President Yar’adua traveled to Saudi Arabia for medication without handing over to Vice President Jonathan as Acting President as required by S. 145 of the constitution. He died on the 5th of May, 2010. Before his death, he was out of the country for 78 days in the Saudi hospital.
At that time, our constitution said in S. 145 that –
“Whenever the President is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his Office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the Vice-President shall perform the functions of the President as Acting President”.
Contrary to the above provision of S. 145 of the constitution, late Yar’adua who was not seen in public for some months was said to have actually written the letter to the National Assembly but the letter was not delivered when he was hurriedly flown to Saudi Arabia on 23rd November, 2009.
As a result, so many things happened in this country that nearly brought our democracy to an end. You may read the story your self. To forestall that, the National Assembly invoked the doctrine of necessity.
“The doctrine of necessity will only apply in a situation whereby the constitution itself cannot measure up to the prevailing circumstances which has arisen”. Our constitution had no provision then to address the problem where a president fail to transmit such letter to the Senate President and the Speaker.
Consequently in the midst of this controversy, and because the constitution did not say what would happen if a president travel out of the country without transmiting such letter to National Assembly, the Assembly quickly passed a resolution on Tuesday February 9, 2010 invoking the doctrine of necessity and made Jonathan Acting President.
Vice president Jonathan was sworn in as Acting President. However to compound the problem, 15 days after becoming Ag. President by means of a resolution of the National Assembly (which was not in our constitution), President Yar’adua was brought back into the country around 3am when we were asleep. From that day, Nigeria had a president and an Acting president. Nigerians have no sense at all.
Ag. President Jonathan tried to see the President but was consistently denied. It was in the midst of this needless controversy that President Yar’adua died in the Aso Villa on 5th May, 2010 and Ag. President Jonathan stepped in and was sworn the next day 6th May, 2010 as president
To forestall the occurrence of this incident in the future, the National Assembly quickly substituted S. 145 above by the Constitution (First Alteration Act 2010) by adding Subsection (2) to the section thus –
“(2) In the event that the President is unable or fails to transmit the written declaration mentioned in subsection (1) of this section within 21 days, the National Assembly shall, by a resolution made by a simple majority of the vote of each House of the National Assembly, mandate the Vice-President to perform the functions of the office of the President as Acting President until the President transmits a letter to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives that he is now available to resume his functions as President”.
‘kia kia’ or ‘sharp sharp’ as they say, President Jonathan assented to the Bill and made it S. 145(1) and (2). Until 2010, subsection (2) was not part of the constitution.
- Sadiq Ibrahim Dasin is a former House of Representatives member from Adamawa State
