Former Director-General of the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), Professor Omo Omoruyi yesterday insisted that the First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, could run the government on behalf of the husband if the President was sick, citing two former presidents of the United States of Americ, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt whose wives ran the government of America when the two leaders took ill.
He also said that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua never wanted to change the flawed electoral system, which he promised Nigerians on his inauguration on May 27, 2007.
Omoruyi, who disclosed these in an exclusive interview with THISDAY, said Vice President Goodluck Jonathan would automatically be sworn in as President under three scenarios. Namely: if Yar’Adua dies; he is incapacitated or impeached while in office, noting that the powerful forces from the North cannot stop Jonathan because it is clearly spelt out in the 1999 Constitution.
But Omoruyi said if it was found out that the president is incapacitated and can no longer discharge his duties, two-third of the Federal Executive Council, Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, are allowed to empanel a five-member committee to carry out investigation into the president’s health, which he said, they lacked the nerve to do.
“The Constitution Section 144 sub-section (2) or so, defines illness of a president very succinctly.
That two-third members of the Federal Executive Council if they come to the conclusion that there is a lacuna and that the president man holding office is incapacitated. And then another section says, the same 144, that the Senate President should do his work and the Speaker of the House of Representatives should do his work.
The Senate President by the same 144 should empanel a five member medical committee to look into that fact of incapacity of a president. So that had not been done. What are we talking about?
“Because of modern technology, which says that the man is there, after all you think of how presidents of United States had been sick and their wives had virtually ran many. I can give you names: Woodrow Wilson; a renowned political scientist, former president of Princeton University. The wife ran that government of United States during the First World War.
During the Second World War you had President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was virtually a polio-ridden president of United States and he was being carried all over the place in a wheel chair. Did America go crazy? Until he died there was no successor, his wife ran it,” Omoruyi said.
He said further “Woodrow Wilson ran America for more than eight years while FDR was there for more than 11 years with their wives. Women should protest. Why would their wives not be protesting if you cannot support your husband who else would you want to support in office? Yar’Adua’s wife is the one running government and so what.
Who says Turai cannot run government. “
On the electoral reform, Omoruyi said the President derailed when he set up the Electoral Reform Committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Mohammed Uwais to come up with recommendations to correct the flawed electoral system when the election petitions at the various tribunals in the country had not completed their work.
According to Omoruyi, President Yar’Adua who benefited from a flawed election should not never be expected to change the electoral system nor conduct a free and fair election given the circumstances by which he emerged.
“A man in office should never be entrusted with evolving a system in which he too is a beneficiary. I never expected that but if you do then you are at fault. President Yar’Adua cannot evolve a credible election in which he too is a candidate. I want you have that. So, the Uwais report is as good as dead.
As the Americans would say dead on arrival because it was ill conceived, it was put together. The Nigerians who were there they knew what they were doing because they too what are they going to do? They were given opportunity to say one or two things and they did that. What could they have done?
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This is the height of intellectual dishonesty from a hungry man, what shame that he is from state. Efe
Pardon the dementia-stricken Edo man. I have since written him off. And I now question his intellectual capacity. A Babangida’s man; In fact, he has been in every government since Gowon, most of the times as an active participant in setting government policies. He’s part of Nigeria’s problem. More prominently, he played a role, an active role, in the Presidency of Shagari and the deceptive military administration of Babangida.
Now he’s telling us that an unelected Turai could or should replace her bed-ridden husband and take over the administration of Nigeria. Such reasoning is beyond the peck of a western-educated Professor. How can a Political Science professor ignore the constitution and an elected Vice President, Senate President and House Speaker, and let ill educated and unelected first lady to run our nation’s affairs? I found that an insult to Nigerian people. Is he seeking fresh attention? Or is he seeking a job from Mrs Yar’Adua? Or is his dementia in advanced stage? I want to know. Anokute
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“Then you now come up a bill to National Assembly on how to appoint chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). You cannot simply emphasis Nigeria, Cameroon Establish Legal Boundary In adherence to the ruling of the International court of Justice in October, 2002, Nigeria and Cameroon have flagged off the final pillar fixing along their 2000km boundary from Lake Chad to the Atlantic Ocean.
A statement made available to THISDAY by the National boundary Commission (NBC) noted that this action implies that the two nations have now signified a legal boundary which would outline their administrative or operational jurisdiction.
I can say without any fear of contradiction that Eleanor Roosevelt never at any time ran the government of the United States — there is no iota truth to it, and there are no documentations to support that claim. Yes, she was a woman way beyond her time and she championed and influenced a lot of causes which were not popular at the time.
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Omo Omoruyi should provide us materials that support his claims, and where such does not exist he should retract it and apologise to the Nigeria people, Omo Omoruyi is part of the problem facing Nigeria. I am very troubled by his outlandish comment. I also doubt his other claim, regarding Woodrow Wilson, the late president Wilson will not have even allowed that, because Wilson was one of the more cerebral elected presidents of the United States, he was an intellectual par excellence. For a man like Woodrow Wilson to allow his wife to subvert the constitution of the US will unthinkable. I can say that, this also did not happen. It should be noted that Woodrow Wilson actually have a “Political Institution” named after him in Washintong D.C. Mr. Omoruyi is at best a confusionist and at worst a liar.
The constitution is very clear. Let us stop playing to the gallery on this matter in hope of garnering the loudest applause. ..Dododawa