Mike Ezekhome, Senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) has said that former President, Goodluck Jonathan is constitutionally, morally and legally qualified to contest the 2023 presidential election.
Ozekhome made this assertion in a statement he issued over the weekend, which was in response to an argument that the former president is disqualified by the constitution.
Following speculations that Jonathan was preparing to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and seek the presidential ticket of the party, some Nigerians, including human rights lawyer Femi Falana, have said he was not constitutionally qualified to rule the country again.
Falana had based his position on Section 137 (3) of the Constitution, which provides as follows:
“A person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.”
“Some people have said that the amendment is not retrospective and therefore cannot apply to Dr Jonathan. Assuming without conceding that the amendment is not retrospective it is submitted that under the current Constitution a President or Governor cannot spend more than two terms of eight years.
“In other words, the Constitution will not allow anyone to be in office for more than a cumulative period of 8 years. In Marwa v. Nyako (2012) 6 NWLR (Pt.1296) 199 at 387 the Supreme Court stated that Section 180 (1) and (2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has prescribed a single term of 4 years and if a second term, another period of 4 years and not a day longer.
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However, Ozekhome disagreed, saying that the Court of Appeal ruling of 2015 had settled the issue raised by Falana.
He said: “In a lead judgement delivered by Justice Abubakar Yahaya, the full panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously held that President Jonathan had only spent one term in office as president, going by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
“President Jonathan had been empowered as acting President on February 9, 2010, following a motion for operation of the “doctrine of necessity” by the Senate, owing to the protracted stay of late President Umaru Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia on medical grounds.
“When President Yar’Adua eventually died on May 5, 2010, Jonathan was sworn in as president to serve the unexpired residue of office of Yar’Adua. Jonathan was later elected President in 2011 for the first time, on his own merit.
“ Njoku had contended that Jonathan had already sworn to the oath of office and allegiance twice and therefore, should be disqualified from contesting the 2015 election, as any victory he secured would amount to being sworn in thrice.
“However, the court ruled that the oath that Jonathan took in 2010 was merely to complete the unexpired tenure of late Yar’Adua; adding that by virtue of Section 135 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution, Jonathan only took his first oath in May, 2011. The Court of Appeal further held that disqualification is through election, not oath taking.”
