Orange

ABUJA (AFP)

A Nigerian high court ruled Wednesday that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can take executive powers in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, in hospital in Saudi Arabia since November.

“I hereby order the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, to start exercising the powers of President Umaru Yar’Adua pending his recovery and return to office”,” Dan Abutu, the chief judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, said.

“The vice president cannot become the acting president but can only carry out the functions of the president in his absence which he has been doing and should continue to do so …” he said in his ruling.

He gave the ruling in a case filed on Monday by a lawyer, Christopher Onwuekwe, seeking the court’s interpretation of the constitution.

“… the vice president can perform the executive functions of the president pending the time he returns,” Abutu said.

The clause states that executive powers are vested in the president, and may, subject to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, “be exercised by him either directly or through the vice president and ministers…or officers in the public service”.

Justice Minister Michael Aondoaaka, who was in court, told journalists after the ruling: “No other person can question the vice president when he performs the functions of the president, except the president himself and with this ruling, he can continue to discharge such functions legally.”

Yar’Adua’s absence since November 23 has caused a furore in Africa’s second-biggest oil exporter.

The opposition alleges that government business has been stalled and that the nation’s democracy is facing its most serious threat in the 10 years since the end of military rule.

The court in Abuja is to hear three separate legal challenges to Yar’Adua on Thursday amid calls for him to stand down on grounds of frail health. He is being treated for a heart condition in Jeddah.

Constitutional lawyer Femi Falana, who has lodged one of the court challenges, dismissed Wednesday’s ruling as “meaningless”.

“Jonathan cannot act for Yar’Adua because no functions have been formally and directly delegated to him by Yar’Adua …” he said.

Falana cited another section of the constitution which demands the president informs both houses of parliament in writing if he is absent or incapacitated.

“When he does that and other processes as stipulated in the constitution have been carried out, then Jonathan can act as president,” said Falana.

Justice Minister Aondoaaka said last week that Yar’Adua was not suffering from an infirmity that would render him permanently incapable of discharging his functions.

The president broke a 50-day silence on Tuesday, telling the BBC in a telephone interview that he was “getting better” and intended to return to work. He sounded weak in the interview, the BBC reported.

Meanwhile top Nigerian opposition politicians and ex-presidential candidates Wednesday led a campaign demanding a probe into the president’s health asking for a 15-member team to visit Saudi Arabia.

Former military head of state General Muhammadu Buhari and ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar made the demand in a letter they presented to Senate President, a copy of which was made available to AFP.

But the country’s ruling party accused unnamed politicians of exaggerating Yar’Adua’s state of health.

Peoples Democratic party (PDP) chairman Vincent Ogbulafor expressed the party’s “deep concern” at these efforts, which he said “aimed at destabilising the country.”

He used the words “unnecessary” and “shameful.”