Opinion: OOU SHS’ Suspension of Ibogun Central Executives Lacks Constitutional Backing, Thus Null and Void
By Seun Ogun
It has become increasingly common for elected representatives to flagrantly violate constitutional provisions, often justifying their actions by pointing to the alleged wrongs of others, while this might sound as a check and balance it must be done with caution.
It is no longer news that the National Assembly recently attempted to dissolve an acting governor of a state and all its elected representatives.
This situation is strikingly similar to a recent memo released by the OOU SHS, which purportedly dissolved a whole faculty president and all elected executives of Ibogun Campus.
To start with, the action of the SHS is unprecedented and, to the best of my understanding, lacks legal standing, as no provision of the OOU SUG constitution grants the SHS the authority to suspend or dissolve a faculty president OR THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVES for alleged misconduct without due process, proper investigation, and fair hearing.
Section 4 of the OOU SUG constitution which gives the SHS the ultimate law making power does not empower the SHS to dissolve any independent body. The SHS is tasked with lawmaking within the confines of the constitution not with exercising executive or judicial powers over faculty associations. Even assuming, without conceding, that the SHS has such authority, the faculty president should have been granted a fair hearing before any action was taken.
More importantly, even if the faculty president were guilty of gross misconduct, the SHS cannot subvert the law by dissolving the entire Ibogun Central Executive Committee for the actions of one individual. Where is such a precedent set? If a local government chairman embezzles funds, does that mean all ward chairmen under his administration must be dissolved? Even at the state level, a governor can be impeached, but his cabinet remains intact as obtainable in our presidential system of government.
This action by the SHS reeks of political motivation and is ultra vires beyond their legal powers making it null and void.
In fact, it’s clear that the aim of the constitution is to safeguard the autonomy of Faculty and College Associations and uphold academic freedom. Since the SHS did not elect the Ibogun Central executives into office, it has no jurisdiction to remove them.
Moving forward, by the virtue of Section 41 of the OOU SUG constitution, it explicitly confers jurisdiction on the Judicial Council not the SHS in cases of proven official corruption.
The provision states to the effect that the council, subject to a two-thirds majority vote, may recommend the recovery of ill-gotten gains to the appropriate university authority through the Senate President. Nowhere does it grant the SHS the power to suspend or nullify an entire executive committee.
It’s now clear and non ambiguous that the OOU SHS lacks the power to suspend the acting president as the constitution give them no power as such and in the event that they do that, their act becomes ultra vires, null and void.
In Yusuf v. UBN Ltd. (1996) 6 NWLR (Pt. 457) 632, it was held that fair hearing is not a mere technical requirement but a matter of substantive justice. The Supreme Court ruled that the test for fair hearing is not whether an injustice has been done but whether a party entitled to be heard was given an opportunity to present their case. If an appellate court finds that a party was denied this right, the decision made against them is bound to be set aside.
Therefore, the memo issued by the SHS is, to the best of my understanding, legally void and of no effect. This position aligns with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Udeogu v. F.R.N (2022) 3 NWLR (Pt. 1816) 41, where the court held that an act done under a non-existent law is itself a nullity and has no binding effect. A null and void act binds no one and cannot create any rights or obligations under any circumstances.
On this note, I will advise faculty president and affected executives should seek legal redress or summon the court for a clear constitutional interpretation.
Seun Ogun can be reached via Ogunseun7@gmail.com