PRESIDENT BUHARI, THE NBA, AND THE RULE OF LAW - BY ACHIKE CHUDE

Achike Chude

T

he president's statement at the NBA conference justifying disobedience of court orders is a statement taken out of a military textbook. It shows, in my view, the shallowness of the president and his limited understanding of a working constitutional democracy. No wonder judges' houses were raided at midnight and court orders are still being disobeyed at will. 

To quote the Supreme Court the way the president did, making the it a co-conspirator in the abridgement of our Constitutional provisions is disingenuous, a patent falsehood, a gross and willful misrepresentation of the justices of our apex court.

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That the president was comfortable to make this outlandish declaration before the country's body of lawyers is sickening and a further confirmation of how low the NBA has sunk.

Was there a rebuttal, a divergent opinion by the NBA to set the record straight, to educate the president that it is not his call to determine when and how long he can deny a citizen his right? It is the decision of the courts. This is what the constitution says. What the president says at best is an opinion. And because the president in not a so-called 'learned' friend, his informed opinion is at worst, an uninformed opinion.

I wonder what is happening to Nigerian lawyers nowadays!

• Achike Chude, a member of the Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigerai (GPAAN), is a commentator on national/national issues.