It is our view that the constitutional amendment with regards to the inauguration of cabinet at the federal or state level did not go far enough. For instance, a constitutional crisis will be set off if the President or Governor becomes incapacitated within the 60 days without the executive council of the Federation or executive council of the State in place.
Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution provides as follows: “(1) The President or Vice-President shall cease to hold office, if – (a) by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all the members of the executive council of the Federation it is declared that the President or Vice-President is incapable of discharging the functions of his office; and (b) the declaration is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under subsection (4) of this section in its report to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. (2) Where the medical panel certifies in the report that in its opinion the President or Vice-President is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation. (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 may direct.”
The same provision with regards to the State is found in Section 189 of the 1999 Constitution. The business of government is too important to be left to the whims and caprices of one man. There is no provision for the President of the country or Governor of a State to function without the executive council. In other climes, ministers are sworn in within days of inauguration of a new government. In the Nigerian case, the period between elections and swearing-in is long enough for the President-elect or Governor-elect to assemble his cabinet and hit the ground running from the inauguration day. The National Assembly should review the relevant constitutional provisions.
While we welcome the Fifth Alteration (No.6), which provides for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary, it is hoped that the financial independence of the two arms of government will rub positively on the polity. Wrote Montesquieu in The Spirit of Laws, “There would be an end of everything, were the same man or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals.”
Quoting also from an American classic, The Federalist (1788), “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Now that the legislature and the judiciary will no longer go cap in hand or pander to the executive because of finances, a situation that had been notoriously abused by the executive, it is hoped that the freedom will not throw up additional financial scandals that will make mockery of the system. Whereas financial independence will no doubt enhance checks and balances, which is in dire need in the polity, we must equally caution that it should not be employed as a political tool to destabilize the government of the State.
