.”
In the same vein, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, faulted the president and accused him of flouting the principle of separation of powers.
While demanding that the president should reverse himself, Adegboruwa further described his action as “executive rascality, brazen disregard, and contempt of the Supreme Court” where the matter is presently pending.
In his statement on the presidential address, the activist lawyer said: “There is separation of powers in a democracy. Under section 235 of the 1999 Constitution, the Supreme Court is the final authority in legal pronouncements in Nigeria.
“Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution reads: “(1) The decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court.”
“Since he already admitted that the matter is subjudice, the President should not have proceeded to vary the order of the Supreme Court.
“The President should reverse his directive and add the N500 and N1000 old notes, failing which the Supreme Court should overrule the directive of the President on February 22 when the case comes up.”
Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, in his reaction simply said: “ The president cannot by executive fiat override an order of the Supreme Court. That is the doctrine of separation of powers. You can’t use executive fiat to subvert the order made by the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.”
Another senior lawyer, Kabir Akingbolu, said: “First of all, the president’s speech is not only contemptuous of the Supreme Court’s order, but also outright illegal. It is a broadcast that showed that a leopard can never change its skin.
“Before now, many people believed that President Buhari was a human right violator, but some people believe he was a changed democrat. The broadcast has exposed the president as someone who does not care at all about the rule of law.
“How can a president rewrite the order of the Supreme Court of the land? It is an invitation to anarchy and it is capable of derailing our trudging democracy.
“The president’s order made him look dictatorial or show him as someone who does not care about how people are suffering due to lack of cash in circulation.
“As a matter of fact, I expect the Supreme Court to have given an order for the arrest of the CBN Governor by now for contempt of court.
“The Supreme Court of any land is the final arbiter and none of its decision can be subjected to political scrutiny or interpretation. “.
Dr Monday Ubani, said the president’s announcement on the bank notes was a clear contempt of the Supreme Court’s earlier order restraining the government’s action on old currency notes of 200, 500 and 1000 respectively until the application on notice before it is heard.
The former vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said President Buhari should have allowed the judicial process to run through.
“His intervention, though well intended, as posited by some economists, sends a dangerous signal in our democracy. The international community is seeing how much we mess our system up. It is ill advised and no lawyer worth his salt should make unfounded allegation of bribery as reason to undermine the judiciary,” he said.