Oluwanifemi Ojo
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has described the broadcast by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in the early hours of Thursday as contempt of court.
The president made an announcement that only the N200 notes would be allowed as legal tender while the N500 and N1000 will cease to be.
The SAN said that the president cannot overrule the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
This publication recalls that a total of 10 states have applied to the Supreme Court owing to the hardship caused by naira scarcity. The states, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara pioneered the law suit. Other states like Katsina, Lagos, Cross River, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Sokoto later joined.
The Supreme Court, however, gave a ruling order to the CBN to suspend the deadline until after the court hearing on February 15.
On Wednesday, 15 February 2023, the case was adjoined the second time to February 22, 2023.
Reacting to the president’s address, Adegboruwa accused Buhari of disregarding the principle of the separation of power.
According to him, “There is separation of powers in a democracy.
“Under section 235 of the 1999 Constitution, the Supreme Court is the final authority in legal pronouncements in Nigeria.
“Under section 287(1) of the Constitution, the President is statutorily obliged to obey, enforce and give effect to the decision of the Supreme Court.
“Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution:
“(1) 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.”
Adegoruwa said the announcement of the president is “sad for our democracy.”
“Since he already admitted that the matter is subjudice, the President should not have proceeded to vary the order of the Supreme Court,” he said.
“The president and indeed the executive should not give the impression that citizens can brazenly disregard lawful orders of any court, as that will only encourage anarchy and lawlessness.
“It amounts to executive rascality and brazen disregard and contempt of the Supreme Court, for the President to separate the denomination of the old notes for legality. It is not open to the President to choose which portion of the order of the Supreme Court that will be obeyed.
“The President should reverse his directive and add the N500 and N1000 old notes, failing which the Supreme Court should overrule the directive of the President on February 22 when the case comes up.”
