Making a Mockery of the State of Emergency Provision

By

Nasiru Suwaid

nasirusuwaid@gmail.com

Throughout the duration of time and history, the human being as an inquisitive character, has always craved to attain higher civilization, thus the development of a specified set of rules and values, to govern the necessary social interactions between the people in the community. Principally, that is the geographical bearing of the roots of the development of a constitution, a codified body of rules set to guide and guard the intricate values of the society. Indeed some have classified it as the basic norm of a people, for it is an aggregated collection of the agreements of a people, in the fashion of their mode of government, what shall be the relationship boundaries between its citizens, the type rights which the document avails every person claiming allegiance to the country and the open demand for each citizen to inculcate and imbibe patriotism in the affairs of state. In fact, it is within the premises of the powers of such document, a provision is made available to cause the declaration of a state of emergency, when the situation so warrant for the invoking of the constitutional deed, upon which it immediately withdraws the constitutional rights of citizens or more appropriately suspends such rights into abeyance.

   Generally, the situation that causes the invoking of such a measure, are usually of the kind which creates a state of the breakdown of law and order, thus, requiring the assumption of martial law to revert the situation to normality, which indirectly proposes the withdrawal of extant powers of the constitutional leaders of the locality or area of the emergency and the deposition of such powers with the proclamation authority, in these instant case and according to the dictates of our constitutional norm, it is the president that is empowered to enjoy such powers. A proclamation issued to stop a gravely immediate situation, but also the requiring the necessary assenting of the National Assembly before it becomes legally effective and enforceable, enables the proclamation authority who is in this instant case the president, to cause the impromptu sitting of the parliament to endorse or reject the request, which usually comes as a correspondence from the executive to the legislature. Indeed, it is after such a deed has been performed and concluded before a state of emergency could be said to be in effect, through the publishing of a gazette as the proclamation authority, it is important to note that it is from the content of the emergency correspondence, upon which the invoking authority outlines what the state of emergency entails.

   Technically speaking, apart from the speech of the president invoking the state of emergency, none of its distinctive requirements have been put into effect. Yet, the news about town is of convoy of Nigerian troops parading the localities trumpeted under an emergency, operating and taking actions to enforce the emergency. However, while the president was making the proclamation speech, he clearly stated that it is from presidential correspondence he will outline the extant width of the invoking order, as such, the troops performing their legal duties have been put in a quandary, not knowing the extent of their powers and function on emergency areas, yet they are expected to tackle a nebulous outfit like Boko Haram. Indeed, the constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended has empowered the president to recall the National Assembly, on such times of grave challenges to national security, yet the president felt the situation does not warrant the cutting of the holiday time of the legislators. Meanwhile, technically, it is like sending Nigerian troops on an illegal duty, for the state of emergency provision only suspends the constitutional powers of the citizen, while leaving the judicial powers of a citizen intact, who could sue in case of improper and illegal invocation of state of emergency, I hope the current situation is not an exact caricature of the above scenario.

   In fact, to confirm the fear of anxious of Nigerians that the invocation of the state of emergency was a mere political gimmick, while Nigerian troops were patrolling the streets of Maiduguri, one Mr. Abu Qaha was giving a telephone press conference to Nigerian journalist, issuing and invoking a call on all the Nigerian Christians living in the north to move back to the south, while the Muslims living in the south should do the same vice versa. The laughable aspect is that the North is not pre-dominated by the Muslims alone, as the Middle-Belt area is largely occupied by Christians, while the South-Western area of Nigeria is split into half between Muslims and Christians in terms of population size, but, such a demented proposal did not surprise me, after all the group is averse to knowledge, thus rational thinking is not part of their integral norm. However, a situation where a Boko Haram operative would cause the congregation of journalist and freely communicate with them, while the city is trumpeted to be under a state of emergency and enjoying the situational grace of a martial law, does not bode well for the expectation of the likely success of the state of emergency constitutional option.

   By their fundamental characteristic nature, the Nigerian military is a conventional fighting force, thus its doctrines of command are geared towards fighting a known enemy, which is most likely another opposing troops that prefers a head to head frontal confrontation. Unfortunately, the Boko Haram zealots do not subscribe to such conventional wisdom, rather, theirs is a the unconventional format of terroristic hit and hide system, more so as a suicide bomber is a callous specie of a being, for he had nothing to lose, while inflicting the highest form of damage to his target. In large cities and metropolis of the very vast Nigerian nation, such a group would be very hard to separate, aggregate, segregate and confront, especially as the proclamation authority did the invocation of the state of emergency in a not fully legal manner, as according to the dictates and spirit of the constitutional provision.