THE GAME PLAN IS VERY CLEAR: THEY WANT JONATHAN TO RUN WITH THE CABAL”S NOMINATED VP, THEN AFTER WINNING, AN APPEAL COURT WOULD SAY JONATHAN CANNOT BE SWORN IN THE THIRD TIME, BUT THE PARTY BEING THE OWNER OF THE VOTE SHOULD SWEAR IN THE VP AS PRESIDENT. AT THE END, THE PRESIDENT WILL BE ONE OF THEM. IMPRESSIVE! ISN’T IT
I am sure, you can’t be sworn in as President twice under Nigeria constitution.
“A person who was sworn-in as President 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”* — s.137(3) Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
The above constitutional amendment is crystal clear. It says, in effect, that a Vice President who is sworn-in to complete the term of his principal can be sworn-in as President once more. In other words, *nobody can be sworn-in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria three times.
There are no exceptions.
With these plain and incontrovertible facts in view, we can now see the judgment of the High Court in Yenegoa for what it truly is, that is to say, an offence to logic and a stain on the reputation of the court. The judge in question should be investigated for corruption or removed for incompetence.
The argument that s.137(3) cannot be given retroactive effect is an insult to the intelligence of Nigerians. In legal parlance, retroactive effect means that the law cannot, generally, be made to apply to, or affect, facts or actions which existed or were completed in the past.
An example would be if GEJ had won the election and been sworn-in as President in 2015; nobody could come along to argue that he should be removed as President in 2018 on the back of this amendment. His “ineligibility”, in such circumstances, would be “retroactive” i.e. it would apply to a past act; the swearing-in of GEJ in 2015.
However, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan did not win the election in 2015. He lost and we are now in 2022 when, presently, the constitution contains an OUTRIGHT BAN on anybody, GEJ included, being sworn-in as president for a third time. *To swear him in now would be to spit and trample upon the Nigerian constitution and affirm this country as one governed not by the rule but by the corruption of law.
If APC nevertheless clears him to run and then goas ahead to nominate him; the party will only have succeeded in guaranteeing its final destruction.
GEJ will either lose at the ballot box or be ousted by the Supreme Court. There is no way around this because, I repeat, HE CANNOT CONSTITUTIONALLY BE SWORN-IN AS PRESIDENT FOR A THIRD TIME, even if he wins an election.
There are only a few explanations for why anybody in APC, knowing the above facts to be true, would still choose to back GEJ for president. The most obvious is that they are secretly working for PDP. Another possibility, even more diabolical than the first, is that the people behind this dastardly plot will allow GEJ to win the election and then at the 11th hour, swoop in with yet another judgment saying that while he had every right to “run” he has no right to be “sworn-in”; leaving the coast entirely clear for his Vice President (who is very likely to be of Northern extraction) to replace him as Commander-in-Chief for the full 4 year term of GEJ’s aborted presidency.
CABALS DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR IMMUNITY
It appears to me that some people are desperately trying to cover up their track as a result of the massive looting going on under this government, and they are prepared to go to any length to do that. We just heard of the N80B by the Accountant General, who knows of the very many hidden attrocities that would have been committed by the cabals?
Although Jonathan is just being deceived into beleiving that he was better as a leader than the present one, the truth is that the cabals are desperately trying to use him as a means of securing immunity for themselves against any future probe.
THE GAME PLAN IS VERY CLEAR: THEY WANT JONATHAN TO RUN WITH THE CABAL”S NOMINATED VP, THEN AFTER WINNING, AN APPEAL COURT WOULD SAY JONATHAN CANNOT BE SWORN IN THE THIRD TIME, BUT THE PARTY BEING THE OWNER OF THE VOTE SHOULD SWEAR IN THE VP AS PRESIDENT. AT THE END, THE PRESIDENT WILL BE ONE OF THEM. IMPRESSIVE! ISN’T IT
POWER BY ANY MEANS.
This is where these evil and careless men are headed. Nigerians, particularly members of the APC should think long and hard before deciding whether they are prepared to follow.”
Mike Owolabi Williams wrote:
