Did Fayemi erred in Electoral Act by remaining a Minister to contest primaries?
Though the recent primaries by the All Progressive Congress (APC) ahead of July governorship elections in Ekiti State has come and gone, analysts are still disturbed on the legal rationality upon which a serving minister, Dr. kayode Fayemi relied to be in office to contest for the governorship slot in the party. The key argument stemmed from the possible fact that state resources, being a serving minister must have been used against others who are funding their campaign solely from their pockets.
It would be recalled that during the last administration under Dr Jonathan Goodluck, ministers that had political aspiration resigned their cabinet membership enmasse and went for the elections from the primary stage to the last lap. In fact, the Dr. Fayemi case will go down in the political history as a serving government official who contested for elective post while in government office.
Though the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had on Wednesday said that he would resign from the federal cabinet “in a week,” arguing that there was still a lot of work to be done as a minister.
In his argument, he hanged on the provisions of Section 182 of the Constitution, which he said allowed him to be in office till at least 30 days to the election. He was however, not very clear on the particular 30 days being referred in the constitution.
He said “There is still a lot of work to do. The Constitution, again, is very clear. What the Constitution says in Section 182 is that I must leave the cabinet at least 30 days before the general election”.
Looking at the entire scenario, a constitutional lawyer, Biodun Akanbi said “Fayemi’s interpretation of the Section 182 can be argued in the sense that there was no exception in terms of whether it is primaries or general elections”.
“To me the actual time the Section should stand for should be prior to primaries because before you go for primaries, you have already concluded to run for that elective post. So, it does not mean that your days in office should only be mindful of 30 days to the general election. It should start to count from the time you had made up your mind to run for a post because even before the primaries, resources must have been spent and in this Fayemi’s case, it will be very to convince Nigerians that state fund was not involved because he is still in office as at the time of the campaigns for the primaries and the primaries proper.
Speaking to Business Hilights in a telephone interview, Lagos Human Rights lawyer and former Chairman of Ikeja Branch of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani, he said “Fayemi’s act can be said to still be within the provisions of the prevailing Electoral Act until it is 30 days to the election proper”.
However,Ubani frowned at the issues from the moral point of view, saying “As things are, he has not breached any law, but morality may not very sound if we want to look at it critically”.
