Nwobodo Drags Buhari, AGF To Court Over Ministers (SEE WHY)

John Nwobodo, a human rights and public interest
litigation lawyer, has dragged President Muhammadu
Buhari and Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Attorney General
of the Federation, to the Federal High Court Abuja over
the contrast in the status of ministers of government of
the federation, AM News.

Nwobodo 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.
(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.
The plaintiff is therefore seeking the following:
(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 state); 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).

After five months without ministers, President
Muhammadu Buhari finally inaugurated 36 ministers on
Wednesday, November 11, after they were screened and
cleared by the Senate.
But just before the ministers were given portfolios, they
took the oaths of office in the council chambers of the
Presidential Villa.
The swearing-in ceremony lasted two hours, 30 minutes.
It began promptly at 10am and ended at exactly
12.30pm.