Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, yesterday came down heavily on ex-President
Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight-year rule, describing the administration as
the worst defaulter of the principles of the rule of law. He gave
the indictment at the 30th Mallam Aminu Kano Memorial Lecture, which
took place at the Sa’Adu Zungur Auditorium, Aminu Kano Centre for
Democratic Research and Training, Mambayya House, Kano.
The
lecture was chaired by Abubakar B Mahmood (SAN). It was attended by some
serving lawmakers, politicians as well as academics including Dr.
Junaid Mohammed, Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, the Vice
Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed and the
Chairman of the Implementation Committee, North-West University, Prof.
Hafiz Abubakar. In his paper titled: “The rule of law as fundamental
condition for democracy and good governance,” the Speaker observed that
the Obasanjo administration, “ contrived the political space and usurped
the powers of both the legislature and the judiciary, posing a grave
danger to the democratic content of democracy.”
Tambuwal said the
overall score card of the administration in the first four years was,
“spotted with executive arbitrariness,” although the administration set
up some institutional and administrative agencies like the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), it adopted the principle of due
process and persistently proclaimed the independence of the judiciary.
He said that “most of the claims of the government on the gains in the
rule of law turned out to be mere political gimmicks as they were
clearly unfounded and merely designed to create the impression that it
was no longer business as usual in Nigeria after the prolonged military
rule.”
He cited cases of the abuse of the rule of law to include
the Zaki Biam and Odi massacres, the failure to respect the Supreme
Court’s judgment asking the administration to remit N10.8 billion to the
Lagos State Government, among others. He said that during “the Obasanjo
administration, and to a lesser extent Yar’Adua/Jonathan’s, the
constitutional provisions regarding the power of the purse and
appropriation are overlooked in contravention of the principle of the
separation of powers as well as checks and balances. “This was the case
in the controversies over the implementation of the 2005, 2011 and 2012
Appropriation Acts,” he noted. According to Tambuwal, the disrespect for
the rule of law has opened up another debate on the legitimacy of
public officers at the national, state and local government levels.
He
listed the challenges to the application of the rule of law to include
five key areas. Among them is the executive over-bearance, which impacts
negatively on the other arms and have further weakened non -state
actors such as civil society organizations and the media; the lack of
judicial independence; corruption; the scope of the doctrine of immunity
as it relates to the principles of equality before the law; and the
challenges of free and fair elections, which have since become a means
of disenfranchising a large segment of the electorate.
The
Speaker singled out the legislature and regretted that the legitimate
performance of its constitutional duties tend to be perceived in the
executive circles and even in some sections of the public, as
legislative meddlesomeness in governance. According to him, “the
legislature is the most misunderstood because of the obscurity thrust
upon it by the several years of military regimes, “ pointing out that
while the society will accept as justice the passing of a death sentence
by a court of competent jurisdiction, the same society will react with
hostility to a mere impeachment proposal by the legislative arm of
government. Tambuwal was, however, confident that the country was
passing through a learning process, noting that, “what is required is
for public officers to develop the political mindset to change their
obnoxious political culture, of absolutism in the struggles for the
acquisition or retention of power.”
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/tambuwal-blasts-obj/
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