MKO Abiola
Constitutional lawyer Professor Ben Nwabueze (SAN) says President Muhammadu Buhari lacks the constitutional energy to verbally cancel May 29 as Democracy Day.
The elder statesman stated by on his personal changing May 29 with June 12 as Democracy Day, Buhari violated the 1999 Constitution.
Nwabueze in a authorized opinion launched on Sunday stated that Buhari acted like he was a army ruler by not recognising the powers of the National Assembly to amend the legal guidelines of the federation.
In the authorized opinion titled “President Muhammadu Buhari’s 6th June, 2018 declaration of a new Democracy Day and the rule of law”, the senior lawyer stated, “President Muhammadu Buhari could not have been more disdainful and more careless, he could not have made a greater mockery of the rule of law than by his announcement on June 6, 2018, of the decision of the Federal Government that “henceforth, June 12 will be celebrated as Democracy Day”, understanding, as he properly does, that May 29 is enacted by legislation, the Public Holidays Act, as Democracy Day, and that might not be modified to June 12, besides by modification of the Act, not by mere presidential declaration; and that his needs, intentions and whims, nonetheless, pure and benevolent, are usually not legislation, as within the days of the absolutist army dictatorship, when legal guidelines could possibly be made just by phrase of mouth, later to be put in written kind by Decree or Edict.
“It is unimaginable that, understanding all this, however nonetheless believing himself to be an absolute ruler, he went forward to organise the farce of commemoration ceremony on June 12, on the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.
“His perception of himself as absolute ruler is antithetical to constitutional democracy, and constitutes a danger to the country. He should be made to shed that perception of himself.”
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), final Wednesday, described the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day as a mere need of the president .