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Call For Interim Government: Nigerians React

The suggestion to set up an interim administration at the end of the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari made by prominent legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola, is a call to anarchy, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, has warned.

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Speaking to correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday, Uzodinma pointed out that the nation’s constitution has no room for an interregnum.

“By May 29, if there is no elected government, our constitution has not provided for an interregnum. There shouldn’t be a gap, otherwise you are creating room for anarchy.

“What will be the process of selecting the interim government because after May 29, the president may not have constitutional powers to function as a president anymore? So, I don’t think we will decide to abandon our constitution.

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“If you think there is an opinion that is worthy to be canvassed superior to what is in the Nigerian constitution, such opinion should be taken to the National Assembly and they will through due process amend our constitution to factor in such a opinion.”

The founder of Afe Babalola University, AdoEkiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, had given his advice to the Federal Government at a press conference on Monday, stressing the need to suspend the 2023 elections to allow a six-month interim government after Buhari’s tenure.

He said that a new constitution to address insecurity, economic, political and other excruciating ills bedeviling the nation, would then be evolved.

Meanwhile, Pan-Yoruba socio-political groups, Afenifere, on Tuesday said the frustration that Nigerians are going through has occasioned the call for an interim government, and call by the Northern Elder’s Forum (NEF) that President Muhammadu Buhari should resign from office, but quickly asserted that it did not support the cancellation or postponement of the scheduled elections.

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Spokesperson of Afenifere, Jare Ajayi, said: “The submission by Archbishop Mathew Hassan Kukah and Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), summed up the precarious situation be- devilling Nigeria. By this, we mean the unprecedented low level to which the country has sunk, including the depth of mistrust among sub groups in the country.

“Compounding these were the cheapening of human life, displacement of innocent people from their ancestral homes and the elevation of corruption almost into the statecraft.

“It was not surprising, therefore, that senior citizens in the North under the auspices of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) called for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari,” Ajayi said.

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“The frustration by Nigerians was also behind the call for an Interim Government by Chief Afe Babalola. Afenifere acknowledged the enormity of the problems, it does not support the cancellation or postponement of the scheduled elections.

“There is no justification whatsoever for this administration to spend one day beyond the stipulated period – which is May 29, 2023. And the only constitutionally stipulated way of changing government is through the electoral process. Being a law-abiding organisation, Afenifere does not believe in extra legal means of changing government,” he added.

On the call by the NEF that President Buhari should resign, Afenifere said while it might appear that the call was coming rather late in the day, it maintained that the frustration that gave birth to it was quite understandable.

The pan- Yoruba said that were the government being properly run, such a call would not have emanated, but noted that for the call to have come from a group known to hardly sees anything wrong with an administration headed by a Northerner was an important reason for President Buhari to realise that his government had really failed Nigerians.

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“On the call by the NEF that General Buhari should resign, while it might appear that the call is coming rather late in the day, the frustration that gave birth to it is quite understandable. Were the government being properly run, such a call would not have come.

“That it came from a group known to hardly sees anything wrong with an administration headed by a Northerner is an important reason for President Buhari to realise that his government has really failed Nigerians,” Afenifere said.

Also, leading lawyer, Mr Femi Falana on Tuesday joined the growing number of influential Nigerians, doubting the feasibility of 2023 general election.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was reacting to the call by Nigeria’s foremost lawyer, Aare Afe Babalola, for the suspension of the poll and installation of an interim national leadership, for the country to resolve its multifarious problems.

Pointing out that Chief Babalola’s suggestion is envisaging a post-Buhari era, the leading human rights activist, said it is very doubtful the ongoing political process, would culminate in a general election.

Falana opined, “The Baba (Chief Babalola) is suggesting what should happen after Buhari. As we speak INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) has lost about 42 staff to insecurity. You can see what is going on in Imo State. What is going on in Nigeria, is a war situation and up till now, the President has failed to declare state of emergence in any part of the country.

“Given the increasing insecurity in the country, it is doubtful if this election (2023 poll) can hold.”

“The urgent task before Nigeria is how to secure the country, before we can talk about election in the country.”

In his own view, former governor of Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aliyu Magatakardan Wamakko said the call for Interim government in 2023 by Chief Afe Babalola is retrogressive and unthoughtful.

This was even as Senator Shehu Sani also asserted that it is unconstitutional and counterproductive to democracy. In a statement made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Kaduna, Senator Wamakko noted that the call was uncalled for, unwarranted, unsolicited, desperate and diversionary to contemplate such an undemocratic arrangement a few months to elections.

In the same vein, Shehu Sani opined on his Facebook page on Tuesday that the call for interim government by Chief Afe Babalola is unconstitutional and counterproductive to democracy. Sani admonished, ‘We don’t need any interim government. We need a credible elections and new leadership with with sound vision to unite, protect and rebuild this country.”

Wamakko said, “It is indeed worrisome when those who should be in the know begin to allow flimsy possibilities to deflect their ordinary sense of decent reasoning.” He also urged Nigerians and the federal government to discountenance such calls, stressing that democratic elections remain the only acceptable tool for the replacement of governments.

Reacting, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Abiodun Tobun, on Tuesday said the call by Chief Afe Babalola would amount to an extension of President Buhari’s tenure, noting that interim government was not democratic and, therefore, unacceptable.

Tobun representing Epe Constituency 1, in the House said: “Interim government is not acceptable and is not a recipe for development. There is no crisis, elections must come up and we must transit from one democratically elected president for our democracy to be strengthened.

“We must have elections, there is no need for interim government at all. Bringing in an interim government will mean bringing somebody that does not have the consent of the people. And bringing interim government that means the president is going to appoint or pick the interim government member which is an extension of what we are having now. So we should allow the people of the country to elect their people,” the lawmaker said.

“Interim Government is unacceptable, it is undemocratic and it is not the wish of the Nigerians. We must strengthened our democracy and allow the people to choose their president,” he added.

Similarly, the National Welfare Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Mr Kunle Edun, on Tuesday night weighed on the call for interim government after the expiration of the tenure of President Buhari.

Edun, who is the immediate national spokesperson of the lawyers’ association, called for restraint in castigating the elder statesman, noting that the country is haemorrhaging badly. He said, “No one should quickly condemn the call for interim government. The nation is sliding into a state of anarchy. The Federal Government has woefully failed to secure the lives of Nigerians. The naira has been battered beyond recognition. Corruption in high places is now the new normal. You must now show a tendency to be corrupt, to get appointment or elected into a public office. Nigerians now worship corruption to survive.”

(Tribune)