2023: Lawyers Differ On Obstacles To Jonathan

Lawyers have disagreed over the constitutionality or legal obstacles to former President Goodluck Jonathan vying for the 2023 presidential election.

Reacting, Professor Paul Ananaba (SAN) said Jonathan was not qualified to run for the office of the president because the constitution does not envisage that any Nigerian will be in office for more than eight years under any circumstance.

“If you add the four years – the two years under Yar’adua, and another four years – it will be more than eight years,” he said in affirming a legal obstacle to Jonathan seeking election in 2023.

Similarly, Buhari Yusuf said Jonathan is ineligible under the law saying the combined reading of sections 137(1)(b) and 182(1)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution, “Makes it practically impossible for someone who has taken the oath of office twice as president to come on the third one.”

According to him, “The fact that the president completed the first term of a demised president does not call you to read meaning into the section and I don’t think there is any manoeuvring space for somebody to escape.”

However, Murtala Abdulkareem (SAN) said the decision of the court in the case of Ayuba Sabo and Ahmed Abubakar vs Ibrahim Gaidam over the Yobe State governorship election of 2015 has resolved the issue.

“He (Jonathan) can contest, but if he takes the oath in 2023, he will not be eligible to contest afterward,” he said in affirming that there was no legal obstacle to him.

Similarly, Okonache Ogar Esq said Jonathan is only ineligible to seek a fresh term after the forthcoming election not before as the constitution set out to correct the existence of a vacuum in the event of incapacity or death of the governor or president with the availability of the deputy governor or the vice president.

Source: Daily Trust

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