Ozekhome insists Buhari cannot overrule Supreme Court like an emperor
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Mike Ozekhome SAN, has joined legal voices saying it is wrong for President Muhammadu Buhari to disobey the Supreme Court order on the deadline for swapping old naira notes for new ones.
The Supreme Court on 8 February gave an interim order restraining the federal government and its agents from enforcing the 10 February deadline for exchanging all old naira notes in a case filed by Kaduna, Zamfara, and Kogi.
The court repeated the order on 15 February before it adjourned the case until 22 February.
Buhari in his national broadcast on 16 February directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to allow only the old N200 note to co-exist with new notes until 10 April, thereby banning the use of old N500 and N1,000 notes.
Ozekhome described Buhari’s directive as a “dicta, more in the form of a military Decree” in a statement he issued in Abuja.
He said: “Buhari, in his broadcast on Thursday, February 16, 2023, unilaterally varied the apex court’s extant order of maintenance of status quo, by directing the CBN Governor to the effect that ‘the old N200 banknotes be released back into circulation … to circulate as legal tender with the new N200, N500 and N1000 bank notes for 60 days …’
“The President then issued a dicta, more in the form of a military Decree, that, ‘in line with section 20 (3) of the CBN Act, 2007, all existing old N1000 and N500 notes remain redeemable at the CBN and designated prints’.
“This order is a clear violation of and disobedience to the existing order of the apex court which had already maintained the status quo ante bellum of all parties involved in the Naira re-design dispute.
“The Supreme Court had on Wednesday, February 15, 2023, after the first interim order, adjourned the suit originally filed by the Attorneys-General of Kano, Kogi and Zamfara states (other interested parties were later joined) to February 22, to enable it hear the entire matter holistically.”
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Buhari acting like an emperor
“Every Nigerian had expected that the Federal Government would respect this apex court’s position. But President Buhari demurred. He made himself Supreme Leader; an Emperor; Potentate, Mikado and Overlord,” Ozekhome added, per The PUNCH.
“Buhari’s broadcast to the nation therefore literally overruled the Supreme Court of the land, in a way and manner only a military tyrant could ever contemplate.
“Buhari’s action is a reminder of the apocryphal saying of autocratic and despotic Emperor Louis XIV, who, on 13th April, 1655, stood in front of Parliament and imperiously declared, ‘L’Etat C’est Moi (I am the State)’. This was to underline the fact that he and he alone, had absolute power over his Nation.
“Buhari’s imperious order was a frontal call to chaos, anarchy and national upheaval. It was a direct assault on the authority of the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land; and also the head of the entire Judiciary, the 3rd arm of government under the doctrine of separation of powers, most ably popularized in 1748 by Baron de Montesque, a great French Philosopher.
“To have whimsically and capriciously varied the order of the Supreme Court was to pick and choose what order to obey or disobey. This breaches the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution provided for in section 1(1) thereof.
“It also frontally assaults the provisions of section 287(1) of the Constitution which provides that ‘the decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court.’”
Ozekhome buttressed his point by citing the case of ABACHA V. FAWEHINMI (2000) 6 NWLR (Pt. 660) 228 at page 317 E-F.
And insisted “a court order must be obeyed and even if it is a nullity, it has to be set aside on appeal against it. Per NWALI SYLVESTER NGWUTA, JSC (Pp 25 – 25 Paras D – E). See also the locus classicus of GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE VS. OJUKWU (1986) 1 NWLR PT. 18, PG. 621.”
He advised the Supreme Court not to allow this slide, since the President in his speech acknowledged the matter is before the apex court.
“This is one instance where the apex court should bare its teeth and bite. This is more so because President Buhari had himself acknowledged in his speech, the pendency of the matter before the Supreme Court. Surely, no one is above the law; not even President Buhari himself.”