Lawyer Sues Buhari Over Ministers Dichotomy

A human rights and public interest litigation lawyer, John
Nwobodo has sued President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of the
Federation at the Federal High Court Abuja over the dichotomy in the status of
ministers of government of the federation.

The Plaintiff in the suit marked as FHC/ABJ/CS/9942015 is
seeking the determination of three questions namely:

(1) Whether the 1st defendant in the exercise of the powers
conferred on him under section 147 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) is not bound to appoint one Minister from
each State, who shall be so designated and not otherwise.

(2) Whether the designation or appellation “Minister of
State” or “State Minister of” with its diminutive status is not discriminatory
against the states from which Ministers of such designation were appointed and
therefore unconstitutional. Continue…

(3) Whether the designation or appellation “Minister of
State” or “State Minister of” is not a derogation of the spirit and letter of
section 147(3) which intended equality in number and by extension equality in
status, benefits and privileges.

Consequent to the questions of law, the plaintiff is seeking
the 4 reliefs namely:

(A) A DECLARATION that the President of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria in exercising his powers under section 147 (3) of the Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) must appoint one Minister
from each State of the Federation all of whom shall be of equal status and must
be designated strictly as “Minister”.

(B) A DECLARATION that the designation or appellation
“Minister of State” or “State Minister for” which carries the connotation of
inferiority to full or substantive “Minister” and which renders such “Minister
of State” or “State Minister for” subservient or put him/her in a position to
take instruction or answerable to a full or substantive “Minister” is a strange
contraption, alien to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999
(as amended) and therefore unconstitutional.

(C) AN ORDER directing the President of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria to put all the 36 Ministers of the Government of the Federation at
par with each other in terms of status, benefit and privileges.

(D) AN ORDER directing the President of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria to designate Ministers in the same Ministry with the same
appellation such as “Joint Minister”, “Co-Minister” or with such terms which
denote equality and to in particular effect such re-designation in respect of
12 State Ministers viz Heineken Lokpobiri, State Minister for Agriculture
(Bayelsa); Mustapha Baba Shehuri, State Minister for Power, Works & Housing
(Borno State); Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, State Minister of Petroluem (Delta
State); Osagie Ehanire, State Minister for Health (Edo State); Prof. Anthony
Anwuka, State Minister for Education (Imo State); Sen, Hadi Sirika, State
Minister of Transport (Aviation) (Katsina State); James Ocholi, State Minister
for Labour and Employment (Kogi State); Ibrahim Usman Jibril, State Minister
for Environment (Nasarawa State); Abubakar Bawa Bwari, State Minister of Solid
Minerals (Niger State); Cladius Omoleye Daramola, State Minister for Niger
Delta (Ondo State); Aisha Abubakar, State Minister for Trade and Investment
(Sokoto State) and Khadija Bukar Ibrahim, State Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Yobe State).

Source: PM News