Impeachment as tool of witch-hunt – The Sun

For some weeks now, the polity has been awash with reports of   impeachment and bids for the impeachment of some political office holders. The impeachment gale recorded its first major victim in Adamawa State, where the former governor, Murtala Nyako, was sacked by the State House of Assembly, following his indictment for gross misconduct by a seven-man probe panel set up by the Chief Judge of the state
Since that time, there have been many other reports of attempted impeachment of other public officials. The speed with which the gale of impeachment is coursing through the ranks of   public officers leaves a rather sour taste in the mouth.
Reports of ongoing efforts to impeach political office holders, such as governors, a deputy governor and Speakers of some State Houses of Assembly have been issuing out from   Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Imo and Enugu states. This renewed focus on impeachment of public officers leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least.
Impeachment is an instrument inserted in the nation’s constitution to check abuse of public office. There are now fears that it has become the subject of gross abuse by those entrusted with guarding the constitution.
One of the most ridiculous instances of abuse of the impeachment provision in Nigeria’s constitution is the ongoing effort to kick the Enugu State Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi, out of office for, among other things, operating a small poultry within the premises of his official residence in the state capital.
While it would ordinarily amount to insubordination for a Deputy Governor to refuse to take directives from his principal, and while the running of a poultry in the Deputy Governor’s official residence is at best an environmental offence that is provided for in the state’s environmental laws, it is rather mindboggling that the alleged insubordination and “chicken affair” in Enugu, would degenerate to impeachment proceedings against the Deputy Governor.
In Adamawa State, there is still confusion over whether or not the impeached Governor Murtala Nyako’s deputy, James Ngilari, resigned before his impeachment was announced.
In Ebonyi, barely two weeks after impeaching the Speaker of the State House Assembly, Hon. Chukwuma Nwazunku, (on allegations of fraud and suspect academic qualifications) and appointing a first female Speaker for the state, the lawmakers reversed themselves and reinstated the erstwhile Speaker. This is even as a section of the House maintains that Nwazunku remains impeached.
In Nasarawa, the bid to kick out Governor Tanko al-Makura on the same grounds of gross misconduct became stillborn when the probe panel set up by the Chief Judge of the state, as directed by the House of Assembly, cleared the governor of the charges. The entire saga has now been so thoroughly politicized that it is clear that the last may not have been heard of that impeachment bid.
Only last month, another report filtered out from Imo State   that the state lawmakers were threatening to impeach Governor Rochas Okorocha to compel him to pay the arrears of allowances accruing to them!
Rather than its original purpose of helping to check illegal actions of elected public officers, particularly, members of the executive arm of government, it is now clear that impeachments, since the outset of the present democratic dispensation in Nigeria, have become another weapon of witch-hunt of real and imagined political opponents. Virtually all impeachments thus far have been used to settle political scores rather than advance the cause of democracy.
Similarly, nearly all of these impeachments have been steeped                                                                                                                                           in illegality, with most of the victims booted out of office in total disregard of the constitutional requirements for such actions.
Whether it was Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha in Bayelsa, Joshua Dariye in Plateau, Peter Obi in Anambra, Rashidi Ladoja in Oyo or Ayo Fayose in Ekiti, virtually all the impeachments were used purely to score selfish political points, and done in total disregard of the relevant statutes.
Painfully, as these seeming injustices are meted out on a daily basis, Nigerians have their hands tied. For, the same constitution arrogates all the powers to those who are currently abusing this provision. Section 143 (10) states inter alia: “No proceedings or determination of the panel or the National Assembly or any matter relating thereto shall be entertained or questioned in any court.” However, courts have been stepping in and have actually overturned some of the impeachments that did not follow due process.
The constitution even goes further in subsection 11 to define gross misconduct to mean just anything that the lawmakers say is “gross misconduct.” It states: “gross misconduct” means a grave violation or breach of the provisions of this Constitution or any misconduct of such nature as amounts in the opinion of the National Assembly to gross misconduct” The same provisions are also true as they relate to the governors, deputy governors and the state Houses of Assembly.
While we support and recognise the powers of lawmakers to remove errant elected public officials, we are worried that impeachment has been reduced to a tool for partisan politicking. It is fast becoming a way of kicking out, through the back door, elected officials that political adversaries could not defeat at the polls. This, to say the least, is a pointer to our level of political intolerance. It portends grave danger for our polity.
Our position is that, in all impeachments, the interest of the state and the people should be paramount. This is opposed to the present practice of using impeachment, and threats of impeachment, as a bargaining chip to arm-twist the president, governors and other such public officers, to satisfy the parochial interests of those who wield the impeachment stick.
We urge members of the National Assembly to revisit the relevant sections of the subsisting constitution to discourage a situation in which every political disagreement automatically becomes “gross misconduct” and an “impeachable offence”. The time has come for us to stop this charade.