Court gives FEC 14-day ultimatum to probe Yar’Adua’s health January 23, 2010 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)

 

THE NATION

January 22, 2010

Court gives FEC 14-day ultimatum to probe Yar’Adua’s health

·         By Kamarudeen Ogundele

 

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu, yesterday ordered the Executive Council of the Federation to investigate the state of health of President Umaru Yar’Adua and pass a resolution within 14 days.

He gave the verdict in a suit filed by former House of Representatives Minority Leader, Hon. Farouk Aliyu, and Jigawa State Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chairman, Sani Gabbas.

Justice Abutu said the Executive Council of the Federation must "within 14 days consider and pass a resolution in line with Section 144 on whether the President is incapable of performing his functions as president."

He also declared that, the name "Federal Executive Council" as being presently used is illegal because it is not known to law.

According to him, the body known to the constitution is the Executive Council of the Federation.

The Chief Judge, however, held that: "The Court certainly has no power to declare the president permanently incapacitated as the body vested with such powers in line with Section 144, is the Executive Council of the Federation. The Court cannot usurp the power of the Executive Council of the Federation."

He also disagreed with the plaintiffs that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has refused to exercise the functions of the office of the President.

Justice Abutu held that the VP had been carrying out the duties diligently and he must continue to do so.

The judgment came at a time the Convener of Up Nigeria, Ray Murphy, appealed to Yar’Adua’s family to reconsider their son’s well-being to rule the country.

Accompanied by the former Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Charles Dorgu, Murphy said Nigeria would do well without the lies being told by the political elites on issues affecting the masses.

The CJ, had in a similar suit, filed by Christopher Onwuekwe, a lawyer, declared: "…by the provision of Section 5(1) and 148(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the Vice President can, on the basis of an assignment or delegation by the President to him, of the executive powers of the President under the Constitution, exercise the executive powers vested in the President under the Constitution in the absence of the President."

Reacting to the judgment yesterday, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), said the judgment of the Court will be reviewed and appropriate action taken.

Explaining the implication of the judgment, Aondoakaa said: "The Executive Council of the Federation would decide whether the President is permanently incapacitated. If they decide that yes, he is, in their opinion, then their resolution will be sent to the Senate President and then the Senate President will constitute a medical team of five medical experts which will also include the President’s personal doctor.

"If they find out that the President is permanently incapacitated, the report will be presented to the Senate President, then they will decide whether to remove the President on the ground of permanent incapacities. In that case, Section 146 will now come into play, then the President will be removed."

 

 

 

PUNCH

Court orders cabinet to make Yar’Adua’s health status public within 14 days

By Tobi Soniyi, Abuja, Published: Friday, 22 Jan 2010

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu, on Friday gave the Executive Council of the Federation 14 days to pass a resolution to determine the state of health of ailing President Umaru Yar‘Adua.

The court also said that the resolution should be made public. Justice Abutu, while delivering judgment in the case filed by a former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Farouk Aliyu; and a lawyer, Mr. Sani Gabbas, said the 1999 Constitution did not recognise the Federal Executive Council.

He said the only body recognised by the constitution is the Executive Council of the Federation. Shortly after the judgment was delivered, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Mike Aondoakaa, SAN, said the judgment would be shown to the Vice President for appropriate action.

He, however, gave assurance that the Federal Government would abide by the judgment of the court.

”We will abide by the judgment of the court. The executive council of the federation will within 14 days as directed by the court, consider and pass a resolution on the state of the President‘s health,” Agence France Presse quoted Aondoakaa as telling reporters outside the court.

Justice Abutu said in his judgment that the Executive Council of the Federation was the only body that could declare the office of the President vacant if medical report showed that he could no longer perform his duties as president.

He said, ”In line with Section 144 of the constitution, the Executive Council of the Federation is hereby directed within 14 days to meet and pass a resolution on the health of the President. The resolution should be publicised. The court has no power to declare the President permanently incapacitated. The body vested with the power is the Executive Council of Nigeria.”

Section 144 of the Constitution reads, ”(1) The President or Vice-President shall cease to hold office, if (a) by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members of the Executive Council of the Federation it is declared that the President or Vice-President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office; and (b) the declaration is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under subsection (4) of this section in its report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“(2) Where the medical panel certifies in the report that in its opinion the President or Vice-President is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation. (3) The President or Vice-President shall cease to hold office as from the date of publication of the notice of the medical report pursuant to subsection (2) of this section. (4) the medical panel to which this section relates shall be appointed by the President of the Senate, and shall comprise five medical practitioners in Nigeria:- (a) one of whom shall be the personal physician of the holder of the office concerned; and (b) four other medical practitioners who have, in the opinion of the President of the Senate, attained a high degree of eminence in the field of medicine relative to the nature of the examination to be conducted in accordance with the foregoing provisions.

“(5) In this section, the reference to ”executive council of the Federation” is a reference to the body of Ministers of the Government of the Federation, howsoever called, established by the President and charged with such responsibilities for the functions of government as the President may direct.”

Counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, reacting to the judgment said that FEC could not pass a resolution because it was an illegal body.

He said, ”The FEC is an illegal body because it is not recognised by the constitution. The court has said that the resolution should be publicised. FEC cannot pass the resolution without a medical expert and our clients in attendance. Medical experts and our clients must be available to verify their claim. Nigeria is too important than anybody.”

The plaintiffs in their affidavit in support of their originating summons had averred that the President had been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2009, and no member of the Executive Council of the Federation knew when he would return to his duty or his state of health.

They said that members of the Executive Council of the Federation had refused or neglected to take any step to investigate or determine the actual state of health of the President.

The plaintiffs also said that the refusal of the AGF and the National Assembly and Members of the Executive Council of the Federation to investigate the actual state of health of the President and pass or reject a resolution as to whether he was capable to continue in office had thrown the country into wild speculation.

According to them the refusal of the Vice President to perform the functions of the President in the absence of the President had grounded the activities of government to a halt

The plaintiffs said, ”The absence of the President from the country and from his duty has led to failure on the part of the members of the Executive Council of the Federation or the Federal Government of Nigeria to prepare the Annual Cash Plan for the 2010 financial year.

”The security of lives and property and public safety have been left unattended to, without anyone to issue lawful directions.”

The questions the plaintiffs had submitted for the court‘s determination include: Whether the absence of Yar‘Adua from Nigeria and from his constitutional and statutory duties for medical treatment since the 23rd day of November 2009 at a Saudi Arabia hospital without being on vacation did not constitute permanent incapacity within the meaning and general intendment of section 146 of the 1999 Constitution;

“Whether having regard to the fact that the President who has not been on vacation and has been undergoing treatment at a hospital outside Nigeria in Saudi Arabia since the 23rd day of November 2009, the Executive Council of the Federation ought not to be compelled to pass and publicise a resolution as to whether or not the President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office;

“Whether it was lawful and constitutional for the President indefinitely to exercise or purport to exercise the powers of the office of the President of Nigeria from a hospital outside Nigeria; and

“Whether or not the indefinite absence of the President from Nigeria since 23 November 2009 without notifying the National Assembly or authorising the transfer of the exercise of the powers of the office of the President to the Vice-President was compatible with the oath of allegiance and oath for the due execution of the duties of his office prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution by virtue of section 149 of the Constitution.

The judge however declined the invitation to order the Vice President to start performing the function of the President. According to him, the Vice President has been performing the functions of the President as shown in the counter affidavit of the defendant, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa

He said the plaintiffs did not controvert the affidavit and were deemed to have admitted the fact as true.

”I can not give an order directing the Vice President to begin to perform the functions of office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, since he has been performing such functions,” he said.

 

 

INDEPENDENT

January 22, 2010

Yar’Adua: Court Gives FEC 14-day Ultimatum

•CDHR Takes Protest to Delta

 

 

By Joe Nwankwo (Abuja), Harris -Okon Emmanuel (Warri)  and Paul Arhewe  (Lagos)

 

As the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua continues to elicit comments, as a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday declared the resolution passed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) that gave the President a clean bill of health illegal. The court also stated that the FEC is a body not known to the Nigerian laws. 

Presided over by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Daniel Abutu, the court further ordered the FEC to within 14 days consider and pass a resolution on the true position of the President’s health in accordance with Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution. 

His words: “The Executive Council of the Federation, second defendant in this case, is hereby directed to deliberate within 14 days, consider and pass a resolution in accordance with the provisions of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution, whether the President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office.” 

However, he said that the court could not make an order declaring that the President is permanently incapacitated; stressing that Section 144 of the Constitution gave such powers to only the Executive Council of the Federation, to consider and pass a resolution. 

Justice Abutu stated this while delivering judgment in a suit instituted by a former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Farouk Adamu Aliyu, and Sani Hussaini Garun Gabbas, challenging the continued absence of President Yar’Adua from Nigeria. 

The Chief Judge, however, declined to give an order that it is unconstitutional for the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to refuse to exercise the functions of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria having regard to the circumstances surrounding the absence of Yar’Adua from Nigeria and from his constitutional and statutory duties for medical treatment since November 23, 2009 at a Saudi Arabian Hospital. 

According to him, the Vice President has been performing the functions of the President as shown in the counter affidavit of the defendant, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa, and as such, since it has not been controverted by the plaintiffs, he could not make such an order. 

“I cannot give an order directing the Vice President to begin to perform the functions of office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, since he has been performing such functions,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Human Rights Writers’ Association (HURIWA), has hailed the judgment. 

In a statement in Abuja signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group said that the ultimatum handed down to the FEC by Justice Abutu has received the commendation of the organised civil society. 

Onwubiko expressed the optimism that the decision of the court was one of the most peaceful ways to end the lingering constitutional crisis created by the executive vacuum made manifest by the prolonged absence of the President from office, even as the rights group urged the court to ensure that provisions of the Constitution are respected to the letter by the FEC. 

HURIWA, which criticised the members of the FEC for their ‘display of selfish loyalty to the President,’ also urged the court to remain resolute and fearless in resolving the current constitutional crisis.  

Regardless, protests have continued to mount for Yar’Adua to hand over power to Jonathan, due to his ill health.

The latest protest was put together by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) on Friday in Warri, the commercial nerve centre of Delta State, which urged the incapacitated President to step down honourably. 

Besides, the group issued a seven-day ultimatum to the FEC and the National Assembly to conclude the process that would enable the Vice President act and fill the vacuum created by Yar’Adua’s absence.

The organisation appealed to all well-meaning Nigerians to stand up in defence of their fundamental rights by denouncing the absence of their President; and to demand that he returned immediately to carry out his constitutional functions as President or appropriately transmit to the National Assembly a letter that would constitutionally empower Jonathan to act as President.  

Some of the placards carried by the protesters read: “Yar’Adua, where are you?” 

“We are not terrorist Nation’’, “Nigerians are not fools’’ and “Constitutional Reforms Now!’’  

According to the group, a faceless cabal has taken advantage of the absence of Yar’Adua to perpetrate their evil intentions.

The protest march started from the Enerhen Junction and terminated at the Warri South Local Government Secretariat, along Warri/Sapele Road, near the Nigeria Ports Authority.

Delta State Chairman of the CDHR, Rufus Olanrewaju, who spoke at Warri South Council Secretariat, stressed that the people of Nigeria were generally worried about their President’s long absence without the due process that would enable the Vice President act as President.

 

 

 

THIS DAY

 

Yar’Adua: Court Gives FEC 14 Days to Act

•Falana faults judgmentBy Yemi Adebowale in Lagos and Funso Muraino in Abuja, 01.23.2010

Following the two-month absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua from the country on health grounds, an Abuja High Court judge, Justice Dan Abutu yesterday ordered the Federal Executive Council to determining within 14 days, whether ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is capable of performing the functions of his office.

The ruling was given in a suit filed by the former Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Farouk Aliyu, and the chairman, Jigawa State chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association, Sani Gabbas, against the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the FEC.

The duo had approached the court asking it to compel Yar’Adua to transmit power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan following his incapacitation and long absence.
But the High Court judgement was flayed by civil rights lawyer and president of the West African Bar Association, Femi Falana, who dismissed it as another ploy to use the judiciary to buy time.
Justice Abutu ordered the FEC to determine the fate of Yar’Adua based on Section 144 (1) of the 1999 Constitution.

The section states: “The President or Vice President shall cease to hold office if by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members of the Executive Council of the Federation, it is declared that the President or Vice President is incapable of discharging the function of the office.
Section 144(2), however, requires that the FEC declaration must be verified by a medical team to be constituted by the senate, and thereafter, the president could be removed after “a notice thereof signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be published in the official gazette of the Government of the Federation.”
In his ruling, Abutu held that “the cabinet should convene and pass a resolution to determine whether the president is still fit to run the office,” adding that “it is not in the court's power to make a final decision on the president.

“The executive council of the federation is hereby directed within 14 days to consider and pass a resolution declaring whether the president’s absence since November 23 makes him incapable of performing the functions of his office.”
In declining to make the pronouncement that President Yar’Adua is no longer fit and proper to continue to undertake the duties of his office having been away in Saudi Arabia for medical reasons since November 23, 2009, Abutu said that the court has no powers to come to that conclusion merely on affidavit evidence “and this is resolved against the plaintiffs.”

Further explaining why the court can not hold that that the president is incapacitated, Justice Abutu noted that the only body that could take steps towards that direction is the Executive Council of the Federation even as it noted that the name “Federal Executive Council (FEC) is unknown to the 1999 Constitution.”

In addition, the judge said that the call by some people for the invocation of Section 144 of the constitution can not yield any result since the Federal Executive Council, a body not known to law cannot take a decision regarding pronouncing the president incapable of discharging his official duties.
“FEC is not mentioned in Section 144 of the constitution and that the only body charged with the responsibility of declaring the president incapable is the Executive Council of the Federation.”

Besides, he noted that when the Executive Council of the Federation meets to consider the heath status of the president and takes a decision to that effect, the same resolution would be transmitted to the president of the senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives who would then set up a medical panel of five persons including the personal physician to President Yar’Adua who would examine him.

The work of the panel, the court stated, would be to make an inquiry into the health condition of the president regarding both the state of his “body and mind” and such findings would be published in a government official gazette.
It went further to clarify that the date the official gazette is published would mark the very date the president would cease to function as the president, just as he noted that the same is applicable to the vice president.
Justice Abutu maintained that “Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has in the absence of the president been performing the functions of the president.”

In this regard, he declared that Vice President Jonathan “cannot be seen to be guilty of any constitutional breach and that there was evidence that he chaired the FEC meeting on December 2, 2009 in the absence of the president.
Responding to the judgment, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, who argued the case personally on behalf of the state, noted that “we will study the judgment to determine whether or not to go on appeal.”

The AGF maintained that only the FEC can decide if the president is capable or incapable of discharging his responsibility.
He added that even if there is an appeal, the judgment stands because it cannot act as a stay of execution.
He told reporters that the court has no jurisdiction on the issue of the incapacitation of the president. However, he said the government would abide by the judgement.

"The Executive Council of the Federation of Nigerian will be sorting this as directed and will consider a resolution on the state of the president’s health," Aondoakaa said.
On the other hand, counsel to the plaintiffs, Barrister Bamidele Aturu while reacting to the judgment, said that it has helped to expand the frontiers of the law at least to know that Federal Executive Council as a name is illegal.

He said that FEC should not arrange a panel of medical doctors of their choice and give Yar’Adua a clean bill of health to deceive Nigerians and that if FEC does that, he would go to court to challenge the action.
He called on Nigerians to appeal to the cabinet to abide by the ruling. "We filed this case so that we can save our country from anarchy, from chaos and from constitutional crisis," said Aturu.
Yesterday’s judgement, however, was faulted by Femi Falana who described it as a ploy to use the judiciary to buy time.
He questioned the rationale for the ruling given that the president himself in the BBC interview had admitted that he was ill and did not know when he would return, until after he is discharged by his doctors.

“The president has been away for 59 days (as at yesterday). From his interview, he confirmed that he has been incapacitated for two months and did not know when he would return.
“What more does the court require to compel the FEC to set up a panel of medical experts to determine the health of the president.”
Falana maintained that “at this stage, we don’t need a court to compel the FEC to invoke Section 144. That is begging the question; we have passed that stage a while back, because the president himself has confirmed his infirmity.”
Similarly, frontline lawyer, Festus Keyamo called the judgement meaningless and “which can only truncate our hopes and prolong our sufferings whilst the nation continues to drift without a captain.”

He argued that the only way forward is for the National Assembly to exercise its powers under Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution to impeach the president for gross misconduct for not informing them he was proceeding on a leave of absence and for failing to comply with the constitution by handing over to the vice president whilst proceeding abroad.
Keyamo based his conviction on Section 144 of the constitution, stating that “it is clear that there can be no medical examination of the president and there can be no report of such medical examination to the president of the senate or the speaker of the House of Representatives, unless there is first a resolution backed by two-thirds of the ministers declaring the president medically unfit to continue.
‘It is absurd that the medical examination does not come first before the resolution. So on what basis will the ministers pass their resolution?

“It simply means politics will take precedence over correct medical opinion. And this is another fatal flaw in our 1999 Constitution.
According to him, the biggest blow to the provisions of Section 144 is that it would amount to political suicide or hara-kiri for the ministers who were appointed by Yar’Adua to now vote to remove him from office which may also sound the death knell for their political future.
“They will never do that. Anyone expecting anything positive to come out of this ruling should have second thoughts,” he stated.

 

 

GUARDIAN

Saturday, January 23, 2010              

Yar'Adua May Return Next Week

• Court Orders Probe Of President's Health

• ... Declares FEC Unconstitutional

• Nigeria Drifting Towards Failed State, Says Akinjide

By Muyiwa Adeyemi, Abiodun Fanoro, Lagos and Lemmy Ugbagbe, Abuja

BARRING any last minute change of plan, the ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua will arrive the country next week, even as the move is said to be against the advice of his doctors.

A competent source revealed last night that some members of his kitchen cabinet referred to as "hardliners" have concluded plans to bring him back to the country to defuse tension.

President Yar'Adua had in the last 61 days been receiving treatment in a Saudi Hospital, though there were unconfirmed reports that he might have left the King Fasaid Specialist Hospital in Jeddah.

The source also revealed that to convince his doctors that he would continue his medication in Nigeria, a giant construction company (name withheld) has been hired to build an Intensive Care Unit with life support machine in Aso Rock, Abuja.

It was gathered that the plan of this 'hardliners' is being coordinated by the President's wife Turai, who the source said "comes to Nigeria every other week to see to the lobbying of the members of the National Assembly not to allow debate that can make them pass any resolution that will mandate Yar'Adua to transmit any letter making Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President or call for his impeachment.

The source revealed that about N28 billion might have been spent in the last 60 days to maintain the status quo.

An inside source also disclosed that Economic Commission for West African State (ECOWAS) would, in the upper week meet in Abuja without Yar'Adua as its current chairman. "ECOWAS and African Union (AU) heads of state are said to be uncomfortable anytime Yar'Adua attends their meetings because of fear that he could collapse as a result of his frail look," the source said.

Meanwhile, fresh controversy has been thrown up in the legal circles as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Daniel Abutu yesterday declared as unconstitutional the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and its purported resolution in favour of Yar'Adua's ability to continue in office.

The Chief Judge held that the FEC was unknown to the country's 1999 Constitution and as such lacked the competence to reach a resolution on the vexed issue of the 'absentee' President's ability to perform his presidential duties.

Delivering his judgement in the suit instituted by former Minority leader in the House of Representatives, Farouk Adamu Aliyu and Sani Hussaini Garun Gabbas, challenging Yar'Adua's absence without handing over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, Abutu said under the provision of Section 144 of the Constitution, the only body that can competently decide on the capacity or otherwise of the President to perform his function is the Executive Council of the Federation.

He also held that the court could take over the exclusive duty of the Executive Council of the Federation as spelt out by Section 144 of the 1999 constitution and therefore declined the Plaintiffs' prayer to that effect.

Abutu held that the excerpt of the resolution of the Federal Executive Council meeting annexed to an affidavit by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) did not help his case because "the Federal Executive Council is not known to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

The defendants had "annexed to the counter affidavit excerpt of Wednesday December 9, 2009, text of the resolution of their 46 meetings,"(where it) "took notice of the call of the people for President Yar'Adua to resign council having viewed all the facts on then resolved unanimously that there was no basis for the call and that President Yar'Adua was fit."

Consequently, Abutu ordered the Executive Council of the Federation to within 14 days pass a resolution on whether or not, having regards to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's absence since November 23, last year, he is capable of discharging his executive functions.

He also held: "I can not give an order directing the Vice President to begin to perform the functions of office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, since he has been performing such functions".

Reacting to the verdict, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN) said he would study it even as he pledged that he would comply with it.

Plaintiffs' counsel, Bamidele Aturu expressed happiness at the outcome of the case, saying it was victory for democracy.

Specifically, the plaintiffs through their counsel Bamidale Aturu, went to Court seeking the following declarations among others:

• A declaration that the absence of the President from the country and from his statutory duties and functions for medical treatment since the 23rd day of November, 2009 in a Saudi Arabia hospital outside the purview of section 145 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 constitutes permanent incapacity within the meaning and intendment of section 146 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

• A declaration that it is unlawful and unconstitutional for the President indefinitely to exercise or purport to exercise the powers of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from a hospital outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

• A declaration that the indefinite absence of the President from Nigeria since 23 November 2009 without notifying the National Assembly or authorizing the transfer of the exercise of the powers of the office of the President to the Vice-President is compatible with the oath of allegiance and oath for the due execution of the duties of his office prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution by virtue of Section 149 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

• A declaration that the non-consideration by the Executive Council of the Federation for the purpose of passing or rejecting as resolution proposal as to whether or not the President suffers permanent incapacity as a result of his absence from his statutory duties and functions since the 23rd of November, 2009 for medical treatment is a flagrant violation of the spirit and letters of section 144 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and an indefensible breach of their oath of allegiance and oath for the due execution of the duties of his office prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution by virtue of section 149 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999", among others.

Elder statesman and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN) has expressed fear that Nigeria is progressively moving towards becoming a failed state.

Akinjide is of the view that the present constitutional crisis precipitated by the continued absence of president Yar'Adua and his refusal to hand over power to his vice, among others, are problems pushing the country to the precipice.

The elder statesman however lauded former President Olusegun Obasanjo's un-equivocal advice to President Yar'Adua to resign if he knew his health could not enable him to perform functions of his office.

His words: "I read in the print media, the view expressed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, telling President Yar'Adua point blank to resign if his health could no longer cope with the demands of his office. I believe Obasanjo has said it all. I want to say categorically that Obasanjo's view reflects and represents the view of the over-whelming majority of rational, patriotic and objective Nigerians"

The former minister, however, absolved Obasanjo of any blame in the emergence of Yar'Adua as president.

According to him, Obasanjo must have sought and relied on expert advice before throwing up Yar'Adua for the presidency.

The blame, according to him, should go to whoever gave the medical advice that Yar'Adua was fit to rule: "I think something was wrong with the medical advice Obasanjo was given. (Though) I am not competent to comment on that because I was not an insider, but whosoever gave the medical advice saying that Yar'Adua was fit to perform the functions of his office, has contributed immensely to the present crisis. During the campaign (in 2007), it was an open secret that when Yar'Adua was campaigning in Ado-Ekiti, he collapsed, which shows clearly he could not cope with the stress of his office," Akinjide said, arguing that Nigerians have the right to know the medical record of the president and the true state of his present health.

"We now have a nation without a leader; we now have a boat without a captain, we now have an army without a general. I will not say that is a failed state, but we are steadily moving towards that."

The legal luminary identified bad leadership, corruption and absence of an efficient constitution as some other problems impeding good governance and also causing it to drift towards a failed state status.

While casting aspersion on the zoning formula in the emergence of the country's president, the former minister declared that what the country needed was a committed and patriotic leader irrespective of where he or she hailed from who would fix the country.

He noted that the time had come for the emergence of such a patriotic and selfless leader who would help restore the dignity of the country, restore its values and the image which had been badly battered.