THE former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South Leader has stoked the fire of criticism through a 16-page letter to the Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke.
Besides accusing the minister of failure to advise President Goodluck Jonathan correctly in the fight against corruption; he said Adoke had misadvised the president, especially on the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Clark repeated his call for suspension of all democratic structures in the affected states, stressing that the President has the right to impose a full state of emergency in the states, as it were when former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared full state of emergency in Plateau State in 2004 and in Ekiti State in 2006.
He noted that failure on the part of the President to repeat the same in the volatile states of the Northeast was traceable to the Minister of Justice, whom, he said, had disappointed the president and Nigerians.
Clark recalled that the first state of emergency in Nigeria was in 1962 when the Premier of the Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, was suspended from office and Chief Adegbenro was appointed to take over.
While affirming that the Constitution provides for democratic structures, he the Constitution equally gives the President undefined spectrum of inherent powers, which he can exercise if and when such action is in public interest.
His words:
“For emphasis, a state of emergency is a governmental declaration that announces that the country is in a state of emergency.
“It allows the suspension of and/or change to some functions of the executive, the legislative and or the judiciary during this period of time.
“It alerts citizens to change their normal behaviour and orders government agencies to implement emergency plans.
“A government can declare a state of emergency during a period of civil unrest, or following a declaration of war or situation of international/internal armed conflict, among others.
“A state of emergency is invoked in an extraordinary situation, which requires extraordinary measures. The extraordinary measures arising as a result of the state of emergency declared can also affect those rights and freedoms, which are guaranteed under the Constitution.
“There is no doubt that my call for a full emergency rule has become necessary considering the present situation.”
To drive home his point, Chief Clark declared: “Emergency rule is legal, constitutional and procedural, and remains the panacea to peace, development and national rebirth, not adhering to it, is courting anarchy.
“The President needs to suspend the affected states’ political structures because the roles of these governors have revealed them as conspirators who are hiding under the guise of opposition, to foster their political nests and display their politics of bitterness, hatred, ethnicity and religion to disparage him and scuttle Jonathan’s constitutional right to seek a second term as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
“Mr. Attorney General, even if you believe that your interpretation of section 305 (3) is the correct interpretation, you know full well that Mr. President, in exercise of his inherent powers, can use other extraordinary measures to bring the insurgency to an end, and the Doctrine of Necessity is definitely one of the extraordinary measures and you may wish to read my submission.
“These facts, as Attorney General and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, are well known to you as alternative measures available to Mr. President to crush the insurgents…”
Source: Guardian
