Since his inauguration on May 29, 2015 as elected “civilian” President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired army general and former head of the military government, has been ruling the country for more than two and a half months without ministers. The question examined in this write-up is whether the President ruling without ministers is permitted by the Constitution or is even within its contemplation.
It should be stated right-away that the term “rule” is here used to embrace eight different functions of government, viz the exercise of executive powers in the form of the taking of executive actions, including the appointment and disciplinary control of executive functionaries of government; execution of the laws – the law of the constitution and other laws; maintenance of law and order; the determination and conduct of policy; direction and control of the departments of state and their activities; protection or preservation of the properties and instrumentalities of government; co-ordination of the activities of government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAS); and lastly pure administration.
ANTECEDENTS
The President ruling for more than two and a half months without ministers is really incredible, but, incredible as it is, we Nigerians, as a people, ought to have foreseen it from our experience of the dictatorial way former President Obasanjo who, like President Buhari, is a retired army general and former head of the military government, rode roughshod over the constitutional limitations on his powers. Olusegun Obasanjo, as elected “civilian” President in 1999, just carried over the arrogant, intolerant mentality and the mental attitude of impunity in the use of power implanted in him during his almost four years rule as head of the military government from 1976 – 79. Besides, his natural disposition as a person is not such as to have permitted him to shed the habits and attitudes about the administration of affairs acquired over a long period of years as commander of a military unit, minister in, and later head of, a military government. Comparison with George Washington or D’wright Eisenhower is simply inapposite and unhelpful.
It is not likely that anyone other than a retired army general and former head of the military government would ever think of ruling the country for more than two and a half months without ministers knowing fully well, as he or she ought to know, that the type of governmental system established for the country by the Constitution does not permit him to do that. And yet knowing his antecedents and the influence they must have on him, Nigerians elected him as “civilian” President in the March 2015 election. His election cannot but portray Nigerians as incapable of learning from past experience, a people lacking the degree of political maturity and sagacity required for the successful working of constitutional democracy.
What is happening now has no precedent in President Shehu Shagari’s 16 days delay in announcing his ministerial nominees and sending them to the Senate for confirmation. The delay in Shagari’s case was due to the President’s party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), not having a majority in the Senate to secure confirmation of the list of ministerial nominees, and the desire of the President for a national government of reconciliation, and his invitation to the five recognised political parties to join it. Apparently he thought he should allow them time to make up their minds. He seemed to have put so much store on a national government embracing all recognised political parties as a way of ending the prevailing political tension in the country arising from his disputed victory in the election, and also minimizing future conflicts. The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and the Great Nigerian People’s Party (GNPP) had emphatically and mockingly rejected the invitation (only the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) accepted and joined, which secured for the President a majority in the Senate), but the President seemed to believe that, given time, they might change their position and agree to join. The invitation was accordingly renewed on 16 October during his first address to the National Assembly, though he was at pains to state that the invitation should not be “misunderstood as a call for an All Party Government.” – National Assembly Debs (Senate) Official Report, 9 – 19 Oct, 1979, col. 133. However, as one commentator observed, “it is a height of presidential unorthodoxy to invite all the political parties to join his national government”. Amechi Okolo, Daily Times, Friday 23 November, 1979, 7.
Another factor that contributed to the delay was his concern to conciliate and please powerful interests within his own party. In the words of another commentator, he had “allowed his search for conciliation to override the institutional demands of his office. Party chieftains assumed a vetoing power in the nomination process which they had no legitimate claim to.” Stanley Macebuh, Daily Times, Thursday November 1979, p. 2.
And so the nation waited. As the days went by without an announcement, the public became restive and impatient about the delay in setting up an administration to get on with the pressing business of governing the country. The President’s inauguration on 1 October, 1979 had been a momentous occasion of great fervour and expectation. The fervour was generated by the excitement of the change to civil rule after 13 long years of frustration and disillusion under an autocratic military regime. The expectation was for a better life under an open, energetic government responsive to popular opinion, and imbued with a desire for action and service to the people. The public had expected that an administration would already have been worked out by the President by the time of his inauguration, and that the names of those to be called upon to serve as ministers would be announced any time; but when, more than two weeks after, an announcement had still not been made, popular fervour began, not surprisingly, to melt away. It seemed to many that the momentum had been lost, that the President had missed what appeared to be an excellent opportunity to canalize public fervour into an enduring loyalty, and to mobilize the nation. The public took on a mood, first of doubt and questioning, then of disenchantment borne out of disappointed expectation. At last, on 17 October 1979, the long-awaited list was presented to the Senate. The confirmation process in the Senate took quite some time, causing further delay in the actual appointment of ministers.