APC: Lawyers differ on Buhari’s approval of membership registration

Lawyers are divided over President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of the membership registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Chairman of the APC national caretaker committee, Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, had after a meeting with President Buhari at the State House, Abuja on Tuesday, said the president had approved the party’s membership registration.

Buni said the president’s approval was “in accordance with Section 9.4 of the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress (October 2014 as Amended).”

Reacting, Dayo Akinlaja (SAN) said being the president of the country did not mean that President Buhari was no longer a party member. He added, “Remember, the party sponsored him.”

Also reacting, Obioma Ezenwobodo Esq said the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Law mandate the president and other elected officials to be card-carrying members of political parties.

“So the president is not just the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but the leader of his political party. Therefore, he has the right to participate in the activities of his party and to make contributions towards its affairs.

“On the other hand, there is an argument in some quarters that once a person is elected into a political office, he should seize being a party member as he is deemed to be elected to serve all his constituents. This argument is ideal but not yet the law,” he said.

However, E.M.D. Umukoro Esq said it will be wrong for the president to take over the functions of a political party or give directives which ought to be made by the party’s administrative organs.

“Recently, Joe Biden has this to say: ‘I will run as a democratic candidate but will govern as the President of the United States of America.

“The political parties must begin to change the way things are done. Political parties should be a living organism not tied to the governors or the president,” he said.