Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF),
says the national assembly has no constitutional power to summon President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Last week, the house of representatives passed a resolution
summoning the president over the rising insecurity in the country.
The president is scheduled to appear before the national
assembly on Thursday but it is now uncertain if he will honour the request.
In a statement on Wednesday, Malami said it was outside the
constitutional powers of the national assembly to summon the president over his
“operational use of the armed forces”.
“President Muhamamdu Buhari of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria has recorded tremendous success in containing the hitherto incessant
bombing, colossal killings, wanton destruction of lives and property that
bedeviled the country before attaining the helm of affairs of the country in
2015,” the statement read.
“The confidentiality of strategies employed by the President
as the commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria is not open for public exposore in view of security implications in
probable undermining of the war against terror.
“The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was instrumental
to the reclaiming of over 14 Local Governments previously controlled by the
Boko Haram in North East is an open secret, the strategies for such achievement
are not open for public expose.
“While condoling the
bereaved and sympathising with the victims of the associated insecurity in the
country, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami, SAN maintained that national security is not about publicity and the
nation’s security architecture cannot be exposed for the sake of getting
publicity.”
According to the statement, the president’s efforts on
security matters are exclusive and confidential, and as such, “the National
Assembly has no Constitutional Power to envisage or contemplate a situation
where the President would be summoned by the National Assembly on operational
use of the Armed Forces.”
Malami added that the decision to appear before the national
assembly should be at the president’s discretion and not subject to summons by
the lawmakers.
“The right of the President to engage the National Assembly
and appear before it is inherently discretionary in the President and not at
the behest of the National Assembly,” the attorney-general said.
“The management and
control of the security sector is exclusively vested in the President by
Section 218 (1) of the Constitution as the Commander in Chief of the Armed
Forces including the power to determine the operational use of the Armed
Forces. An invitation that seeks to put the operational use of the Armed Forces
to a public interrogation is indeed taking the constitutional rights of law
making beyond bounds.
“As the Commander in Chief, the President has exclusivity on
security and has confidentiality over security. These powers and rights he does
not share. So, by summoning the President on National Security operational
Matters, the House of Representative operated outside constitutional bounds.
“President’s exclusivity of constitutional confidentiality
investiture within the context of the constitution remains sacrosanct.”
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