By Chekwube Nzomiwu
Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, is one governor respected by many Nigerians and even the international community. While on a visit to Borno State, the main theatre of the Boko Haram insurgency in May 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Gutteres praised Zulum for addressing the root causes of insurgency in the state, which has caused massive destruction of lives, homes, schools, health centres and other infrastructure.
Since taking over the mantle of leadership from his former boss, Kashim Shettima, in 2019, Zulum has not only vigorously pursued a healing process but also engaged in rebuilding burnt private and public infrastructure. His administration has distributed large sums of money, food and clothing to internally displaced persons, numbering over 1.8 million, according to the United Nations. Monetary and material donations have also been made to families of members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) who were killed by insurgents. Above all, enormous human and material resources have been committed towards accelerating the return and resettlement of the displaced persons.
Speaking at a launch organised to mark Eid Fitri Muslim festival in Maiduguri, Zulum described Shettima’s position as a great relief and joy for him. He said: “President, Muhammadu Buhari, has been complaining that I am the only one suffering in Borno with no one supporting me. By the grace of God, I have with me a brother and indeed my boss that will support me and support the government and people of Borno. This will reduce our burden and will ensure our progress and development.”
After reading this statement, I was left with no option than to merely sympathise with Zulum. With the benefit of hindsight, he should have known that a Vice-President in Nigeria is only as powerful as the President wants him to be, regardless of the fact that both of them contested and won election on a joint ticket. This is not the making of the President or anybody else, but the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended). The situation is not different from the office of governor and deputy governor.
Chapter six of the Constitution, titled, “The Executive,” establishes the office of the President in Section 130. Subsequent sections list the qualifications for election into the office of President, conduct of election into the office, requirements for election and the tenure of office, among others.
Section 141 establishes the office of the Vice-President while Section 142 (1) talks about the nomination and election of the person to hold the office, as it relates to the valid nomination of a candidate for the office of the president and occupation of the office. According to Section 142 (2), the provisions relating to qualifications for election, tenure of office, disqualification, declaration of assets and liabilities and oaths of President should apply in relation to the office of the Vice-President. Section 143 makes provisions for the removal of the President and Vice-President from office.
Section 146 of the Constitution states the only condition that the Vice-President can discharge the functions of the President: “The Vice-President shall hold the office of President if the office of the President becomes vacant by reason of death or resignation, impeachment, permanent incapacity or the removal of the President from office for any other reason in accordance with Section 143 or 144 of this Constitution.” Apart from relegating the Vice-President to a mere “spare tire on the automobile of government” , according to John Nance Garner, the 32nd Vice President of the United States, these constitutional provisions make people around the President often look at his Vice with so much suspicion as one waiting for the slightest opportunity to supplant his principal.
The same Constitution makes the Vice-President the second highest officer in the Executive arm of government in the country (after the President) and the first in the line of succession. But, unlike “matter” he only occupies space but does not have weight. His relevance in the scheme of things solely depends on the disposition of the President to him.
The Vice-President is a statutory member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) National Security Council and the National Defence Council. He is the Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC). Established by the Provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), Section 153 (1) and Paragraphs 18 and 19 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule, the Council advised the President, concerning economic affairs of the federation, in particular, on the measures necessary for the coordination of economic planning efforts in programmes of the various governments of the federation. While the Vice-President may take active roles in any of these organs of the executive arm of government, his powers equally largely depend on duties delegated to him by the President.
The Vice-President is the Chairman of the National Boundary Commission, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the National Council on Privatisation and the Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of the Debt Management Office and National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), among others. In all these, he acts on the orders of the President.
In Nigeria, we have seen aides, spouses and relatives of the President, wielding more powers than the Vice-President. Shettima himself knows this. If not, he would not have called a sitting Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo “an ice cream seller” for daring to contest the ticket of their party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) with his principal, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Although he later tendered an unreserved apology, the point was made.
As long as Nigeria continues to operate the existing constitution, the Vice-President lives at the “mercy” of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation. We can use the outgoing administration of President Buhari as a classic case study. Four months after the commencement of his second term in May 2019, Buhari dissolved the Economic Management Team headed by Osinbajo and appointed in its place, an eight-member Economic Advisory Committee.
The President also transferred the control of the multi-billion Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) from the Steering Committee chaired by Osinbajo, to the new Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, headed by Hajiya Umar Farouq Abubakar as Minister. About the same period, an online news platform reported that some aides of the Vice-President were relieved of their appointments. Those affected included Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants.
In October 2022, another online medium reported that President Buhari denied the Vice-President approvals for important foreign trips, including two business forums in Indonesia and Vietnam. To cap it all, the Vice-President vied for the presidential ticket of the ruling APC without the support of his boss and came a distant third behind the winner, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former Transport Minister, Rotimi Amechi who came second.
Political observers link Osinbajo’s travails to his attempt to become too powerful, especially his effrontery to sack the President’s nephew, Lawal Daura, as the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) when acting as President while Buhari was away on a prolonged medical vacation abroad in 2018.
During the era of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar also wanted to be too powerful as Vice-President. Obasanjo cut him to size. On one occasion, security operatives prevented Atiku from gaining access to his office. Six of Atiku’s aides including his media aides, Garba Shehu and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo (now late), were sacked by Obasanjo. Out of frustration, Atiku left the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Tinubu offered him the platform of Action Congress (AC) to run for presidency in 2007. Obasanjo also made sure that Atiku was defeated by the ailing PDP candidate, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Under Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan did not fare better as Vice-President. Sitting and even former governors were more relevant in the scheme of things than Jonathan. Jonathan later became relevant when the National Assembly invoked the “doctrine of necessity” to make him the Acting President while sick Yar’Adua was away on a prolonged medical vacation abroad without formally transmitting power to his Vice. Following the death of Yar’Adua on May 5, 2010, Jonathan became the substantive President. Apart from Jonathan who benefitted from the death of Yar’Adua, no sitting Vice-President has succeeded his boss since 1999.
Ahead of the transition on May 29 this year, there is no sign that the ordeal of the Vice-President in Nigeria will change. Since the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu returned to Nigeria after one-month vacation abroad, his house has become a beehive of activity, especially for office seekers. On the other hand, nobody talks about the home of the incoming Vice-President elect.
In conclusion, the redundancy of the office of Vice President in Nigeria is a challenge that must be confronted by the incoming National Assembly. It should not remain a doomed office. In the United States where we copied the presidential system of government, the Vice-President constitutionally serves as the President of the “powerful” Senate and presides over the Senate’s proceedings, voting to break ties. In the absence of the Vice-President, the Senate’s President pro tempore (and others designated by them) presides. Instead of the office functioning like the human appendix in the body, according to American Historian Arthur Schlesinger, it is better we do away with it and operate like France, which does not have a Vice-President.
• Nzomiwu, a public affairs commentator writes from Awka, Anambra State.