Good luck Jonathan to be impeached The All Progressives Congress (APC) caucuses in the Senate and House of Representatives have one dream they want realised before the end of the current dispensation: impeach President Good luck Jonathan. Although details of what the lawmakers are doing to achieve the dream are sketchy, what is obvious is that they do not want Jonathan to continue to preside over the affairs of the nation. To accomplish their mission, the legislators in the two chambers recently opened a register to collate signatures of those that want the impeachment proceeding against Jonathan commenced. The existence of such register had always been in the realm of speculation, but the invasion of the Na tional Assembly by security forces last week gave an opportunity to the authors and sympathizers to the project who had been looking for an avenue to avail themselves of the opportunity to get to work. Right now, claims bandied among NASS members are that over 120 House members, mainly of the APC stock, have appended their signatures to the register. While in the Senate, 63 members have signed for the project. The Senate’s angle is very interesting. Some PDP lawmakers are said to be backing the move to push President Jonathan out of the top office. A ranking senator, who did not disclose his identity, confirmed to newsmen on Thursday of the existence of the impeachment register in the Red Chamber. He said eight PDP senators “willingly wrote their names and appended their signatures to commence impeachment proceedings against President Jonathan.” He vowed: “We will start the president’s impeachment once we get the required number. Some of the PDP senators have already signed the register. “The president has consistently usurped the powers of the National Assembly and it is time to put a stop to that. The constitution has granted us the power to impeach any president that breaches the spirit and letters of the same constitution.” The claims of the senator are not strange; neither is it surprising. A member of the House of Representatives who also pleaded for anonymity had divulged that they were working in concert with some senators to oust Jonathan. The House member, an APC faithful, claimed that they have compiled 50 impeachable offences against President Jonathan. The sins He accused President Jonathan of showcasing “incompetence, corruption and unprecedented impunity.” Dismissing claims that the plot is being spearheaded by APC lawmakers, the legislator claimed that some PDP members were also sympathetic to the move. He said: “I am sure you read the reports today that senators are going to move against Jonathan? Now you can confirm that the impeachment is not about APC. It is a non- partisan cause. We have all resolved that the man (President Jonathan) must go. “Never in the history of Nigeria has a leader displayed such crass incompetence as we have seen in President Jonathan. It is glaring and you can feel it. Mr. President, with due respect, has shown that he is not capable of running this country. That is the basic truth.” Unknown breaches Ironically, while the lawmaker was at ease accusing the president of breaching the constitution in the handling of some national matters, he had difficulty listing the breaches. His argument for holding back the president’s offences is that it is too early in the day to release Jonathan’s sins. According to him, at the right time, they will be made known to every Nigerian. “I want to assure that what we are doing is real but I cannot give you the list of offences now, but very soon, we shall make it public. And as we talk today, our men are working round the clock and I can confirm to you that over 50 impeachable offences that have been committed by Jonathan are noted. Is it corruption? Is it impunity? Is it incompetence? They are legion and our team is working assiduously to identify more before we come out with the notice. We are very serious this time and will pursue it to the letter,” he said. He disclosed that they have met with the PDP lawmakers in the Senate who are also desirous of removing the president and more meetings are going on. “When it is ripe, we will come out.” Vague claims There may be some exaggeration in the claims of the two lawmakers but it will be foolhardy to dismiss the threat of impeachment against President Jonathan as mere political comedy. Even the presidency is unlikely to chuckle at the lawmakers. In fact, the impeachment threat is widely touted as the underlying reason for the besieging of the National Assembly last week by the police . Harbingers of the this position are of the contention that the calculation was to prevent the Speaker of the House, Hon Aminu Tambuwal from gaining access to the chamber so as to pave way for his ouster. They insist that his impeachment would put an end to the plot by APC lawmakers to move for the president’s impeachment. The president’s men through the Senior Special Assistant to the president on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe had rubbished the claim. Okupe told newsmen that the president had no hand in the invasion of the National Assembly by the police. The Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba also dismissed the speculation that his men’s action was politically motivated. Instead, he told the House Committee on Police Affairs that the action was meant to prevent the invasion of the Assembly by hoodlums. Whether or not Abba’s claim is approved by several Nigerians is another thing. What is glaring is that the presidency is likely uncomfortable with the prevailing air in the Senate and the House and believes that every option can be put to use in changing the reigning atmosphere in the two cham bers to its favour. Interestingly, the lawmakers are aware that their going after the president may mean receiving some unfamiliar tackles. They seem to have resolved to continue with their plots. Speaking to newsmen shortly after the ugly encounter with the police on Thursday last week, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon Zakari Mohammed said though they did not include impeachment notice in the Order Paper of the day they met to consider President Jonathan’s request for an extension of emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, the issue will resurface some other day. He was not specific on the day such issue will become one of the items in the order paper. His view on the matter was sketchy but it was loaded with meaning. It pointed clearly the direction the chamber was going on the issue. President not guilty The Deputy Majority Leader, Hon Leo Ogor, who is a staunch pro-Jonathan man did not contest the existence of the impeachment plots against the president, he only ruled out its viability. According to him, the project will fail on arrival. He told newsmen that the president has not violated any rule to deserve impeachment. His words: “The President is unaware of what happened on the day of invasion of the National Assembly, so bringing impeachment up is going to be defeated. The president has done no wrong, impeachment should not even be part of the issue.” He urged members to jettison such plans, arguing that the notice of impeachment is inconsequential, as the president had no hand in what transpired at the National Assembly. Unperturbed president President Jonathan may not be ruffled so much by the impeachment threat given the fact that the time left for the current administration to elapse is unlikely to accommodate the exercise. Even those who are behind the project are aware that time is not on their side for a project of this magnitude. They are believing that even if at the end of the day they fail to unseat him, they can successfully bruise his political image. Moreover, most of the lawmakers from next month would be so busy with political campaigns and pursuing their political mandates and won’t have much time for any other business, especially one that would take years and a very long process to accomplish. Certainly, the president and his foot soldiers know this fact. They are also aware that, in politics, things can happen in a fleeting manner. But all eyes are watching. Will the impeachment threat turn a joke taken too far like was the case under former President Olusegun Obasanjo or will the move be nipped in the bud by the president? Next few weeks will tell.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 07:00:58 +0000
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