by Peregrino Brimah
As an addendum to my earlier article, “IMPEACHABLE: Did National Assembly Assent Buhari’s Amnesty Program For Boko Haram Terrorists?,” Nigeria’s constitution is clear: the president must seek approval of the “Council of State” before granting any pardon to criminals.
Once again as an example of good leadership, I easily draw from the example of late president Umaru Yar’Adua and the way he processed authorization for his amnesty to MEND terrorists.
Lawful late Umaru Yar’Adua’s amnesty was approved by the “Council of States,” as quoted from 2009:
“I, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, after due consultation with the council of States and in exercise of the powers conferred upon me by the provisions of Section 175 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, make the following proclamation:
“I hereby grant amnesty and unconditional pardon to all persons who have directly or indirectly participated in the commission of offences associated with militant activities in the Niger Delta;”
Read full declaration here.
According to section 175 of the 1999 constitution, everyone in the above list must be consulted for an amnesty to be decided upon and the president must inform the state that his amnesty is based upon such consultation.
The Council of State consists of the following persons:
- President, who is the Chairman;
- Vice-President, who is the Deputy Chairman;
- All former Presidents of the Federation and all former Heads of the Government of the Federation;
- All former Chief Justices of Nigeria;
- President of the Senate;
- Speaker of the House of Representatives;
- All the Governors of the states of the Federation; and
- Attorney-General of the Federation.
This is the level of uprightness of the late Yar’Adua government. I have listed several more dissimilarities between the Buhari government I call the “Ugly” and the Yar’Adua government I call the “Good” when it comes to respect of the law, respect of the people and policies that consider the masses and persecute the cabal. Watch that video here.
In the interest of the security of the nation and respect of the constitution, we call on the national assembly to investigate this matter towards determining if the Buhari government must be impeached.
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
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