UP GEJ!: Jonathan Is Eligible To Contest In 2015 – SAN

A legal luminary and social affairs commentator, Mr. Sabastine Hon (SAN), has said President Goodluck

Jonathan is not constitutionally barred from contesting the 2015 presidential election if he chooses to contest.
The constitutional lawyer however flayed governors for appointing caretaker committees to run the affairs of local government councils, saying it was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Hon, who spoke to Sunday Sun in Abuja, submitted: The Constitution did not bar him from contesting if he so wishes. This is because he took the first oath of office as a mid-term or as inter mid-term successor to his late boss, President Umaru Musa Yar Adua.
He explained that Jonathan did not set out to become the president at the initial stage, stressing that he was only elected as the deputy to the late YarAdua, adding that as Vice President the Constitution required him to step into the position of President. It was still the same mandate.

Can we say in all sincerity that the first two years that he occupied that seat he was the man in driving seat? He was not; he was only deputizing for the man in the driving seat. If the president does not assign a deputy responsibility to the vice president he will be there redundant, Hon said.
On appointment of caretaker committees for local governments, Hon declared that it was unlawful and unconstitutional for governors to do so. He enjoined governors to ensure that constitutional provisions concerning local governments are held sacrosanct.

In at least two decisions, the Court of Appeal has voided the appointment of caretaker committees. In the two decisions (Akon Vs Umoh and Akon Vs the Attorney General of Cross River State) delivered by the Court of Appeal, Calabar Division in 2002, the Court held that state governors have no power to constitute caretaker committees but the illegality is going on in the various states and nobody seems to be challenging them, Hon lamented.