On Wednesday, the Nigerian Senate tackled the Attorney-General of the
Federation, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), for giving the go ahead to an appointee for Executive Secretary of the
National Human Rights commission, NHRC, Tony Ojukwu to assume office without clearance from the upper legislative chamber.
It also mandated its committee on judiciary to investigate the matter.
This development was sequel to an adopted order 14 invoked by Senator
Dino Melaye in plenary where he found faults with the perceived
unconstitutional action by Malami and sought the necessary action of
the Senate.
In his explanation, Melaye stated that discrete investigation
revealed that Tony Ojukwu had resumed office even without confirmation from
the Senate.
He emphasized that Nigeria was not a Banana Republic and that
President Muhammadu Buhari upon assumption of office on May 29 , 2015
swore to respect the constitution and uphold the rule of law.
It was the position of the lawmakers that all nominees by the
government must adhere to the constitution or have their appointments
invalidated ab initio.
They insisted that a situation where an appointee of government will assume office before confirmation would not be condoned.
Melaye said the AGF was supposed to be an unbiased enforcer of the
law as the nation’s chief law enforcer, not to mention his background as
a lawyer.
It would be recalled that the Senate had placed an embargo on
subsequent confirmation of appointments made by President Muhammadu
Buhari.
This followed an existing standoff it has with the presidency over
its refusals to confirm Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman of the
Economic and financial crimes commission, EFCC.
Inspite of that, Magu has been
retained as the EFCC’s acting chairman.