Buhari behaving like an emperor by disregarding Supreme Court order —Ozekhome

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s disregard and disobedience to the Supreme Court order on the old naira notes, describing him as displaying the attributes of an overriding Emperor.

Ozekhome who was reacting to an address by the President on the redesigned naira notes, said Buhari’s disregard for the Supreme Court’s interim order restraining the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from suspending the acceptance of the old naira notes was uncalled for.

In a statement on Friday, Ozekhome described the order by the President as a ‘dicta, more in the form of a military Decree’.

“Buhari, in his broadcast on Thursday, February 16, 2023, unilaterally varied the apex court’s extant order of maintenance of status quo, by directing the CBN Governor to the effect that ‘the old N200 banknotes be released back into circulation…to circulate as legal tender with the new N200, N500 and N1000 bank notes for 60 days,” Ozekhome said in the statement.

“The President then issued a dicta, more in the form of a military Decree, that, ‘in line with section 20 (3) of the CBN Act, 2007, all existing old N1000 and N500 notes remain redeemable at the CBN and designated prints’.

“This order is a clear violation of, and disobedience to the existing order of the apex court which had already maintained the status quo ante bellum of all parties involved in the Naira re-design dispute.

READ ALSO:Presidency clarifies position of Buhari, CBN on Supreme Court order over naira swap deadline

“Every Nigerian had expected that the Federal Government would respect this apex court’s position. But President Buhari demurred. He made himself Supreme Leader; an Emperor; Potentate, Mikado and Overlord.

“Buhari’s broadcast to the nation therefore literally overruled the Supreme Court of the land, in a way and manner only a military tyrant could ever contemplate.

“Buhari’s imperious order was a frontal call to chaos, anarchy and national upheaval. It was a direct assault on the authority of the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land; and also the head of the entire Judiciary, the 3rd arm of government under the doctrine of separation of powers, most ably popularized in 1748 by Baron de Montesque, a great French Philosopher.

“To have whimsically and capriciously varied the order of the Supreme Court was to pick and choose what order to obey or disobey. This breaches the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution provided for in section 1(1) thereof. It also frontally assaults the provisions of section 287(1) of the Constitution which provides that ‘the decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court,” the senior lawyer added.

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