Skip to main content

UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF YAHAYA BELLO BEING SWORN IN AS KOGI STATE GOVERNOR


THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF YAHAYA BELLO BEING SWORN IN AS KOGI STATE GOVERNOR

By

Femi Aborisade, Esq.

 

The swearing-in of Yahaya Bello as Governor of Kogi State appears unconstitutional not just because he was sworn-in without a Governor but fundamentally and primarily because he had no validly nominated Deputy Governor. This is because his nominated Deputy Governor publicly rejected his nomination as Deputy Governor. Faleke also claimed he informed INEC to discountenance his name as Deputy to Bello.

 

Under Section 187(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, it would appear that the nomination of Yahaya Bello as Governor was unconstitutional and therefore invalid. If the nomination of Yahaya Bello as Governor was unconstitutional and invalid, it goes without saying that his being sworn-in as Governor (with or without a Deputy) remains equally unconstitutional, invalid, null and void. This is in line with the hallowed principle of law established in Macfoy v. UAC Ltd [1962] AC 152, that one cannot put something upon nothing and expect it to stand; it will surely fall and crumble.


 

The nomination and swearing-in of Yahaya Bello as Governor of Kogi State appear to be vitiated because, section 187(1) of the Constitution provides that “a candidate for the office of Governor of a State shall not be deemed to have been validly nominated for such office unless he nominates another candidate as his associate for his running for the office of Governor, who is to occupy the office of Deputy Governor; and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Deputy Governor IF the candidate who nominated him is duly elected as Governor …”.

 

Therefore the constitutional invalidity of the swearing-in of Yahaya Bello as Governor of Kogi State can be conceptualised from two points of view, within the above quoted provisions of section 187(1) of the Constitution.

 

The first plank of the constitutional invalidity of Bello as Governor of Kogi State is from the standpoint of Faleke who publicly rejected his nomination as Deputy Governor. The second plank of the constitutional invalidity of Bello as Governor of Kogi State is within the context of the proviso in section 187(1) beginning with the word “if” underlined above as well as section 181(1) of the same Constitution, which tends to support that Faleke (and no other person) is entitled to be sworn in as Governor of Kogi State on the basis that only he (Faleke) and no other person can inherit the majority of votes won on the joint ticket with the Late Audu, who, on account of sudden death, was unable to be sworn in as Governor. It would appear absurd, unjust, illogical and inequitable for any person in Bello’s situation to be sworn in on the basis of the support of just about six thousand votes or so, and within the context of sections 181(1) and 187(1) of the Constitution.

 

Femi Aborisade, Esq.

30th January 2016.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GRATUITY AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS AND THE PENSION REFORM ACT 2004

Femi Aborisade Senior Principal Lecturer Department of Business Administration & Management Studies The Polytechnic, Ibadan & Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) Email: aborisadefemi@yahoo.com   Introduction Internationally, pension reform has been a common feature of public sector financial reforms since the 1990s. According to the OECD (2007), in Europe , the reforms have led to increased retirement age but a reduction in terminal benefits. Similar reforms have been embarked upon in the developing countries resulting in throwing poorer segments of the society into harsher economic conditions as responsibilities for old age care are transferred from the state to the individuals. Within the context of pension reforms on a global scale, this paper critically examines Nigeria ’s Pension Reform Act 2004. Though the particular interest of this workshop appears limited to provisions relating to gratuity under the Act, it is assumed that participants wo...
4 comments
Read more

THE IMPERATIVES OF JUSTICIABILITY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN NIGERIA: AN ANALYSIS OF CHAPTER II OF THE 1999 CONSTITUTION AND JUDICIAL ATTITUDES

  Outline The following outline has been adopted in discussing this topic: ·          Introduction ·          What are the provisions of Chapter II of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN ) 1999? ·          The essence of the Chapter II provisions ·          Two Schools of Thought on Chapter II ·          The non-justiciability constitutional provision ·          The pro-justiciability provisions o    The constitutional pro-justiciability provisions o    Statutory pro-justiciability provisions: The African Charter on
1 comment
Read more
THE WORLD ECONOMIC RECESSION, NIGERIA’S ECONOMY AND CHALLENGES FOR THE WORKING CLASS   By   Femi Aborisade [1] aborisadefemi@yahoo.com or aborisadefemi@gmail.com     INTRODUCTION The world economy entered a turning point with the financial crunch of September-October 2008. Assessing the effects of the global meltdown on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the former NSE President, Oba Otudeko, stated:   it would be pretentious of anybody to say that we have solution to what is currently happening in the market…the DG has been here for 27 years, I don’t think she has seen anything like this since she has been here. And throughout the world, there hasn’t been anything like this; even the 1929 recession was not exactly like this (Oba Otudeko, 2009: 11).   Though the above comparison of the 2008 world financial crunch with the 1929 recession is not accurate, the assessment of the crisis is indicative of the shock waves which...
Post a Comment
Read more