Broad hints dropped by Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, SAN on Wednesday that Federal Government will not rule out declaring a state of emergency in Anambra State ahead of the November 6 off-season governorship election in the state created undue panic among its top officials.
Malami’s remarks were in response to heightening violence, arson and killings in the state following a vow by the banned Indigenous People of Biafra [IPOB] to disrupt the polls.
Governor Willie Obiano rushed to State House, met with President Buhari, and afterwards declared that he had reported the Attorney General to the President and that Buhari himself was not thinking of that option. Anambra’s Information Commissioner also wondered aloud why emergency rule should be considered for Anambra when it was not declared in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states which experienced more violence.
Maybe Anambra State deserves a state of emergency so that the polls could be secured, but not the kind that Obiano is thinking of. Obiano is thinking of 2004, when President Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Plateau State, suspended Governor Joshua Dariye and Plateau State House of Assembly, and appointed an Administrator, retired Major General Chris Alli.
Well, it subsequently turned out that the Constitution envisages no such outcome. In 2013 when President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno State due to Boko Haram violence, he wanted to suspend the governor and state assembly. He transmitted to the National Assembly an order he was about to sign, which was to seize all BOSG’s funds and commit them to financing the security operation.
However, at a private meeting between the President and legislative leaders ahead of the declaration, Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, a lawyer, firmly told the President that he had no power to suspend a governors or state assembly.
The basis was a Supreme Court ruling of 2008 in a case brought by Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2007, when Obasanjo tried to strip him of the vice presidency because he defected from PDP to ACN and was contesting for president on ACN’s ticket.
The apex court ruled that a president, vice president, governor or deputy governor can only be removed from office before the end of tenure in one of four ways mentioned by the Constitution: resignation, impeachment, incapacitation or death. The 1999 Constitution mentioned these four ways and nothing else can be added to it, Supreme Court ruled.
In other words, Governor Obiano cannot be removed even if President Buhari declares a state of emergency in Anambra State.
All that he can do is to suspend certain constitutional rights and liberties and also swamp the state with troops, as Jonathan did in Borno in 2013.
Obiano, sleep with your two eyes closed.
IPOB, remember that the Anambra polls will be valid and a winner will be returned even if most voters stay at home out of fear.
The Constitution did not prescribe a minimum voter turn out to make an election valid.
