Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke
Says he took risk to save Nigeria from costly presidential blunders
Former Attorney General and Justice Minister, Mohammed Adoke, has revealed how
he risked his job by prevailing former president Goodluck Jonathan to withdraw
assent to a bill that would have made presiding officers in Nigeria’s
legislature one of the most powerful groups of people in the country.
The bill, which had already been
signed by Jonathan and was about to be transmitted to the National Assembly
before Adoke got wind of it, granted huge life pensions and immunity from
prosecution for Nigerian lawmakers after leaving office.
The revelations are contained in
Adoke’s latest book entitled “Burden of Service: reminiscences of a Nigeria’s
former Attorney General” due for presentation next week.
According to the former minister,
the proposed amendments embedded under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment Bill
2015, was passed by the National Assembly after the 2015 elections.
Adoke recalled in the book: “I
had travelled out of the country when this happened and on return discovered
that the bill had not been forwarded to me for review as was the practice with
President Jonathan.
“On getting wind that the
president was about to transmit his assent to the National Assembly, I quickly
placed a call to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Administration, Mr Matt Aikhionbare, to confirm if, indeed, the President had
signed the bill.
“Upon confirmation that he had, I
requested Aikhionbare not to transmit the instrument to the National Assembly
as I needed to discuss some of the amendments with the President,” he wrote.
According to Adoke, the several
amendments approved by Jonathan were serious constitutional breaches, which
were done without recourse to due process.
The former minister said however
that when he rushed and met Jonathan and pointed out the grave implications of
his action, he agreed to drop the transmission of the bill to the NASS.
According to Adoke, some of the
provisions approved by Jonathan were self-serving and not in the interest of
the nation and he had to move against them.
“For one, the bill sought to take
away the power of the president to assent to constitutional amendments and
would mean that the National Assembly (NASS) could amend the Constitution and
bring it into force without presidential approval.
“If such amendments were allowed
to go through, Nigeria would have been subjected to the tyranny of the
legislature as the legislators could wake up one day and legislate the Office
of the President out of existence and the President would not need to sign for
this to be,” Adoke said.
“I further enumerated some other lapses in the
bill, including the fact that the thresholds for amendments in respect of
provisions of Chapters Two and Four were not met; some policies verging on the
fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy which are not
justiciable, being in Chapter Two, were moved to Chapter Four, which made them
justiciable.