Leadership (Abuja)
1 January 2009
analysis
Forty-eight hours ago, Plateau State Government defied the Federal Government and set up its own panel of inquiry into last November 28 ethno-religious crisis in the state which claimed over 300 lives. This move comes on the heels of the state government's suing of the later for earlier constituting a similar panel with the same mission. Chuks Ohuegbe examines the implications of this face-off which has split the ranks of learned gentlemen, for the deepening and redefinition of Nigeria's constitutional democracy...
The dust is far from setting down in the aftermath of the November 28, 2008 Jos sectarian crisis that left in its wake hundreds dead and property worth millions of naira destroyed. Plateau State political stakeholders in general and Jos North Local Government Area in particular are still engaged in buck-passing as to the cause of the mayhem.
But President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in his capacity as the chief security officer of the federation had last week constituted an Administrative Panel of Inquiry to probe the crisis, which has Major-General Emmanuel Abisoye (rtd) as the chairman. Though this panel is yet to commence its sittings, the Plateau State government headed by Governor Jonah David Jang is not disposed to having this committee sit or its findings implemented by the federal government.
Reason? The state government holds that the 1999 constitution vests on the state the powers of setting up a panel of inquiry over such matters. And for that the Jang Administration in Plateau State, which is controlled by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has gone to the highest court in the land - the Supreme Court, for interpretation of the 1999 constitution and determination of which of the parties reserve the right to so constitute an Administrative Panel of Inquiry.
To make good his threat, Governor Jang on Tuesday constituted a six-man committee to probe the Jos North crisis. Jang's committee is headed by a former judge of the International Court of Justice at the Hague, Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN).
The implications of Jang setting up of his own committee are many: one, it is a confirmation of the fact that he does not believe in the committee President Yar'Adua set up. Two, Jang wants to drive home the point very succinctly that he is the chief security officer of Plateau State. Three, Jang obviously wants to be the one executing whatsoever recommendations the Justice Ajibola committee would be coming up with.
Governor Jang in justifying the constitution of his own panel raised some issues that have the potentials of unsettling the polity. The Plateau State government accussed the presidency of treating the people of the state as "second class citizens in their own father land".
In the aftermath of the November 28, 2008 crisis, Governor Jang strongly holds it against President Yar'Adua that he refused giving him audience at the Aso Rock Villa when he (Jang) came to brief the president on what happened in a territory under his watch. Reports had it that presidential aides had to direct the Plateau State governor to go and brief Vice President Goodluck Jonathan instead.
The authorities in Jos say that they are miffed the more by the non-recognition by President Yar'Adua's several delegations that most of them "visited selected locations and had discussions with the leaders of Hausa community only before returning to Abuja to present one-sided report to the President".
Mr. Nuhu Gagara, the Plateau State commissioner of Information and Communication, summed up the disillusionment of the Jang administration said, "We can not be treated as second class citizens in our own country by any body. The rule of law must be followed on who between Governor Jang and Yar'Adua has the constitutional power to set up probe panel in Jos North civil disturbances."
Attempting to pooh-pooh the alleged ethnic leaning which President Yar'Adua is being accused of, Mr. Gagara recalled that in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election that the President's kinsmen in Plateau State rejected him, preferring a candidate of the opposition party, who hails from his home state, Katsina. He claimed that Governor Jang mobilized the indigenous Plateau people to give Yar'Adua overwhelming votes.
Another reason Governor Jang gave for rejecting the panel set up by President Yar'Adua is the inclusion and nomination of Major-General Emmanuel Abisoye (rtd) as the chairman of the panel. Jang went back memory lane to recall that it was the same Abisoye in 1976 that sentenced to death promising soldiers who hailed from Plateau State in the aftermath of the February 13, 1976 Dimka coup.
Anticipating that the Jang administration would obviously not get justice form a panel chaired by Abisoye, the Information and Strategy Commissioner noted with regrets that most of the people that were sentenced to death by the Abisoye Tribunal were innocent of the offences for which they were sentenced.
Besides the above the Jang administration in Jos feels that even if President Yar'Adua were to constitute a panel on the Jos North crisis, their input should have been sought. Wherein, that committee was constituted without consulting the authorities in Jos or their input sought, they are not obliged to accept it or its recommendations.
But the Jos issue is a delicate one. The religious undertone makes it dicey. There are strong indications that religion more than politics, given the scale and dimension of the destruction, was an underlying factor. The reactions from the spiritual leaders of the two main religions in the country - Christianity and Islam, have all pointed to getting to the very root of the crisis, which has become recurrent.
For instance, only last weekend, in his quest for justice, the spiritual leader of the country's Islamic faithful, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'Ad Abubakar charged the federal government to ensure that the masterminds of the mayhem are brought to book.
His words: "The Jos crisis is not over yet. It is still on because those responsible for the dastardly act have not been brought to book. I will not stop on the issue until everybody connected with the destructive action faces the music. They must be arrested and sentenced according to the laws of the land. I would not stop until justice is done on this matter".
This line of reasoning of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto is in the tandem why President Yar'Adua set up the General Abisoye (rtd) panel. But, Governor Jang, going by layman's interpretation feels that his constitutional rights as the chief security officer of Plateau State has been breached. Jang's resort to legal action is not novel anyway. During the Obasanjo years as the president, two state governors went to the Supreme Court for interpretation and determination of sections of the 1999 constitution.
First was the former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu who went to the apex court over the off-shore, on-shore dichotomy. Second, the former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu also instituted a suit at the Supreme Court to determine whether the then federal government reserved the right to withhold the state's local government's allocation because additional local governments ( labeled administrative areas) were created by the State House of Assembly.
Though, Orji Kalu was a governor on the platform of PDP, his relationship with President Olusegun Obasanjo soured early in the administration. Former governor Tinubu was on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy and owed no allegiance to the PDP-controlled government to his controversial and legal rights, Governor Jang, some analysts say ought to have used the party machinery exhaustively before heading to the Supreme Court. Another school of thought believes Governor Jang's approach would put President Yar'Adua's constant espousal of the rule of law on the spot, just as the ruling of the Supreme Court would enrich jurisprudence.
But, what is Governor Jang pleading before the Supreme Court? The Plateau State governor is asking the apex court to stop President Yar'Adua from constituting a panel of inquiry to sit or continue to sit as a body with power to inquire into the civil unrest that occurred in Jos on November 28, 2008.
To declare that President Yar'Adua has no power under the constitution or the Tribunal of Inquiry Act, 1966 (now to be in Cap T21 laws of the federation of Nigeria) to constitute a tribunal or appoint any person or group of persons by whatever name called to inquire into the civil unrest that occurred in Jos.
Jang is also asking the court to hold that the power to constitute a tribunal to inquire into the civil unrest, which occurred in Plateau State in November 28, 2008 is a residual matter in respect of which only the state's House of Assembly is competent to make law vide Section 4(7) of the 1999 constitution.
Jang further wants the Supreme Court to grant an injunction restraining the federal government and its agents from directing anyone of a body of persons from sitting or continuing to sit as a tribunal purportedly to be acting under the Tribunal of Enquiry Act to inquire into the civil unrest or disturbance that occurred in Jos.
The Plateau State Director of Civil Litigation in the ministry of Justice, Mrs. Florence Lotben summerised that position of Governor Jang's administration thus; "The right or power to conduct any inquiry unto the said Jos crisis of 28th November, 2008 belongs exclusively to the Plateau State government as a residual matter.
"The act of a federal government in setting up the said Administrative Panel of Inquiry into the said Jos crisis is calculated to usurp the constitutional power vested in the Plateau State government for reasons best known to the federal government".
While the Supreme Court is yet to fix a date for hearing of the suit, a pressure group that go by the name Jos Indigenes Halt Hausa Domination (JIHAD) in a paid advertorial pointed out that all the commissions of Inquiry set up over Jos crises dating back to April 12, 1994 were set up by state governors, either military or elected. It further reads: "Our laws are clear on the constitution of commissions of Inquiry, be it judicial or administrative. Section 2(1) of Commissions fo Inquiry laws 1940 (Chapter 25 laws of Northern Nigeria, 1963) provides that; The governor may, whenever he shall deem it desirable, issue a commission appointing one or more commissioners, and quorum of them therein mentioned, to hold a commission of inquiry unto the conduct of any officer in the public service of Northern Nigeria, or of any chief, or the management of any department of the public service, or any local institution or any matter in respect of which, in his opinion, an inquiry, would be for the public welfare. The governor may appoint a secretary to the commission, who shall perform such duties as the commissioners shall prescribe".
"Both Justices Fibresima and Niki Tobi Commissions of Inquiry were constituted by governors of Plateau State at the time and under the same law. This commission of inquiry to look into the riots of April 11th, 1994 in the Jos metropolis was set up by the Minitary Administrator of Plateau State, Lt Col Mohammed Mana, on the 22nd day of April, 1994, under the Commission of Inquiry Law, 1963 (Cap 25), Laws of Northern Nigeria, applicable in Plateau State.
"In the exercise of the powers conferred by Section 2 of the commissions of Inquiry Law (Cap 25) Laws of Northern Nigeria, 1963 applicable to Plateau State and all other powers enabling him in that behalf, His Excellency, Chief Joshua Chibi Dariye, the Executive Governor of Plateau State, constituted a judicial commission of Inquiry to look into the Jos civil unrest.
"The commission was inaugurated on Tuesday, October 8, 2001".
"In November 2004, the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in its ruling stated interlia;
"It follows that, the power to make a general law for the establishment and regulation of tribunals of inquiry in the form of the Tribunals of Inquiry Act 1966 is now a residual power under the 1999 constitution belonging to the states".
"Without such constitutional provisions, no valid law can be made, or can exist, standing on its own and of a general nature, to apply throughout the federation of Nigeria on the strength of which the President may set up a tribunal or commission of inquiry. This is because no law no specifically authoried or backed up in our constitution can be lawfully passed for the federation of Nigeria by the federal legislature".
Curiously, the poser the provisions of the above quoted statutes pose is: whether the president was properly advised by those concerned before setting up the Administrative Panel of Inquiry?
In connection with this unfolding constitutional controversy some seasoned legal minds spoke to LEADERSHIP on their opinions in President Yar'Adua constituting an Administrative Panel of Inquiry into the November 28, 2008 crisis. Read on...
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