Lagos — (3) The President or Vice President shall cease to hold office as from the date of publication of the notice of the medical report pursuant to subsection (2) of this section.

(4) The medical panel to which this section relates shall be appointed by the President of the Senate and shall comprise five medical practitioners in Nigeria -

(a) One of whom shall be the personal physician of the holder of the office concerned, and

(b) four other medical practitioners who have, in the opinion of the President of the Senate, attained a high degree of eminence in the field of medicine relative to the nature of the examination to be conducted in accordance with the foregoing provisions.

(5) In this section, the reference to "executive council of the Federation" is a reference to the body of Ministers of the Government of the Federation, howsoever called, established by the President and charged with such responsibilities for the functions of government as the President."

From the above provision, it would be seen that the constitution places the responsibility of initiating the processes for the removal of the President, in cases of incapacity of the President to function, on the Executive Council of the Federation which according to Section 144 (5) means the body of Ministers of the Government of the Federation.

Ordinarily, one would have advised that whenever the President returns to the country or even while still in the hospital, the executive council should set the machinery in motion to comply with the above provision of the law.

However, it is submitted that to expect this provision of the law to be implemented by the Executive Council of the Federation is to expect that a camel could easily pass through the eye of the needle, for the simple reason that, these Ministers are appointees of the President who are expected to be his loyalists. Hence, this provision of the law is dead on arrival. In other words, the council may not have the courage or gut to take the bull by the horn and take such step as would relieve their master of his office as President.

It is therefore recommended that whenever the present constitution is being overhauled or amended, this particular provision should be tampered with to take away the responsibility of initiating the removal of the President in such circumstance, as enumerated in Section 144, from the Executive Council of the Federation to the National Assembly, who are expected to act in the larger interest of the Nation under the democratic principle of checks and balances. This would in the future hopefully save the nation from the present embarrassing situation it has found itself, a situation that has ridiculed and reduced the country to one akin to a Banana Republic within the committee of nations. Nigeria has unfortunately become a country who is a giant only in size but cannot subject itself to the minimum standard of civilized conduct expected of a reputable member of the International community and whose leaders are not embarrassed by anything, no matter how grevious. Not even, systemic and institutional failures occasioned by poverty of leadership!

It is poverty of leadership for a former head of state to spend billions of naira over a period of eight years to organize a transition programme that ended up in a stalemate called June 12 Election Annulment, due to arrogant and stubborn desire not to play by the rules of the game, thereby throwing the nation to avoidable catastrophe.

Now, another leader from the same section of the country is failing to play by the rules of the game as laid down by the constitution, in the peculiar circumstances as we now have, so that the country can move on without unnecessary tension. Day in day out, the concept of one Nigeria is being unduly threatened by our leaders.

In an analysis by John Campbell, a former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) posted on the CFR website on 30/12/09, he observed among other things as follows: "Yar'Adua departed to Jeddah , Saudi Arabia , for medical treatment 41 days ago after being diagnosed with acute pericarditis. But his failure to handover the affairs of state to Jonathan has not only sparked off a succession and constitutional crisis, but also created a leadership vacuum, which the American government fears may be the leeway for the military to strike" . That is the candid assessment of our situation today from the perspectives of the Americans.

May I however, use this medium to send a strong message to our military that they are not welcome at all to intervene in Nigerian politics again. They have always been part of our problems. Most of our former military leaders (with the exception of a few) are today's billionaires and the untouchables, at the expense of the nation. They are above the law and not accountable to anyone.

Hence, the military cannot save the nation, except their pockets. They cannot wash their hands completely off the problems we have today, as they handpicked and handed over power to rtd. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (their preferred candidate) in 1999, notwithstanding whether or not he won a fair election. Therefore, let the military take notice, that whatever political problem we have today in Nigeria would be solved holistically by the people themselves. Democratic problem would be solved democratically while the military should stick to their constitutional role. You can fool some people sometimes, but not all the people all the times. Let the military take care of their past leaders who have looted the nation and given them a bad name.

Concluded

OJOGBEDE is a Lagos-based Legal Practitioner