Azubuike Ihemeje
I don’t know exactly what new laws that’s applicable in Nigeria, as at today, beyond what I’m about to dispassionately present here.
What are the issues before the court of Appeal for adjudication? A declaratory judgment of a federal high court, which merely interpreted a statute in which case, the Constitution of Nigeria in connection to the Value Added Tax, VAT.
Can a stay of Execution be made against Declaratory Judgment? No! Absolutely legally impossible! That’s just the very first legal dislocation of that error of Appeal court order. But, there’s a much more fundamental issue which renders that Appeal Court order a nugatory and of no legal consequence.
As at today, there’s a law in operation and in force known as The Rivers State VAT Law. That law is not even part of the issues before the court of Appeal for determination. The validation of that law is not before any court for adjudication. Hence, no stay of Execution of that law is mentioned.
Of course, the Court of Appeal can’t even embark on a voyage of its own to discuss issues that are not before it. As long as the Rivers State VAT Law is not in any way set aside, nor disturbed by any other of Court whatsoever, business owners are not in anyway encumbered nor stopped from obeying a valid and subsisting Law in one of the states of the federation – in this particular case, Rivers State VAT law.
Again, can the Court of Appeal even stop a completed act that is an already enacted law of the land? Not at all! That would amount to major constitutional conflagrations.
The enactment has been duly completed. Rivers VAT Law is already in force. It can only be set aside by either full and final judicial review or by abolishment through legislative process.
Enough of this conflicted confusion in this country. That’s why I’ve since retired as a lawyer in Nigeria for now.
I recall, it was in the famous case of MacFoy vs UAC that we were taught that
‘You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stay there. It will surely collapse’.
It is the same way this Appeal Court order or whatever similar judgment must certainly collapse, since the entire premise was a nullity from day one.
If an act is void, it’s void already. It’ll automatically return void. Since in the eyes of the law, the Court of Appeal has not stopped the operation of the VAT Law in Rivers State, it therefore follows that the order does not preclude business owners from obeying the law and paying their VATs accordingly.
So, by virtue of the very nature of the Declarative reliefs, that Appeal order of Stay execution amounts to absolute Nothingness. It’s of no effect. It doesn’t even exist.
It’s an illegitimate, void, empty, worthlessness in case laws and legal practice, if we’re still practicing law in Nigeria.
Then, when you equally view it from the perspective of a subsisting, unchallenged and undisputed Law on VAT now operational in Rivers State, that Appeal Court order further disappears into thin air of total uselessness of nonsense.
This is exactly the law, as we were taught in Nigeria jurisdiction and jurisprudential system before the vultures set in, and yours truly decided to retired for the moment.
Let me reiterate this truth: Unless an Amendment of the Constitution is effected in favor of FIRS today, or the Constitution is permanently suspended, or Nigeria is disintegrated; nobody, I repeat, nobody, not even the Supreme Court, nor a trillion Buhari’s executive Orders can validly grant the FIRS the right or powers to collect VAT in States with their own VAT Law.
In the overall, there’s absolutely no Order legally so binding, in the eyes of the Law, that’s against the collection of VATs by the government of Rivers State.
