Impeaching the President: Pre-election Bad Politics
By
Obi Akwani
With just a few months to go before national elections begin, Nigeria’s elected politicians are beginning to show signs that they have not yet learned how to contain an old disease called ‘bad politics’. I say ‘contain’ because from where I am, it was obvious a little into the new democracy and Third (or is it the fourth) Republic that the disease wasn’t cured. It was the hope in 1999 that with time and an attitude of eager tutelage and maturity, the newly elected politicians will learn and improve on the practice of democracy in Nigeria. But that does not seem to have happened, not in the way one would expect.
The immediate problem began with the House of Representatives passing an unanimous motion on Tuesday, August the 13th., accusing President Olusegun Obasanjo of "monumental inadequacies, persistent disrespect for the rule of law and ... obvious corruption". The motion claimed these failings expose his "inability to steer the ship of state" and "advised" him to "resign honorably as President and Commander-in-Chief... within two weeks from the date of this motion or face impeachment."
Three weeks later, the Senate passed a similar resolution supportive of the House’s motion. Even the President’s own Peoples Democratic Party House caucus has a committee compiling a list of his offenses to be answered satisfactorily within seven days of delivery failing which they would start impeachment proceedings against him.
The president was quick to respond fully to the House of Representatives’ accusations, though his characterization of the charges as, "vexatious, malicious, mischievous, uncalled for, unconstitutional... frivolous... and unsubstantiated," angered his accusers and did little to lessen their opposition to the president.
Though most Nigerians would agree that the president’s performance has been less than stellar, few people want him impeached. If anything, Nigerians are as disappointed with their elected political representatives as they are with the president. Public feelings have been expressed on the matter through individual writings, the pronouncements of representative bodies as the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), all of which have either called for a stop to the impeachment process or urged restraint.
By all appearances, the National Assembly is determined to impeach the president. But they are doing so against the wishes of the people. Before Nigerians can go along with this process, they must satisfy themselves that it is not yet another case of the bad politics disease. If it is, the Nigerian people are the last defense against the disease gripping their politicians. And so we must ask ourselves a few questions: How necessary is it to impeach the president now? What is the strategic advantage of going to impeachment rather than another alternative? How does it serve Nigerian national interest to impeach Chief Obasanjo? Who would be the beneficiaries of such a move?
How necessary is it to impeach the president now?
Much of the allegations against the President is about poor govrnance. There is nothing there to warrant impeachment. You do not impeach a president for bad government. You may impeach or issue a recall for breach of trust, i.e., breaking the law and undermining the stewardship entrusted to the leader. If the crime is merely bad governing or incompetency of the leadership, you solve that problem at the ballot box. It is not proven that Obasanjo has broken the law or breached the trust of Nigerians.
What is the strategic advantage of going to impeachment?
The only strategic advantage seems to be that with his ouster, the president’s rivals would have a better chance of gaining the presidency. Otherwise they see his incumbency as giving him an unbeatable edge in any election. The precedence set in the legacy of the reelection of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa in 1964 and President Shehu Shagari in 1983, both in elections generally acknowledged as controversial and rigged, supports this judgment. Both Balewa and Shagari went into the election for their second terms with less than stellar track records and very low rating in popular opinion and still beat their opponents.
What the call for Obasanjo’s impeachment tells us is that nothing has changed, at least in the view of the current crop of politicians. It does suggest that they have no faith in the electoral process. They do not believe the president can be removed via the ballot box, hence this attempt at a ‘coup by default’ called impeachment. That is more worrisome than any misdeeds of the President’s.
How does it serve Nigerian national interest to impeach Chief Obasanjo?
It doesn’t. Ostensibly impeaching Obasanjo avoids his reelection via rigging and allows the election of a fresh new face into the presidency. All of it smells too much like political naiveté. Impeachment is a crude tool which reasonable politicians employ with reticence and only on the rarest occasions. The use of it in this case undercuts the political process. It does not solve the problem of how to deal with a strong unpopular president. And a problem deferred is not a problem solved. The strength of the Obasanjo presidency is only in relation to the National Assembly. His high unpopularity with the public is a weakness which the politicians seem unable to exploit in the normal way. Resorting to impeachment, the only purpose of which in the moment is to keep the incumbent president from contesting the election, will further weaken democracy in Nigeria. National interest will be best served if his own party the PDP rejects him as their flag-bearer or if Nigerians are presented a better alternative in any of the other parties during the election. Despite the fact that he has not delivered in many areas, politicians must bear in mind that Obasanjo may yet appear to Nigerians to be the best of a multiple of evils. To beat him at the ballot box, therefore, they must give the people a better alternative. They should not take the easy way out and shortchange Nigerians with yet another non-performer for president.
Who would be the beneficiaries of impeachment?
From the foregoing it is clear that Nigeria loses if the president is impeached now. The chances of the people gaining a better alternative out of this truncation of the normal process is low. Only the politicians in their own power permutations can gain from this. Through out his presidency, these honorable members of the National Assembly had gathered like pigs at Obasanjo’s trough, ungrumblingly fed off the fat of the nation. Now at this late hour, they complain that he has been too strong and rode rough shod over them. And so they want a change, a new face, perhaps less powerful to fill his shoes.
If there is any blame to be meted out in this situation, it should be borne proportionately by the two arms of the legislature and the executive branch. If the president has grown too strong (or become like an absolute monarch as some have characterized him) blame that on the legislature. Recall when the first battle-lines were drawn between the Senate and the presidency. It was the then Senate president, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, by most accounts a most able leader, who became the casualty in that power struggle. Dr. Okadigbo had speared-headed a Senate drive to reign in President Obasanjo. The president had countered by instigating a counter drive to oust the leader of the Senate. Just as is happening now to President Obasanjo, charges were brought against the Senate president. And just as the president is now dismissing the move to impeach him, Dr. Okadigbo did not believe he could be driven out. But ultimately he was impeached and driven from office. The Senate would jettison one more leader before a compliant alternative suitable to the President was found in the person of the current Senate president. All that was made possible by the Senate whose members were falling over each other to line up on the side of the president. That was the point at which power balance was decidedly shifted in favor of president Obasanjo. The Senate literally handed power on a platter to the president. The situation in the lower house is no better. Though no direct confrontations with the president has happened here, the lower house remains a shadow of the upper one. It has been racked by leadership scandals for the better part of 1999 and 2000 and no policy or legislative initiative has emerged from the House in three years.
My assessment of the specific accusations against President Obasanjo will be presented in a subsequent article. Let it suffice now that I add my voice to the chorus saying to the National Assembly, ‘Do not impeach president Obasanjo.’