Following the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly on the 9th June 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC) which won the presidential elections and majority seats in the Legislative house, witnessed what many termed a “legislative coup” in the election of the leaders of both chambers of the National Assembly.
The APC leadership it was alleged, had sought to influence the elections to favour some zones in the country and when all negotiations to reach this end failed, the APC hierarchy had enlisted the help of the President to hold a meeting with the members of the National Assembly and convince them to obey the party’s directive.
 |
| SARAKI |
On the scheduled date of the election, the members of the ruling party had honoured an invitation by President Buhari to a meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC) when BukolaSaraki struck. BukolaSaraki with 12 other “rebel” APC Senators held a sitting with the 47 PDP Senators and Saraki was elected Senate President while Senator Ike Ekweremadu from the PDP was elected his deputy.
Constitutionality of Saraki’s Emergence
A lot has already been said on the emergence of Saraki, the object of this discourse is to examine the constitutionality of same in the light of whether the 8th National Assembly was properly inaugurated. This is in view of the fact that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) provides for the issuance of a proclamation by the President. Section 64(3) of the Constitution provides as follows;
“Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the person elected as the President shall have power to issue a proclamation for the holding of the first session of the National Assembly immediately after his being sworn in, or for its dissolution as provided in this section”.
There is also a similar provision with respect to the inauguration of a State House of Assembly in section 105 (3). It is not in doubt that compliance with this provision is a sinequanon for the valid exercise of any legislative power or engagement in any legislative activity. In fact, the learned Constitutional law author Ben Nwabueze had opined that Nigeria first shot at Presidentialism was marred by lack of proper inauguration of the legislature both at the federal and state level via the proclamation of the president or governors respectively.
According to the learned author;
“The tragic process began right from the second day of the inauguration of the Second Republic, when the State Houses of Assembly held their first meeting on 2 October, 1979 without being convened by a proclamation issued by the Governor as the Constitution required, and thereby turned themselves into illegally constituted bodies, with the consequence that all laws passed by them during the entire four years of their existence became complete nullities. It is arguable whether even the first meeting of the National Assembly was regularly convened”.
The salient question in the light of all these is whether the 8th National Assembly was properly inaugurated as if the answer to this question is in the negative, the consequence of that would be that the 8th National Assembly is nothing more than an illegally constituted body and all its action including the election of its leaders would be illegal and unconstitutional.
Was the National Assembly Properly Inaugurated?
The 7th National Assembly was dissolved on the4th dayof June 2015 while the 8th National Assembly was inaugurated on the 9th of June 2015. According to information on the National Assembly website www.nassnig.org, the maiden session of the 8th National Assembly was convened by the Clerk of the National Assembly, AlhajiSalisuAbubakarMaikasuwa following a written proclamation from President Buhari to that effect.
The said presidential Proclamation was said to have been contained in a letter which was read on the floor of the house. The question is then whether the constitutional requirement is satisfied by a written proclamation or if the president needs to be physically present for an oral proclamation?
Manner of Proclamation; Verbal or Written
