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Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Robert Clark, has called on the National Assembly
to consider reviewing the provisions of Section 145 of the 1999 constitution to
provide for a decisive action regarding the president’s state of health.
He also said what Nigeria needs is not an
amendment of the current constitution but a new one.
Mr. Clark was speaking at a television program,
Sunday politics, on Channels Television.
The senior lawyer said the popular concern
regarding the medical vacation currently embarked upon by President Muhammadu
Buhari, is not just a product of the president’s absence, but the effect of
non-compliance with constitutional provisions, as well as a ‘lacuna’ in the
constitution.
“The funny thing about Nigeria is that we never
learn from our previous mistakes. During the case of Yar’adua when he was so
sick that he could not come back, instead of going to the constitution and
seeing what it says, we started talking about the doctrine of necessity. That
doctrine should only apply to a cabinet system, not to the presidential system;
where everything has already been spelt out in the constitution,” Mr. Clark
said.
He added that although the constitution
provides for the president to hand over power to the vice president, via a
letter to the National Assembly, Section145 also states that unless the
president issues another letter to the contrary, no one can do anything about
the office of the president, until he returns.
“That section 145 says that unless the
president himself sends a contrary statement; you cannot do anything; that is
the lacuna. Buhari can stay till the end of his tenure; nothing will happen,”
Mr. Clark said.
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