Governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 2019 election in Lagos State, Chief Owolabi Salis, has argued that with the adopted presidential system of government, no court can remove the sitting president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces after he might have taken the oath of office.
Salis, who is a legal expert, made this known in an interview with the newsmen on Thursday.
He said Nigerians needed to know that under the presidential system, the President has two offices, which are the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Commander in Chief (C-inC) of the Armed Forces.
“These are two separate offices combined into one. In many jurisdictions practising the presidential system of government, while you have to go through some written procedures to acquire the power of the President and Chief Executive, there is no effective written procedure for acquiring the power of the Commander in Chief. You can get it anyhow.
“When the President travels, he can only hand over or delegate the power of the President, Chief Executive, to his vice but not that of the Commander in Chief; otherwise, he could be overthrown easily. The guards can be changed before he returns.”
He added that apart from the fact that it is abnormal for any acting president to sit on the seat of the Commander-in-Chief or use his office while Mr President is not around, no Nigerian leader, either under the military or democratic system, has ever handed over the power of the Commander-in-Chief’s to his deputy or vice when he is not around.
“A sitting president needs to have effective control over the service chiefs and be truly a commander in chief. Some sitting presidents don’t understand this and make some military commanders act for them as commander-in-chief. Such sitting presidents end up being overthrown.
“We are all respecting the decisions of the judges and other bodies because of the transferred enforcement powers of the Commander-in-Chief. If the judge says I jailed you and you refuse to go, there is nothing the judge will do. The judge cannot lock you up himself. The judge can’t do anything except through the transferred enforcement powers of the Commander-in-Chief’s
“When the judge swears in a commander-in-chief, it will be difficult for the same judge to remove him. We are all respecting the judges because of the transferred enforcement powers of the Commander-in-Chief.”
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