For too long, the true tragedy of Nigeria has been the slow erosion of our federal structure, chipped away by decades of military fiat. The 1999 Constitution, military in origin, left us with a system that is too centralized, where the President holds the purse strings and the ultimate veto over nearly all political action. Today’s ruling by the apex court gives the President something far more dangerous: a blank cheque to silence opposition and override the will of the voters.
The Fiction of Absolute Discretion
While the court affirmed the President’s authority under Section 305 to declare an emergency—a power necessary for national survival—it dangerously validated the suspension of a Governor and State House of Assembly as a “consequential effect.”
This is where the law becomes tyranny. Our Constitution provides clear, difficult mechanisms for removing elected officials: impeachment by the State Assembly or removal by the electorate. It does not grant the Federal Executive the power to unilaterally suspend these officials.
By rubber-stamping the suspension, the Court has accepted a fiction: that a political squabble or even localized unrest, which is a common feature of robust democracy, can be arbitrarily declared a constitutional crisis justifying the nullification of a democratic mandate.
The Weaponization of Power
The real fear—the one that lives in the painful memory of our democratic struggles—is the weaponization of this absolute power.
In a political landscape defined by intense, often zero-sum rivalry, what prevents a President from declaring an emergency in an opposition-controlled state merely to settle scores? What stops the Federal Government from engineering political turmoil—or simply exaggerating a manageable security issue—in a state whose Governor is a strong political threat?
The ruling effectively turns the constitutional provision for extraordinary national crisis into a convenient tool for political maneuvering. It says to every Governor and every State Assembly: Your four-year mandate is conditional, subordinate not to the will of your people, but to the discretionary interpretation of “public order” by the President in Abuja.
The Erosion of Federalism
Federalism works by ensuring a separation of powers and responsibilities between the centre and the constituent units. It is the system that respects our diversity and prevents the tyranny of majority control.
Today’s judgment further centralizes authority, telling the world that Nigeria is a federation in name only. It is a unitary state disguised by a federal label. The judiciary, which should be the firewall protecting the autonomy of the states, has instead given the central government a constitutional mandate to dismantle state-level democracy.
This decision is more than a legal setback; it is a tragedy because it confirms that our highest judicial body prioritizes the administrative convenience of the Presidency over the fundamental, protective principles of democracy and federalism.
The survival of Nigeria as a unified, democratic state depends on restraint, compromise, and a strict adherence to the separation of powers. By granting the President a blank cheque to suspend elected government, the Supreme Court has replaced restraint with absolute power. It is now up to the National Assembly and the Nigerian people to urgently demand a constitutional amendment that explicitly and unequivocally restricts the President’s emergency powers to ensure that the mandate of the voters remains sacrosanct. The price of an unchecked presidency is the death of our hard-won democracy.
THE SUPREME COURT AND THE PRESIDENT’S BLANK CHEQUE<BR> BY DARE ADELEKAN
