Three senior advocates of Nigeria, Femi Falani, Ahmed Raji and Mike Ozekhome have said it is unconstitutional for any governor to import foreign mercenaries to fight terrorists in Nigeria.
The senior lawyers spoke to The PUNCH separately in their reactions to Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s plan to hire foreign mercenaries to resolve the intra table attacks and killings of citizens by bandits in North West Nigeria.
According to human rights lawyer and senior advocate, Mr Falana, Buhari remained the commander-in-chief and is the only who can approve the deployment of mercenaries.
Falana said the plan by El-Rufai or any of the governors to hire foreign mercenaries is unconstitutional
“By virtue of Section 130 of the constitution, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Governors are not competent to hire mercenaries to secure any part of Nigeria. Frankly speaking, Nigerian soldiers are ready to wage counter-insurgency operations but they are ill-equipped and ill-motivated,” Falana explained.
According to the rights activist, Nigeria had one of the best military capabilities in the world but regretted that resources meant for them were being stolen by a few unpatriotic officers and members of the ruling class.
“Apart from physical security, the federating units are not addressing the crisis of social insecurity. 90 million citizens have been forced into the cocoon of poverty. About 15 million out of school children are roaming the streets, ready to be recruited by criminal gangs. These are the challenges of insecurity to be addressed. This is not a job for mercenaries,” the senior advocate said.
For Raji, who concored with Falana that governors hiring external hands to fight terrorists was not just unconstitutional, doing so would dampen the image of the Nigerian military in the global space.
He told El-Rufai to tread with caution as this might open doors to bigger problems and “signal the end of a united Nigeria.”
“I don’t think states can bring in mercenaries. I can see the frustration of the affected states but allowing states to bring in mercenaries may open doors to bigger problems that may signal the end of a united Nigeria. Any state can then contrive a crisis and bring in mercenaries to different parts of Nigeria which may compromise our security system and unity.
“The Federal Government has a duty to maintain internal security and where necessary it should involve external aid including mercenaries. It should only be a last resort because inviting mercenaries does not reflect well on the image of our security officials and their morale. I tend to see the alert by the Kaduna Governor as an empathic wake-up call to the Federal Government. The governor knows better.”
Hiring mercenaries was like stirring the hornet’s nest said constitutional lawyer Ozekhome
He warned El-Rufai and the other governors to rescind their plans as they had no powers to do so.
“No state government under our constitutional democracy and legal regime can unilaterally act to invite mercenaries to Nigeria. It is ‘ultra vires’ their powers. Their only resort is a collaborative rapprochement with the Federal government. However, they can tackle their state security matters within the permissible limits of our constitutional organogram.
“The engagement of external mercenaries is akin to the deployment of the military to repel and contain external aggression. It has to do with the command and operational use of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, whether in peace times, war, or under a state of emergency. All of these are solely and wholly vested in the President, with some moderate effect by the National Assembly according to Sections 217, 218, 219 and 305 of the 1999 Constitution.”
