President Buhari Overruled Supreme Court Like Military Tyrant; His Action Is A Call To Chaos -Ozekhome

Aconstitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, on Friday described President Muhammadu Buhari's order on the new naira note as a frontal call to chaos, anarchy and national upheaval.

Ozekhome who made this known in a statement said the order 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 third arm of government.

He said that President Buhari's announcement on Thursday was not only highly unpresidential but was insensate and insensitive to the suffering of Nigerian citizens, who, due to no fault of theirs, can neither use the old currency nor access the new one.

According to him, Buhari's broadcast rather than reassuring the frayed nerves of a traumatised citizenry and a beleaguered nation did the exact opposite; a complete anti-climax. It was a clarion call for total disenchantment, disillusionment, despair and desolation.

The statement partly reads; "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...'.

"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.

"The Supreme Court had on Wednesday, 15th February, 2023, after the first interim order, adjourned the suit originally filed by the Attorneys-General of Kano, Kogi and Zamfara States (other interested parties were later joined) to the 22nd of February, to enable it hear the entire matter holistically.

"Without saying so in many words, every person very well knew that this adjournment was a further elongation of its earlier interim order granted against the CBN and the Federal Government, represented by the Attorney-General of the Federation; restraining it from carrying out its directives that the old naira notes would cease to be legal tender by 10th of February, 2023.

"The order was to have lasted till 15th February, 2023. During the proceedings of that day, the matter was again adjourned to 22nd February, for full hearing. 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 action is a reminder of the apocryphal saying of autocratic and despotic Emperor Louis XIV, who, on 13th April, 1655, stood in front of Parliament and imperiously declared, "L'Etat C'est Moi (I am the State)".

"This was to underline the fact that he and he alone, had absolute power over his Nation. His father had abdicated the throne due to mass protests. Louis XIV himself met the same fate. His reign over France and Navarre was short-lived. It only lasted for 20 minutes, after which he too abdicated the throne.

"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."