Member representing Afikpo North/South Federal Constituency of Ebonyi State, at the House of Representatives, Honourable Igariwey Iduma Enwo (PDP), has dragged President Muhammadu Buhari to court over the legality of the N413.7 billion bailout rendered to some states to offset backlog of salaries to civil servants.
Enwo is seeking the court to declare that Buhari’s approval of the bailout funds was “unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful and null and void,” in addition to an order of perpetual injunction restraining the President from further allocation, distribution, and disbursement of public revenue from Nigeria’s distributable pool account to federal, state and local government without the prescription of the National Assembly.
Enwo faulted the action of the president without recourse to the National Assembly when he single handedly took the decision. Also joined in the suit alongside President Buhari are the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the Accountant General of the Federation as well as Auditor General of the Federation.
The lawmaker is praying the court to determine whether President Buhari can by way of fiat issue a lawful directive to the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th defendants to appropriate, distribute, allocate and disburse public revenue from the distributable pool account to the federal, state and local governments without prescription from the National Assembly.
He is also seeking to know whether having regards to the combined effect of section 162, 163, 164 and 168 of the 1999 constitution as amended the president can carry out such an action without National Assembly approval.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, Wednesday, Enwo explained his decision to sue Buhari was not “political” but was in defence of the constitutional provision for separation of powers.
He said the power of appropriation rests squarely with the National Assembly and that the federal government cannot appropriate public funds without recourse to the National Assembly.
“To do so will be for the federal government to act in a cavalier or perfunctory manner and I believe that that is not what the drafters of the constitution intended when the constitution of this country was predicated on the separation of powers.
“Section four of our constitution clearly vests the power of appropriation on the National Assembly. Section five vests the Executive with its own powers and Section six vests the Judiciary with its own powers. So, there is a clear separation of powers,” the lawmaker said.
Relying on the Constitution of the country, he said section 160 of the Nigerian constitution clearly made it mandatory for the National Assembly to be involved in any form of revenue distribution in the country.
He said for President Buhari to have unilaterally taken the decision on the bailout amounted to boycotting the parliament and alienating it in the scheme of things in a constitutional democracy.
Continuing, Enwo said: “I am doing this because I feel that this is a constitutional democracy. If you allow this kind of thing not matter the good intention of the federal government, the country’s democracy will be threatened.”
“This is a country of laws. Everything the government does ought to emanate from the 1999 constitution of Nigeria. Every step the government intends to take must be backed up by the constitution.
“Any day we set ourselves away from the constitution we will be inviting anarchy. What I am saying is that you cannot sacrifice constitutionalism on the altar of political expediency.
“The constitution does not say that our president should be a Father Christmas. Our president is a democratically elected president who swore to abide by the dictates of the constitution.
“We did not elect an Ayatollah or a monarch who would sit in his office and do good to all manner of men the way he or she desires. Every act of the president, the legislature or the judiciary must emanate from this constitution and other statutes and legal instruments.
“No matter how well-intentioned the action of government may be, the moment it is not backed up by the constitution it is a nullity.”
