Snippets
of what transpired after the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the March
28, 2015 presidential election are now coming to the open, with his wife
accused of calling Mohammed Bello Adoke, then-attorney-general of the
federation, a “useless man” for not helping to disqualify candidate
Muhammadu Buhari.
In his upcoming book, ‘On a Platter of
Gold: How Jonathan Won and Lost Nigeria’, Bolaji Abdullahi — who served as
minister under Jonathan from 2011-2014 — alleged that Olusegun Mimiko,
then-governor of Ondo state, wanted Buhari, the APC candidate, prosecuted for
“certificate forgery” and disqualified from contesting in the election.
But Adoke, who was considered one of
the most powerful ministers under Jonathan, argued against it, maintaining that
there was no legal basis to prosecute Buhari.
The APC candidate went on to win the
historic election which saw the defeat of an incumbent president for the first
time in Nigeria, but Patience Jonathan gave a piece of her mind to Adoke two
days after the poll.
In an advance copy of the book seen by
TheCable, Abdullahi described Jonathan as a man who had “a distinct aversion
for taking any action that could be regarded as unlawful or illegal”.
This, he said, made the
attorney-general central to most of the decisions the former president had to
make.
Abdullahi wrote: “Two days after the
election, Adoke had gone to see the president in respect of the appointment of
a new chief judge for the FCT. While waiting in the outer room, the First Lady
walked in. He rose to greet her. But she took one long look at him and hissed: ‘Useless man. You betrayed my
husband. Now that he has lost the election, you are happy. It was the same
Attorney General that Bayo Ojo used to disqualify Atiku for Obasanjo (in 2007).
It was the same office that (Mike) Aondoakaa used to make dead man (Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua) to rule Nigeria. But when it comes to my husband, you will be
shouting, constitution, constitution.'”
‘CONSTITUTIONAL PURIST’
Abdullahi
said Mimiko was at the forefront of the agitation to have Adoke issue a fiat
that would have given the power to a private citizen to prosecute Buhari for
certificate forgery which could have led to his disqualification from the
election, “or at the very least, disrupt the electoral process”.
Buhari had said his secondary school
certificate was with the military authorities, but after they denied having it,
he got a replacement from his alma mater, Government College, Katsina.
Adoke stood his ground as pressure
grew for him to kick-start the process of disqualifying Buhari — a situation
that made Jonathan’s supporters, including his wife, blame the attorney-general
for the loss.
“There were a number of other issues
that led many in the president’s immediate political circle to conclude that
Adoke was the reason that President Jonathan failed to act with the required
toughness on some issues,” Abdullahi wrote.
“When in May 2013 the president
declared a state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, some of the
president’s men, led by Ijaw leader Edwin Clark, had asked him to sack the
governors of those states as part of the emergency measures. Adoke, on the
other hand, counselled the president against sacking the governors, insisting
that such action had no constitutional backing. Clark fired back, asking the
president to sack Adoke himself.
“Prominent lawyers and civil society
groups promptly weighed in on the side of the minister, and commended him for
being a ‘constitutional purist’. They noted that he could easily have allowed
the president to act differently, if he were so minded, relying on the
precedent set by President Obasanjo in the case of Plateau State and Governor
Joshua Dariye in 2004 – a matter concerning which the Supreme Court had
declined to make a definite ruling.”
GOVERNORS’ REVOLT
Abdullahi
said a similar situation arose after five governors left the PDP to join
APC in November 2013.
“Some PDP governors had gone to the
president and asked that their decamped (defected) colleagues be removed and be
replaced by their deputies. Their argument was that those governors did not
contest the elections by themselves but on behalf of the party. They pointed
out that this had been determined in the case of Amaechi vs. INEC (in 2007), in
which the Supreme Court ruled that it is the party that contests election and
not an individual,” he wrote.
“The mandates held by those governors
were therefore held in trust for the PDP and could not be transferred to
another party. If a governor left the party, as the five governors had done,
they ought to leave their mandate behind. Where their deputies did not follow
them to APC, those deputies should be sworn in as governors without delay.
Whereas, where the deputy governors had also decamped, a sole administrator
should be appointed. Failure to take these steps would amount to robbing Peter
to pay Paul.
“The president summoned the Attorney
General and asked for his opinion. In line with his established character,
Adoke told the president that the position being canvassed by the governors
could not withstand the test of the law. The constitution did not grant the
president such powers and had spelt out clearly how a governor could be removed
from office. If Jonathan were to act as the governors were canvassing for, it
would amount to an impeachable offence. And that was the end of the matter.”
The book will go on sale nationwide
from November 30, 2017 after the launch.
Abdullahi was fired as minister of
sport in March 2014 by Jonathan allegedly on account of his “godfather”, Bukola
Saraki, who had joined other party rebels in defecting to the APC.
He is currently the national publicity
secretary of the APC.
Source: The Cable
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