National Assembly has no power to summon Buhari over insecurity —Malami

Nigeria’s attorney-general and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami on Wednesday said the National Assembly has no constitutional power to summon President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement on Wednesday, the AGF noted that the right of the President to engage the National Assembly and appear before it is “inherently discretionary in the President and not at the behest of the National Assembly.”

He said, “National Assembly has no constitutional power to envisage or contemplate a situation where the president would be summoned by the national assembly on the operational use of the armed forces.”

It will be recalled that the house of representatives at plenary following the killing of 43 rice farmers in Bornu state last week by Boko Haram insurgents, passed a resolution to invite President Buhari to brief the house on the true state of the security situation in the country.

Lauretta Onochie, President Buhari’s aide on social media, on Monday announced that the President will address a joint session of the National Assembly.

But the AGF in the statement on Wednesday noted that security matters remained the exclusive preserve of the executive arm of government and the National Assembly must not forget this.

According to him, the President could freely address the National Assembly when he wants but could not be summoned to do so.

“The management and control of the security sector is exclusively vested in the President by Section 218 (1) of the Constitution as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces including the power to determine the operational use of the Armed Forces. An invitation that seeks to put the operational use of the Armed Forces to a public interrogation is indeed taking the constitutional rights of law-making beyond bounds.

“As the Commander-in-Chief, the President has exclusivity on security and has confidentiality over security. These powers and rights he does not share. So, by summoning the President on national security operational matters, the House of Representatives operated outside constitutional bounds. President’s exclusivity of constitutional confidentiality investiture within the context of the constitution remains sacrosanct.”

“Mr. President has enjoyed Constitutional privileges attached to the Office of the President including exclusivity and confidentiality investiture in security operational matters, which remains sacrosanct,” Malami’s statement read.