constitutionality of President Muhammadu Buhari non- appointment of ministers since May 2015

 Do an examination on the constitutionality of President Muhammadu Buhari non- appointment of ministers since May 2015.

           Nigeria as a country operates a democratic system of government whereby the powers of the head of state and head of government
is vested in a single person who is known as the president and this is backed up by d constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended in 2011.

  The 4th civilian president was inaugurated into office on 25th of May 2015 in the person of retired general Muhammadu Buhari

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           The major reason for this project is to examine the constitutionality of his non-appointment of ministers till now.

The non-appointment of ministers by President Buhari is constitutional and it is backed up by the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria section 147:

 147. (1) There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as May be established by the President.        

 (2) Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President.                             

(3) Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:-  provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State.          

(4) Where a member of the National Assembly or of a House of Assembly is appointed as Minister of the Government of the Federation, he shall be deemed to have resigned his membership of the National Assembly or of the House of Assembly on his taking the oath of office as Minister.                        

(5) No person shall be appointed as a Minister of the Government of the Federation unless he is qualified for election as a member of the House of Representatives. 

(6) An appointment to any of the offices aforesaid shall be deemed to have been made where no return has been received from the Senate within twenty-one working days of the receipt of nomination by the Senate.

This is backed up by section1(1) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which states that “this constitution is supreme and its provision shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the federal republic of Nigeria”.

 

 The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria section 147(1)(2), states that the president is meant to pick a minister from each state in the federation to portray the principle of federal character, bringing the total number of selected ministers to 36 after which the list would be sent to the house of senate for approval within 21 working days.

    Firstly, the constitution did not state the stipulated time for the appointment of ministers once the president assumes office, the constitution only mandates the president to appoint them, which means the president has a whole four years of his tenure, to appoint his ministers.

     Secondly, the constitution did not mandate the president to appoint all 36 ministers from each state at the same time, some of the past presidents of Nigeria have sent their ministerial list to the Senate in batches.

    Lastly, the constitution did not state that the ministers appointed have a fixed term in office they can be appointed and dismissed by the President according to his pleasure. As the constitution did not state the limit to the tenure of office of the minister's.

     Nigerians are used to the notion of past presidents appointing their ministers immediately after assuming their position in office which led to their clamoring for ministers from president buhari’s administration, but the president backed up his actions by stating that he wants to appoint corruption free and loyal ministers.

Reference .

• The spark ng.com

• Premium times ng.com

• Google
• The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria