Let politics take a back seat and allow the constitution and the courts come forward and explain this case. To do so I want everybody to note that it is very true that the law that allows suspension of a legislator from parliament in Nigeria is contained in parliamentary Standing Rules.
However it is also very much true that our constitution does not allow parliament in Nigeria to suspend any member. And it is true that our courts have consistently ruled that no parliament in this country, despite the Standing Rules, has the power to suspend a legislator from sitting because a representative is elected by his people for a term certain.
To understand this better there is need to know that as the supreme law of the land, the constitution provides in S. 1 (1) and (3) that –
“S. 1 (1) This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“S.1 (3) If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void”.
From the above clear provisions of S. 1 (1) and (3) of the constitution, even a primary one pupil in Fira-Ɓakka primary school ought to know that every Nigerian is subject to the constitution and no one has the power to make a law that is inconsistent with the provisions of our constitution. Anybody who does so, even if he is a 100 times senator, that law is protanto void.
And to reinforce this constitutional provision, our courts have severally said in no uncertain terms that parliament in Nigeria has no right to suspend a member.
That is why when Hon. Dino Melaye (as he then was) was suspended by speaker Dimeji Bankole in 2010, the Federal High Court invalidated the suspension and returned Dino to his seat.
In 2012, and for the same reason, when the speaker of the Bauchi state House of Assembly suspended Hon. Rifkatu Samson Danna, both the High Court in Bauchi as well as the Court of Appeal invalidated the suspension as being unconstitutional.
And for the same reason when in 2018 Hon. Abdulmumini Jibrin was suspended by speaker Hon. Yakubu Dogara the suspension was invalided by the court. And in 2017 when Sen. Saraki suspended Sen. Ali Ndume from the senate, the court returned Ndume instantly just as in 2020 when Sen. Ovie Omo Agege was suspend by Sen. Saraki.
In fact in all the suspensions from parliament in this country including but not limited to the suspension of Hon. Sani Ilyasu from the Jigawa state House of Assembly, Hon. Iroju Ogundeji from Ondo state House of Assembly and that of Hon. Sadiq Mohammed Ibrahim from Gombe state House of Assembly and many others from Benue state to Imo state, were declared illegal by the courts.
It should also be noted that in declaring suspensions from parliament illegal for being unconstitutional, our courts have reasoned, and rightly too, that the constitutional provision of tenure of a legislator and how he or she would lose their seat is contained in S. 68 (1) and (2) of the constitution which listed 8 conditions that would make a member lose his seat. They are as follows –
- If the senator or member becomes a member of another legislative house.
- If he was found by a court of law not to been qualified to elected as senator or member.
- If he ceases to be a citizen of Nigeria.
- If he becomes President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor or a Minister of the Government of the Federation or a Commissioner of the Government of a State or a Special Adviser.
- If he becomes member of a commission or a body established by the constitution or any other law.
- If without just cause he is absent from meetings of the House for a period amounting in the aggregate to more than one-third of the total number of days during which the House meets in any one year.
- If he defects to another political party without his party having a division or not having merged with one or more parties.
- If he has been successfully recalled by his constituency.
No where in the constitution is the senate president or the speaker is given power to suspend a member or a senator. And as we have seen our courts have consistently affirmed that under no any other circumstance apart from the 8 listed in the constitution, would a legislator be denied access to parliament to represent his people.
So I sincerely wonder why on earth this Distinguished senate, with all the knowledgeable people in it and with lawyers some of them learned seniors, agreed to the suspension of Sen. Natasha.
Let me digress a little here and say that I recall sometimes in 2009 I was also suspended from the Adamawa state House of Assembly for 3 months during my first term as member of the House. On hearing the news, many of my learned friends in Yola, Lagos and Abuja asked for my permission to take up the matter for me in court pro-bono. Even though I knew that the speaker Hon. James Barka had no power to suspend me, I opted to leave the House.
Not known to my then colleagues I had completed and passed my LL.M class examination in ABU, Zaria before my election and needed time to write my thesis which was going at snail speed while I was in Yola.
On hearing the news, Sen. Prof. Jibril Aminu asked Gov. Nyako to give me my 3 months salary which Governor Nyako gratioulsy obliged. I utilized the time and the money during the suspension, went to Zaria, lodged in Emerald Suites for 3 months. Commuting between Kano, Abuja and Zaria in search of materials and data for my thesis, I comfortably completed writing the project handed it to my supervisor Prof. Augustine Agom and returned to Yola.
Coming back to Natasha’s case, I think the constitution and the decided cases are more than clear on her suspension. Therefore the day Sen. Natasha was suspended from the senate despite this clear provision of the constitution and case law, was indeed a very sad for our democracy.
It is indeed sad that in almost 25 years of our democracy senior citizens, elders who are Distinguished senators who know the position of the law in Nigeria, know how number of cases against this misconduct did our courts invalidated suspension of legislators, yet, led by elder Akpabio, this senate refused to respect the Nigerian constitution and judgements of the courts, including the Court of Appeal, and suspended Natasha.
For this, I will not blame the younger if, in my life, they do worse than Akpabio in this country. They learnt it from him.
- Dasin, a lawyer, is a former House of Representatives member from Adamawa State
