Court will nullify service chiefs’ appointments if challenged — Agbakoba SAN

A  Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Olisa Agbakoba,
in this interview with TOBI AWORINDE, faults the
appointment of all heads of security agencies, who are mostly from
the North

How do
you feel about the appointment of heads of security agencies, who
are mostly from the North?

Obviously, it is contradictory to the constitutional requirement
that there will be a spread in appointments pursuant to provisions
of Section 14 which embeds the federal character principle. Then it
makes clear in the constitution that as far as possible, there must
be a national spread to reflect appointments. So, for instance, if
in the Supreme Court, every single judge comes from my town in
Onitsha (Anambra State), there would be a problem. The reason for
this is not that the best principle should not apply.

The appointment of senior advocates of Nigeria also follows the
same process. You may have 20 of the top lawyers from Onitsha, but
it just wouldn’t make sense if you appoint every single SAN in 2019
from one town. You will always find good people elsewhere. They may
not be the best, but you will always find good people
elsewhere.

So, in the security services, I think it would not give
confidence if suddenly we see all the appointments coming from the
North. People would say, ‘What about the South?’ So, that is the
unconstitutionality of those appointments. I cannot comment on the
professionalism of those appointed, but no matter how professional,
what is lacking is the spread.

Is such a situation healthy as we approach an
election year?

How can it be healthy? From what I have said, you know it is not
healthy. It is not a good position to have in a country that is as
volatile as Nigeria on ethnic issues and religious issues. It just
creates unnecessary tension.

Do you propose that there should be a reshuffle of
the security council of the Federal Government?

In fact, somebody should go to court and challenge it. It is
just that I am tired of going to court to challenge things. I have
over 20 cases in court. But clearly, it is the type of case that if
you take to court, the court would declare it to be null and void
and ineffective because it offends the provisions of the
constitution on national spread and federal character.

So, I would suggest to the President that it is important that
he has a rethink and makes the appointments in such a way that
everybody in all parts of Nigeria will have confidence in the
appointments.

How do you think the ethnic composition of the
appointments of those in charge of the security agencies could
affect the impartiality of the forthcoming
elections?

It is possible because if the national security apparatus plays
a very strong role in supervising the elections, then clearly — I
don’t say that they will, but — they may be under orders to achieve
a certain result.

That is why it is important to have a national spread, so that
everybody will see that they have their own people in the system
and then there will be confidence; so, no party can say, ‘It’s
because all these guys are from one part of Nigeria and that,
therefore, they tend to be in favour of a particular party’. That
might have an impact on the outcome of the elections.

Culled from Punch