A legal practitioner and chartered accountant, Chief Owolabi Salis, has said it is impossible for a court to remove a sitting president in Nigeria after being sworn into office.
Salis, who gave reasons, said under the presidential system, said the president has two offices – Chief Executive Officer and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
According to him, these are separate offices rolled into one. He added that when the judge swears in a Commander-in-Chief, it will be difficult for the same judge to remove him.
His words: “In many jurisdictions practicing the presidential system of government, while you have to go through some written procedures to acquire the power of President 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 and 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.
“A sitting president needs to have effective control of 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.
“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.”