*Apex court blasts Buhari, says 1999 Constitution does not subject legislative powers to his directive
The Supreme Court ,on Friday, struck out the suit by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), seeking to void the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Theideal recalls that the National Assembly had passed the Amended Electoral Act, 2022 including the contentious section 84 (12) while Buhari had raised an objection against the section while signing the bill into law.
Buhari and Malami thereafter approached the Supreme Court, asking it to set aside the said Section 84 (12) on the grounds of illegality and disenfranchisement of political appointees.
But in its landmark judgment by a seven-member panel headed by Justice Musa Dattijo Mohammed, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, held that Buhari, having participated in the making of the law by assenting to it, could not turn around to fault its provisions.
The apex court, which upheld the objections raised by the National Assembly and other defendants against the suit, refused to determine the case on its merit.
The Supreme Court consequently held that it lacked the jurisdiction to hear the suit, saying that the suit was an abuse of court process.
In the lead judgement by Justice of Supreme Court (JSC), Justice Emmanuel Agim, held that it was an attack on the democratic principle of Separation of Powers for the President to seek to direct/request the Legislature to make a particular law or alter any law.
The JSC said , “The President lacks the power to direct the National Assembly to amend or enact an act..it violates the principle of separation of powers.
“There is no part of the Constitution that makes the exercise of legislative powers subject to the directive of the President”.
