Presidential Powers and the VP By Reuben Abati – TheNigerialawyer

President Muhammadu Buhari recently set up an Economic Advisory
Council, to replace the country’s Economic Management Team. He also
moved some departments and agencies of government to the new
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social
Development. I don’t see why this should become a source of
agitation and frustration for some Nigerians. The Economic Advisory
Council is chaired by Professor Doyin Salami, a seasoned
intellectual. The members are persons of great technocratic ability
with a track record of achievement as economists and policy wonks.
The Council will meet every month and meet with the President every
quarter.

The Nigerian economy can certainly benefit from new ideas and
perspectives. It is also refreshing to see the President put
together a team that is not made up of party members, dead woods,
or sycophants. Each member of the Economic Advisory Council
inspires confidence. There is a consensus that the President got it
right with the list. What the Advisory Council needs is the
President’s support and an enabling environment for it to be able
to make a difference. How do we achieve double-digit economic
growth? What are the fiscal and monetary policies that can position
the Nigerian economy differently, for better performance? What do
we need to do to reduce unemployment? What kind of injection does
the real sector need? The Council can also help generate robust
discussions within government on key issues that affect all of us.
It is also a good development that the President is personally
taking charge of the economy. The Council will report to him
directly. I don’t have a problem with that.

I also like the idea of a new Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs,
Disaster Management and Social Development. Such a sharply-focused
Ministry should serve as a strategic hub for the management of the
many disasters that keep occurring across the country. The missing
link in existing efforts is the lack of co-ordination and synergy
among various agencies and between the states and the Federal
government. This ministry could help send a signal that the
Nigerian government now intends to place a higher premium on human
lives. It is about time the country took disaster management and
humanitarian care more seriously.

I expected many Nigerians to focus on the value of these two
initiatives. Instead, what I hear is a disturbing conversation
about how both amount to an “enemy action” to whittle down the
influence and authority of the Vice President, Professor Yemi
Osinbajo. Previously, the Vice President was the chairman of the
Economic Management Team and the National Economic Council. The
first is an ad hoc administrative structure focusing on the
economy; the latter is a statutory, constitutional body. I do not
share most of the views that have been expressed, or the obvious
attempt to politicize what in reality is within the authority of
the President. Afenifere says for example, that the “office of the
Vice President has been rendered useless, impotent and irrelevant.”
How? Just because the President sets up an Economic Advisory
Council and created a new Ministry to ensure greater service
delivery in a critical area of national concern? The Movement for
the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) says Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo is being “maltreated” and “that the
unconstitutional stripping of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s official
attributes amounts to …continuous humiliation of Christians in high
positions of current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
There you go. Nigerians are always quick to play the ethnic and
religious card. Some other commentators claim that they see the
hands of an anti-Osinbajo cabal in the matter. At least one Pastor
has prophesied that the cabal will fail. Others have argued that
certain forces are determined to stop Vice President Osinbajo just
in case he is nursing a 2023 Presidential ambition. Persons have
been named who have been penciled down as the VP’s likely
replacement. The various conspiracy theories seem suspicious.

Of course, I know that there is never a shortage of
mischief-makers in the corridors of power. The relationship between
Presidents and Vice Presidents and between Governors and their
Deputies has also always been quite tricky in Nigerian politics.
Should the President become incapacitated or he is removed from
office, the Vice President replaces him. He is thus just a step
away from the office. Deputy Governors stand in the same regard to
the Governors in the states. With the kind of politics that we
play, Governors and their supporters always keep an eye on the
Deputy Governor.

If he shows any sign of disloyalty or ambition, all the hawks
within the system will go after him and ensure that he is removed,
marginalised or humiliated. Presidential politics is worse. The
Presidency is clearly the highest office in the land, it is the
home of even more vicious intrigues. And indeed we have had cases
in the past of conflicts within the Presidency, between the
President and the Vice President. Many will recall how the
relationship between President Olusegun Obasanjo and then Vice
President Atiku Abubakar deteriorated rapidly after the 2003
Presidential election. The Presidential Villa practically became a
war zone. All kinds of opportunists cashed in on this and there was
never a shortage of salacious tales emanating from the Villa, from
faceless persons casually referred to as “sources within the
Presidency.”

Those “sources” are at work again. But we all need to learn from
the past. A divided Presidency short-changes the people. Many will
also recall the travails of President Goodluck Jonathan as Vice
President to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. There was a deliberate
attempt to frustrate him by those who did not want him as a
successor to the late President whose tenure was defined majorly by
the politics of illness and death.

When President Yar’Adua left the country for medical treatment,
there were persons within and outside the Presidency who insisted
that VP Jonathan would not be allowed to act as President. It took
the intervention of men and women of reason and the National
Assembly for the letter and spirit of the Constitution to take
effect. When VP Jonathan became President, he chose Arc. Namadi
Sambo, then Governor of Kaduna State, as his Vice President. Arc
Sambo and President Jonathan had a good, rancor-free working
relationship, but that does not rule out the fact that certain
mischief-makers tried to come between them.

My view is that Professor Yemi Osinbajo would rank as one of the
most influential and visible Vice Presidents that Nigeria has had
since the return to civilian rule in 1999. With the possible
exception of Atiku Abubakar between 1999 and 2003, he has been able
to engage the public and connect with the people in a manner no
other Vice President before him, did. This probably explains why
there has been so much concern about his place in the Presidency,
and his relationship with his principal.

It also explains why he may attract envy and criticism. I like
the fact that he has been very calm and dignified in the face of it
all. He has refrained from making any statement that may convey the
impression that he also believes the narrative that some persons,
wielding long knives, are out for him. He has not shown any
desperation in the face of speculations that he may be removed, nor
has he responded to any suggestion that he is under pressure to
resign. His media team has not over-reacted. I commend him for his
tact, and for staying above the fray.

However, one person who is convinced that the Vice President’s
office is truly under siege told me the other day that Professor
Osinbajo should go to court. Why would he allow the President to
take away his powers over the management of the economy, including
bodies of which he is statutorily the Chairman? I laughed. I told
the person that the Vice President will do no such thing. He has no
special powers of his own except powers delegated to him by the
President, and even that is entirely at the discretion of the
President.

It is not impossible that many of the persons who are protesting
that the Vice President is being marginalized are also under the
illusion that there is a power sharing arrangement between the
President and the Vice President of Nigeria. No. There is no such
thing. Even the VP’s Chairmanship of the National Economic Council,
under Section 18 of the Third Schedule is at the pleasure of the
President; in any case, the Economic Council, like the Economic
Advisory Council, and many such bodies is merely an advisory body.
There is only one President of the Federation.

He is granted so many powers under the 1999 Constitution, the
Nigerian President is almost a constitutional monarch. He is the
country’s chief economic manager. He is the “head of State, the
Chief Executive of the Federation and Commander-in-Chief of the
Federation” (Section 130(2). Whereas in defining the powers of the
Federal Government, the Constitution vests legislative (Section 4)
and judicial powers (section 6) in institutions and not
individuals, Executive Powers (section 5) are vested in the person
of the President. It is as follows:

“5(1): Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the
executive powers of the Federation –
(a) shall be vested in the President and may, subject as aforesaid
and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be
exercised by him either directly or through the Vice-President and
Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the
public service of the Federation”

In other words, the Vice President exercises executive powers
only as delegated by the President. The manner and extent to which
he does so is at the entire discretion of the President as provided
in Section 148 (1): “The President, may in his discretion, assign
to the Vice President or any Minister of the Government of the
Federation responsibility for any business of the Government of the
Federation, including the administration of any department of
government.” The operative phrase here is “may in his discretion”.
And for the benefit of those wondering whether the President acted
rightly by setting up an Economic Advisory Council, Section 151 of
the Constitution refers – to wit: “The President may appoint any
person as a Special Adviser to assist him in the performance of his
functions.”

This, to the best of my knowledge, is the position of the
Constitution on how the Vice President stands in relation to
Presidential powers. In the eyes of the Constitution, the buck
stops at the President’s desk. His government fails or succeeds
strictly on the basis of the choices that he makes. He is not first
among equals. He is the boss. The Vice President is at best his
number one aide and adviser. The circumstances, however, under
which the Vice President can replace him or act on his behalf are
properly spelt out in the same Constitution. It is not for nothing
that the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in a ruling on the
2019 Presidential election recently declared that the Vice
President is an ‘appendage.”

When I canvass this view, I am told that I don’t understand the
politics that is currently going on in the Villa. My suspicion is
that the people who are playing politics are the people latching on
to the announcement of an Economic Advisory Council or the
revelation that the Vice President must take directives from the
President (which is not a problem by the way), to project their own
fears onto the national screen- namely their ethnic interests,
religious sentiments and personal interests. They do so in rather
hyperbolic terms. Just as there are persons threatening to march on
the Villa “to defend our VP”, there are those who are seizing the
moment to launch personal attacks on the Vice President.

Those who claim to be defending him may be expressing their
admiration of him – it is clear he has a followership and a
constituency behind him – but they should be careful not to damage
his politics and his relationship with his principal. There is
definitely also a lesson here for the President and the Presidency.
Perception is everything. Given Nigeria’s politics of suspicion,
even the most innocent of gestures could create wicked problems;
hence, government must always think ahead and communicate with
greater clarity. Flip side: it is definitely clear that Professor
Yemi Osinbajo’s followers want him to be given more
responsibilities, not a demotion. They don’t want him to be used
and dumped, no matter what. Off the books, beyond legalese: address
this perception problem. Above all, something must be done about
those so-called “reliable sources” in the Presidency. I never liked
them. They only make things difficult for everyone.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!