The idea being reportedly floated by some members of the Senate to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan is, if true, ill-timed and at best ill-conceived; coming so close to the general elections. It could be, at the worst, a threat to the peace and stability of the polity. Could it be that the Senators are motivated not by the president’s real misdeeds, but by a desire to flex their muscle? Whatever the reason, with the myriad of problems afflicting the country, this is an inauspicious time to embark on such drastic exercise as an impeachment.
Some of the president’s ‘offences’ as published in the media, include failure to curtail Boko Haram insurgency, unduly politicising the security situation, refusal to sign 120 bills, failure to implement recommendations of panels/committees, illegal deployment of the Armed Forces and award of non-appropriated oil facility protection contract worth N3.6b to a private firm. The list contains offences that range from the serious and credible, through the trivial and dismissible, to the ridiculous and shoddy. Without considering the merit or otherwise of the alleged offences, it is apparent that some of them are no more than afterthoughts by the senators intent on gaining underserved attention. The National Assembly certainly has sufficient power, under the constitution, to deal otherwise with some of the issues raised, without resorting to impeachment. The proponents of the impeachment should perish the thought and allow peace to reign.
Ordinarily it would, in this election season, be reasonable to dismiss the story as a ‘kite flown’ by vested interests. But, since the news was published, it has not been officially denied or commented upon one way or other by the official organ of the upper house of the national legislature. Could it then be taken as an unfolding event?
Of course, to impeach a holder of high office – president, governor, or any other – is not new, nor is it a taboo. Indeed, the writers of constitutions here and in other jurisdictions, believe in the need for such a provision, for the justified reason that human failing can cause leadership failure, with bad consequences for the state. And, to put it mildly, it is difficult to state with all honesty that the Nigerian state currently enjoys sound leadership. While it is obvious for all to see – except the tiny minority that benefits from the situation of things – that Nigeria is at this time, badly managed and poorly governed, it is also true that a right step taken at a wrong time will result in unintended negative consequences.
If in truth the president has committed impeachable offences which, according to the constitution, amount to his being ‘guilty of gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office’ as so construed by the National Assembly, it is nevertheless absolutely inauspicious to initiate an impeachment process at this time. The point must also be made that, in the peculiar case of Nigerian politics since 1999, every impeachment process has been initiated with motives that are at the best suspect, at the worst rules defying. In one of the eastern states, a deputy governor was removed from his exalted office for allegedly rearing chickens in the premises of his official residence. These speak volumes about the low level of maturity of Nigerian politicians and their limited capacity to function beneficially in a constitutional democracy. Were the movers of the impeachment idea true democrats, they ought to pursue a change of leadership through peacefully, legitimately and democratically effected means of the ballot box. The opportunity to do that is only a matter of a few weeks. But of course, the senators seem not too keen to embark on the harder work of persuading the electorate to vote out President Jonathan. It is a legitimate aspiration to seek to remove an elected president by constitutional means. But the times, the prevailing mood and sentiments are inappropriate for a lengthy and inevitably rancorous impeachment process. The National Assembly is composed of less than 500 citizens albeit an elite group. But, in the interest of the nation, this elite group should leave the weighty decision to remove or keep the president of the federal republic to the much larger voting population.
Let it be said directly: the legislature should do nothing to present itself as working to prevent the 2015 elections and abort the Nigerian democratic process. Whoever wants to replace the incumbent president should wait for and use the machinery of the popular election that comes up barely a month hence
