A senior advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, has disagreed with a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Alfa Belgore, on the legality of the national honour conferred on MKO Abiola – the presumed winner of the June 12, !993 Presidential Election.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Wednesday conferred a posthumous national award of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on Abiola, and a posthumous national award of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) on Gani Fawehinmi – a respected human rights activist.
He had also declared June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day, saying it was a more historic day compared to the existing May 29.
Justice Belgore, who was CJN between 2006 and 2007, told Premium Times in an interview that honouring Abiola with a GCFR was illegal.
He stated that no national award could be awarded posthumously, let alone the GCFR – the highest honour in the land.
“It is for people living,” Belgore had said. “The only thing they could do is to name a place after him, but national honours award, no.”
Responding in a statement on Thursday, Falana observed that the former CJN did not refer to any section of the National Honours Act or any other law that has been violated by President Buhari.
He argued that the National Honours Act has not prohibited or restricted the powers of the President to confer national honours on deserving Nigerian citizens, whether such person is dead or alive.
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“No doubt, paragraph two of the Honours Warrant made pursuant to the National Honours Act provides that ‘a person shall be appointed to a particular rank of an Order when he receives from the President in person, at an investiture held for the purpose…’
“But paragraph three, thereof, has given the President the unqualified discretion ‘to dispense with the requirement of paragraph two in such manner as may be specified in the direction,” the senior advocate said.
He stressed that since the national awards conferred on Abiola and Fawehinmi cannot be received by them in person, the President may permit their family members to receive same on their behalf.
Falana also responded to the claims that the June 12 declaration was illegal on the grounds that the President did not seek the approval of the National Assembly.
He noted that the President is not required by law to seek and obtain any approval of the Legislature before declaring a public holiday in the country.
The lawyer stated, “Section 2 (1) of the Public Holidays Act stipulates that in addition to the holidays mentioned in the Schedule to the Act, the President may appoint a special day to be kept as a public holiday either throughout Nigeria or in any part thereof.”
In view of the combined effect of the National Honours Act and the Public Holidays Act, Falana insisted that the legal validity of the awards and the historic holiday has not been doubted in any manner.
