Some federal lawmakers have said that in future, the President must obtain the approval of the Senate before deploying combat troops outside the country.
This came as some Nigerian troops are on their way to the Republic of The Gambia to help ensure that President Yahya Jammeh relinquishes power,
Raising the matter as a point of order, the Senator representing Enugu North senatorial district, Senator Chukwuma Utazi explained that the constitution provides that the President informs the Senate whenever the Nigerian military is being deployed for such operations.
He said that by deploying the troops, the President failed to obey section 4 of the 1999 constitution.
“Even when this Senate has been cooperating with the Executive, let it be on record that before anything of this nature happens next time in this country, the National Assembly has to be informed properly in writing,” he said.
The motion, which was taken as a matter of personal explanation which should not be open for debate, was duly acknowledged by the Senate President.
He explained that there is another provision in the constitution which supports the President’s action.
“Maybe you purposely decided not to read the whole part of the provision of the constitution.
“Otherwise, I cannot take debate but I think I can help to read the sections.
“You read Section 4 and 5 but the section then goes on to say ‘notwithstanding the position of subsection 4 of this section, the President in consultation with the National Defence Council may deploy members of the armed forces of the federation on limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that national security is under threat. More importantly, provided that the President shall within seven days of actual combat engagement seek the consent of the Senate. And the Senate thereafter gives or refuses the said consent’.
“If Senator Utazi had come under 42, I would have allowed contribution because I can see people raising their hands but I’m not going to allow contribution because he came under 43.”
Even though the Senate President said the matter would not be open for a debate, the Deputy Senate President was allowed to offer another perspective.
To put the matter to rest, the Senate President explained that the president still has a seven-day window to notify the Senate of the troops deployment to Gambia.
