The leading opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari over his declaration that national interest and national security are supreme to the rule of law.
The president made the declaration on Sunday while declaring open the 2018 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Abuja on Sunday.
His words: “Rule of Law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest. Our apex court has had cause to adopt a position on this issue in this regard and it is now a matter of judicial recognition that; where national security and public interest are threatened or there is a likelihood of their being threatened, the individual rights of those allegedly responsible must take second place, in favour of the greater good of society.”
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But in its criticism of the president over the statement, PDP said such a declaration was strange to the laws of the country.
In a statement issued on its twitter page, Official PDP Nigeria, the political party said such an idea of the rule of law being secondary to national interest was unacceptable.
The tweet reads: “President @MBuhari’s statement claiming that the rule of law will become secondary to his whims and self-determined “national interest” is strange to our laws and completely unacceptable.”