Normas y reglamentaciones para productos congelados

Section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, vests power on the Executive arm of government; executive branch of government is charged with responsibility of executing or carrying out the laws and appointing officials formulating and instituting foreign policy, and providing diplomatic representation. The executive is vested with the power to spend money allocated for certain purposes as in the budget and may veto laws and grant pardon to convicted criminals. This arm of government wages war at the direction of the Legislative because the Legislative makes law for the military.

The executive is usually empowered to make decrees or declaration such as declaring a state of emergency or promulgating lawful regulations and execute orders. A system of checks and balances keeps the power of the executives more or less equal to that of the judiciary and the legislative.

The executive power is vested in the President to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution and laws of the country. The principal responsibility of the President is to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. The Constitution does not require the President to personally enforce the law; rather, officers of government perform such duties on his behalf. The Constitution empowers the President to ensure the faithful execution of the laws made by Legislative. Legislative may itself terminate such appointments, by impeachment, and restrict the President. The President‟s responsibility is to execute the law made by the Legislative. As a check and balance, the President can exercise a check over the Legislative through his power to veto bills, but legislators may

override any veto by a two-third majority in each house. When the two houses of Legislative cannot agree on a date for adjournment, the President may settle the dispute.

Either house or both houses may be called into emergency session by the President. The President appoints judges with the Senate‟s advice and consent. He also has the power to issue pardons and reprieves or amnesties. Such pardons are not subject to confirmation by either the House of Representatives or Senate, or even to acceptance by the recipient. The president is the civilian Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. However, it is the Legislative that has the power to raise, fund and maintain the armed forces, and to prescribe the laws and regulations under which the armed forces operate. Legislative also has the sole power to declare war, and requires that all Generals appointed by the President be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate before they can assume their office.¹⁰² Other constitutional provisions on the Executive are as contained in chapter VI of the1999 Constitution which provides, for the Executive in details. Chapter VI of the constitution is made up of sections 130 -212, sections 130- 175 provides for President of Nigeria, the said sections provides for the establishment of the office of Public Service of the Federation and so forth. Sections 176 – 212 of the 1999 Constitution, provides for the Governor of a State and deal with the establishment of the office of Governor, establishment of certain State Executive Bodies, the Public Service of a State and so forth. The President and Vice- President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria could be impeached for gross misconduct or violation of any part of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or other impeachable offences by the National Assembly if such charges are proved against him or his vice.

102 Section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(as amended)

Impeachment means “to remove from office, but the actual meaning of impeach is” to accuse Public official before an appropriate tribunal of misconduct in office; to challenge the credibility of; to call into question; to cast an imputation upon; to call into account.

Impeachment may therefore end with the removal of the impeached officials from office if found guilty or reaffirmation in office if found not guilty of the offence charged. The 1999 Constitution provides, in section 143, for the impeachment of the President and the Vice-President whereas section 188 provides for the impeachment of State Governors and Deputy Governors of the States of the Federation. The provisions are similar except that in the impeachment of the President, the legislative House involved is the National Assembly, and the Chief Justice of the Federation appoints the seven man penal. In the impeachment of the Governor, the State House of Assembly and the Chief Judge of the State are involved. To remove a President or Vice-President from office, the Constitution provides thus:

1. The president or Vice-President may be removed from office in accordance with the provisions of this section.

2. Whenever a notice of allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third of the members of the National Assembly;

(a) is presented to the President of the Senate.

(b) stating that the holder of the office of President is guilty of gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office, detailed particulars of which shall be specified, the President of the Senate shall within seven days of receipt of the notice cause a copy thereof to be served on each member of the National Assembly and shall cause any statement

made in reply to the allegation by the holder of the office to be served on each member of the National Assembly.

3. Within fourteen days of the presentation of the notice to the President of Senate (whether or not any statement was made by the holder of the office in reply to the allegation contained in the notice) each House of the National Assembly shall resolve by motion without any debate whether or not the allegation shall be investigated.

4. A motion of the National Assembly that the allegation be investigated shall not be declared as having been passed, unless it is supported by votes of not less than two-third majority of all the members of each House of the National Assembly.

5 Within seven days of the passing of a motion under the foregoing provisions, the Chief Justice of Nigeria shall at the request of the President of the Senate appoint a penal of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any Public Service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation as provided in this section.

6 The holder of an office whose conduct is being investigated under this section shall have the right to defend himself in person and be represented by legal Practitioners of his own choice;

7 A panel appointed under this section shall -

(a) Have such powers and exercise its function in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by the National Assembly;

(b) Within three months of its appointment report its findings to each House of the National Assembly.

8 Where the panel reports to each House of the National Assembly that the allegation has not been proved, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the matter.

9 Where the report of the panel is that the allegation against the holder of the office has been proved then within fourteen days of the receipt of the report, each House of the National Assembly shall consider the report, and if by a resolution of each House of the National Assembly supported by not less than two-thirds majority of all its members, the report of the panel is adopted, then the holder of the office shall stand removed from office as from the date of the adoption of the report.

10 No proceedings or determination of the panel or of the National Assembly or any matter relating thereto shall be entertained or questioned in any Court.

11 In this section “gross misconduct” means a grave violation or breach of the Provisions of this Constitution or a misconduct of such nature as amounts in the opinion of the National Assembly to gross misconduct.¹⁰³

The President however, cannot be prosecuted for a criminal offence committed while in office, but the only method through which he can be censured is through an impeachment process. For example, on 13^th August, 2002, the House of Representatives passed a resolution asking the President to resign within 14 days, or be impeached. The motion catalogued presidential offences which to the house, amounted to “grave misconduct”.

103 Section 143 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(as amended)

However, as soon as this political development became public knowledge, the Presidency swung into action to halt the threat to the impeachment by mobilizing Nigerians against the impeachment move. Solidarity marches to the Presidential Villa were arranged from across the States of the Federation. Traditional rulers were summoned and mobilized to condemn what they saw as an attempt to “heat up the system.” Prominent citizens and former Heads of State were approached to plead with the House leaders. “The media, electronic and print, both private and public” were mobilized to denounce the attempt by what was described as “anti-democratic” to truncate our nascent democracy.¹⁰⁴

The threat and fear of impeachment puts the erring public officer on check from abusing his office or acting in excess of his powers. This ensures good governance and makes democracy to grow. However, whenever the President or any public officer is faced with impeachment threat, Nigerians especially the political gladiators will rise and frustrate the move. This practice does not augur well with the principles of democracy which we profess to practice. Democracy should be given a chance to evolve by adhering to its principles and rules. A public officer who misconducts himself while in office should be removed through proper procedure.

The process of removing a Nigerian President or Vice-President from office through impeachment is a very complex and tedious process. Besides that, the process is both political and legal. This is so because a certain minimum number of members of the National Assembly is required to endorse a charge before the process begins; a higher percentage of endorsement is required to start an investigation. Finally, whatever the findings or verdict of the panel investigating the charges, is only the National Assembly‟s two-third majority endorsement can push the President or Vice-President out of office in

104 http://www. Niger Delta congress.Com / I articles impeachment in niger …accessed on 22/3/2008

practical terms, therefore, it is almost impossible to remove a Nigerian President through impeachment. It is easy because of the attitude of Nigerian Politicians, for the President to muster more than one-third of the membership of the National Assembly to overturn whatever a panel may have found, since a no-case verdict by the panel means the end of the process. The Judges may not resist the President‟s lobbyists for fear of being sanctioned. And it will be a Herculean task for the members of the National Assembly to muster up to two-third majority of its membership to endorse the impeachment to remove a serving President or Vice-President.

In the same vein, to remove a Governor or Deputy Governor from office, the Constitution provides, inter alia, that whenever an allegation of gross misconduct is made against the Governor or Deputy Governor by one-third of the members of the House of Assembly to the Speaker and detailed particulars of the misconduct specified. The Speaker of the House of Assembly will then within seven days of the receipt of the notice of allegation circulate copies to members of the House of Assembly and to the holder of the office.

Copies of the response or reply of the office holder should also be circulated to members of the House¹⁰⁵ . However , whether or not any reply was made by the office holder to the allegation, within fourteen days of presentation of the notice of allegation to the Speaker, the House shall resolve by motion whether or not the allegation shall be investigated¹⁰⁶. A motion of the House that the allegation be investigated shall be passed by a two-third majority of all the members of the House of Assembly¹⁰⁷. Within seven days of the passing of the motion to investigate the allegation, the Chief Judge of the State on the request of the Speaker shall appoint a seven man panel, who in his opinion are persons of

105 Section 188 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended)

106 Ibid, section 188 (3)

107 Ibid, section 188 (4)

unquestionable integrity, who are also not members of the public service, political party or legislative house to investigate the allegation.¹⁰⁸ The holder of the office has the right to defend himself or be represented by a legal practitioner¹⁰⁹. The panel appointed shall within three months report whether the allegation has been proved or not. The panel shall exercise this power of investigation subject to the procedure prescribed by the House of Assembly¹¹⁰. The House shall within fourteen days of the receipt of the report that the allegation has been proved consider the report and by two-third majority of all the members,¹¹¹ the report is adopted, the holder of the office stands removed from that day¹¹². However, no proceedings or determination of the panel or House of Assembly or any matter relating to such proceedings or determination shall be entertained or questioned in any Court¹¹³.

The provision of section 188(10) can only be invoked where the provisions in section 188(1-9) are complied with, but where the legislature in the exercise of their legislative function on impeachment failed to comply with those provisions in section 188(1-9) of the Constitution, the Court will assume jurisdiction to inquire into the matter and possibly invalidate the proceedings thereto.

Gross misconduct is defined in this section 188(11) of the Nigerian Constitution to mean:

A grave violation or breach of the provisions of this Constitution or a misconduct of such nature as it amounts in the opinion of the House of Assembly to gross misconduct.¹¹⁴

108 Ibid, section 188 (5)

109 ibid, section 188 (6)

110 Ibid section 188 (7) and (8)

111 Emphasis mine

112 The Constitution op .cit. section 188(9)

113 Ibid ,section 188 (10)

114 Sections 143 (1)–(9) and 188 (1) –(9) of the 1999 Constitution(as amended)

There is no doubt that a critical evaluation of the above process of removing an erring President, Vice-President, Governor or Deputy Governor from office through impeachment is a complex procedure, for there must be a strict adherence to the constitutional provisions relating to impeachment process. More so, the process is not only legislative but also judicial in nature.

However, to remove a Nigerian President from office by impeachment may be practically impossible given the dishonest nature of the politicians. Impeachment notice however, can be used as a means of forcing the President to accept a proper balance of power and redistribution of resources. Nevertheless, as impracticable as removal of Chief Executives in Nigeria may be, some serving State Chief Executives were removed through impeachment process from 2003-2007. President Olusegun Obasanjo was the president of Nigeria who presided over the affairs of the country at the material time. These removals were in absolute disobedience to rule of law and constitutionalism. It is the role of the executive arm of government to ensure strict adherence to the rule of law, maintenance and enforceability of the constitutional provisions, but more often than not, the executive branch of government abdicated this important Executive responsibility and allow constitutional breach to thrive. In the Military Governor of Lagos State v Ojukwu¹¹⁵, Oputa JSC held that, the rule of law presupposes:

i. That the State is subject to the Law.

ii. That the Judiciary is a necessary agency of the Rule of Law.

iii. That Government should respect the rights of individual citizens under the Rule of Law.

115 op. cit . section 5

iv. That to the Judiciary is assigned both by the Rule of Law and by our Constitution the determination of all actions and proceedings relating to matters in dispute between persons or between government or an authority and any person in Nigeria. He stated further “I can safely say that here in Nigeria even under a military government, the law is no respecter of persons, principalities, governments or powers and that the Courts stand between the citizens and the government, alert to see that the State or Government is bound by the law and respects the law”.¹¹⁶

The executive arm of Government headed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo was seen to have interfered with the functions of the various legislative arm of state governments by using them to impeach some of the Governors perceived as enemies of his government, through the instrumentality of the State in outright violation or abuse of the process. This may be because of the stringent constitutional provision with respect to impeachment process which advocate strict compliance with the same. The interference of the executive branch of government in the process which is the exclusive reserve of the legislature may stifle democratic process if not checked.