When he addressed a press conference on the President Bola Tinubu certificate issue, Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, eulogised the late human rights gadfly, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
As Atiku put it, “I wish to pay tribute to the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, who inspired us on this path of discovery. Now, he can truly rest in peace in the assurance that what he started about 23 years ago has come to fruition. Gani’s vindication today gives credence to the saying that no matter how fast a lie runs, the truth will someday overtake it.”
Now, it is easy for Atiku to invoke Fawehinmi as his patron saint. However, he disregarded the lawyer’s advice when he crossed from PDP to AC, even as a sitting Vice President to Obasanjo.
That time, Fawehinmi advised Atiku to resign. He refused. Here is what Fahehinmi said:
“The president and the vice president must be elected on the same ticket and they must both belong to the same political party. Unfortunately, the vice president has deserted the party political platform under which he was elected with the president. He has now been adopted by another party called the Action Congress to be a presidential candidate. And under 31-46 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sub-section three, he’s deemed to have vacated his office.”
Chief Fawehinmi added: “I think the vice president has not behaved honorably because ordinarily integrity demands, morality demands, apart from law, that once you have deserted your party and you have moved to another party where you have been endorsed as a presidential candidate, you just simply resign.”
Below is a 31 Ocrober 2009 report by the VOA, entitled :
Lawyer Says Constitution Supports President Obasanjo for Firing VP
“In Nigeria, the political drama between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar continues. Late last week, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) expelled the vice president after he was chosen as the presidential candidate for the Action Congress Party. President Obasanjo moved to declare the office vacant. But on Sunday, Vice President Abubakar reportedly wrote the Nigerian legislature and judiciary saying that he was still the vice president of Nigeria. So who is right?
Chief Gani Fawehinmi is a lawyer and human rights activist. He said the answer lies in the Nigerian constitution.
“The president and the vice president must be elected on the same ticket and they must both belong to the same political party. Unfortunately, the vice president has deserted the party political platform under which he was elected with the president. He has now been adopted by another party called the Action Congress to be a presidential candidate. And under 31-46 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sub-section three, he’s deemed to have vacated his office,” he said.
Chief Fawehinmi said President Obasanjo must now nominate another person from the same ruling People’s Democratic Party as vice president for the approval of the national assembly. He said President Obasanjo is not usurping too much power.
“They were both elected, according to the constitution of Nigeria on the same party platform. So he’s not usurping any power at all because Section 142 of the constitution says that both the president and vice president must be of the same political party. In this case, they were elected on the platform of the PDP, and therefore they must remain in the PDP. But the vice president has broken that constitutional provision, Section 142, deserted his party, and therefore deserted the constitution of Nigeria…And therefore the president is enjoined by the constitution to nominate a new person to replace the vice president whose office has been declared vacant by the operation of the Nigerian Constitution,” Fawehinmi said.
He said the blame lies squarely on Vice President Abukakar whom he described as not behaving honorably.
“I think the vice president has not behaved honorably because ordinarily integrity demands, morality demands, apart from law, that once you have deserted your party and you have moved to another party where you have been endorsed as a presidential candidate, you just simply resign.”
Disturbed by Gani’s reaction, Vice President Abubakar reached out to NBA leaders. Without considering the legal and moral implications of Atiku’s action the NBA asked Gani to stop criticising the judgment. Gani reacted angrily.
Also, according to a report by onlinenigeria,
Fawehinmi (SAN), told the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that it has no moral or legal authority to gag him or any lawyer over his position on the Court of Appeal judgement on the suit involving President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar.
NBA had accused Chief Fawehinmi of making ‘uncomplimentary remarks on a well considered judgement,” which Chief Fawehinmi considered to be ‘constitutionally wrong, legally untenable, technically illogical and politically dangerous.”
Reacting to the criticism of his view on the judgement, which confirmed Atiku Abubakar as the vice president despite his defection to the Action Congress (AC), Chief Fawehinmi described the reaction of the NBA as ‘very amusing, deeply hollow in substance and totally devoid of factional reasons and legal justification.”
Chief Fawehinmi contended further: ‘The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has no moral or legal authority to gag any lawyer from expressing his or her own view on any issue including criticism of judgements of our courts.”
He pointed out to the national officers of the NBA that it is contrary to the principles that led to the establishment of the association of lawyers for it to be truculently intolerant of opposition to its views by any member or members.
Chief Fawehinmi submitted that even the enforcement provisions of the judgement of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court in Section 287 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 199 do not forbid criticism of the judgements of these courts.
‘The recent embarrassing utterances and actions of some national officers of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on issues across the country, particularly in Ekiti, Plateau and Adamawa states depict downright and cowboyish dictatorship, which must be curbed to preserve the integrity of the association,” he said.