Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter to the National Assembly seeking amendment of Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act, 2022 is in bad faith.
The governor maintained that the president lacks the power to determine whether Section 84 (12), which he claims will disenfranchise serving political office holders, conflicts with provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Speaking in an interview on a television programme on Friday, the governor insisted that by faulting Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act, the president was usurping the power of the Judiciary to interpret the law.
‘Unfortunately, what we have today is where the Executive arm has taken the position and the role of the judiciary of interpreting the law. The Legislature said this is what we have done, it is not the duty of Mr. President to interpret that Act”, the Rivers governor stated.
“The duty of Mr. President is to assent to the Bill. Let those who are affected, if at all, go to the court to challenge that particular provision, and not for Mr. President to write to National Assembly to say there is a conflict. That is a usurpation of the power of the judiciary. You want to make the judiciary idle”.
Governor Wike, however, described the recent passage of the Bill granting full financial and administrative autonomy to Local governments by the National Assembly as a welcome development.
He explained that as a former chairman of a local government and national president of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) he was in support of autonomy of the third tier of government.
Governor Wike acknowledged that the 1999 Constitution may not be a perfect document, but that strict adherence to its provisions could have tremendously helped the country’s democratisation process.
He cited the issue of federal government collecting Value-Added Tax (VAT) and enactment of the Police Trust Fund Act as clear cases of breach of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
