The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami says the summon of President Muhammadu Buhari by the Legislative arm of government to appear before it is outside its constitutional powers.
According to a statement by the Special Assistant to the AGF, Mr Umar Gwandu, the rights 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.
The Chief Law Officer of the country added that the confidentiality and strategies employed by the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are not open for public exposure in view of security implications in the probability of undermining the war against terror.
“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 Representative operated outside constitutional bounds. President’s exclusivity of constitutional confidentiality investiture within the context of the constitution remains sacrosanct,” he said.
Mr Malami also said that the 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.
He also reiterated that the management and control of the security sector is exclusively vested in the President by Nigerian 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.” The AGF added.
It would be recalled that the House of Representatives in Nigeria has summoned Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu to appear before it in order to brief the house on the security situation in the country.
