Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment and spokesman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), on Friday, openly faulted President Muhammadu Buhari, for failure to obey the orders of the Supreme Court, directed the halting of the February 10 deadline for the expiration of the legitimacy of certain denominations of the Naira, as legal tender in Nigeria.
Following a legal action by three governors, El-Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, the apex court had halted the date pegged by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on the authority of the President for the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes to cease to be legal tender.
But, the President, in a nationwide broadcast, on Thursday, ordered that only the N200 notes should be recirculated as legal tender while maintaining that the orders should be phased away, and could only be returned to the CBN by those still having them.
But against the backdrop of angst against the President’s speech, in certain quarters, including a statewide broadcast by El-Rufai, insisting that the other currencies remained alive in his state, Keyamo, a cabinet Minister, said the President was wrong.
A guest on The 2003 Verdict, a special programme on Channels Television, the Minister, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), however, stated that the President, who appointed him, might have taken his the wrong step due to bad advice, adding that the right thing to do was to obey the apex court in totality.
He told his host: “Let me tell you, first of all, my ultimate loyalty lies with my profession. As a member of the Inner Bar, I was first of all a Senior Advocate, before I was headhunted to come and serve in public office. So, my primary loyalty is to my profession. So, at any point in time, because of posterity, I must speak the truth. I must, because the law does not change. It remains forever.
“I have also vowed, as a member of cabinet and also a Senior Advocate, to uphold and defend the tenets of our constitution at all times. Those are my primary loyalties, to the constitution. So, at any point of time, I’ll express my views. It is only the parliarmentary system that runs collective responsibility. Our presidential system does not run a collective responsibility, where every member of the cabinet is expected to defend every single policy, especially when it did not come to cabinet.
“This decision, was not a cabinet decision. If it were a cabinet decision, I’m bound by cabinet decisions. But it was not a cabinet decision of which I’m part of. So, these two places that I belong to and only two people belong there – those two elite clubs – you know I’m a member of the cabinet and I’m also a member of the Inner Bar – there are only four of us in this country that belongs to these two and I’m bound to defend the tenets of each office.
“My view is that the President acted honestly, without the intention to slight the Supreme Court, but he acted on wrong advice. I did not give the advice. It’s not my responsibility. I don’t know who gave that advice. I want to say this openly, because by tomorrow people would ask me where I stood at this time.
“So, I think the President did not, because in his speech, he acknowledged that there were certain matters in court. So, he thought he was playing safe by saying, okay, before you decide this matter in court, may I provide some middle-ground – the country is burning, there’s riot everywhere, so let me just provide some succour to the people, whilst acknowledging that the matters were in court. Now, if I were to advise him, would have advised differently. I did not advise him. I don’t know who advised him.
“I would have advised him to comply strictly with the terms of the orders of the Supreme Court, which is that all the notes should circulate for now. All the notes! All the notes should circulate side by side with the new notes for now. That’s the order of the Supreme Court.
“By the virtue of our constitution, all authorities in Nigeria, must obey orders of the Supreme Court. Anything to the contrary is a descent to anarchy and the day we begin to disobey the orders of the Supreme Court, that is an invitation to other kinds of interventions in our democracy. The judiciary, the Supreme Court is the last bastion to defend of our democracy. So, I’ll not sit here as a member of the Inner Bar and desecrate our Supreme Court.”