The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday rejected call by Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) for an interim government to replace President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Indeed, the upper legislative chamber said it would not join issues with the legal luminary when the country is preparing for the 2023 general election.
It would be recalled that the founder and Chancellor, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, on Mondaycalled for the postponement of the 2023 general elections and the introduction of a six-month interim government, after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
The legal luminary said the preoccupation of the interim government would be to produce a new constitution that would tackle insecurity, economic, political and other excruciating ills bedevilling the nation.
Babalola, however warned that if the 2023 elections are conducted, it will recycle the same crop of leaders, who will plunge the nation further into bankruptcy, economic depression, and insecurity.
But reacting to the call by Babalola, chairman of senate committtee on media and public affairs, Senator Basiru Ajibola said “Senate will not join issues with him and it is very sad that such comment is coming from a legal luminary that I so much respect”.
He explained that Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution as amended clearly states the procedure for amending Constitution, stressing that as a lawyer Afe Babalola supposed to know all this.
“His comment is more political than legal and his suggestions cannot stand line with modern reality. For instance, pegging the age of political offices is not in tandem with the provision of the Constitution, as it stands today and even the America that we are copying doesn’t have such provision in their Constitution”.
He emphasised that “the job of a President is not a bricklayers job, it involves intellect and vision for the development of the country”.
Speaking on the call for part time legislature as canvassed by Babalola, he said the legal luminary appears not to understand the workings of legislature.
“We are not only making laws, we carry out oversight functions, express the views of our constituents, we are not in a military where somebody with a military fiat, where someone will come out with a new system of government without following due process” Babalola said.
According to the Senate spokesman, “All these things would have been suggested during the call for memoranda, preparatory to Constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, he did not come with any suggestion during the ongoing Constitutional amendment.
“If he is so passionate about the suggestion he is making now, he should wait for the next Assembly where he will have opportunity to submit his personal opinion for consideration”.
