The Dividend of Impeachment Threat

By

M. L. Maikudi

mlmaikudi@yahoo.com  

The Federal Government, through the Hon. Minister of Finance, Malam Adamu Ciroma, announced the release of N 159.9 billion for capital projects for the year 2002 fiscal year. This is in addition to N106.7 earlier released. By now the Federal Government has released a total of N 259.6 billion out of the N 486.7 earmarked for capital projects for this year.

The Minister argued that the non-release of money was due to short fall in revenue occasioned by reduction in Nigeria's quota of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the inability to recover the sum of S 1.2 billion US dollars of looted funds and S 1.3 billion dollars from botched privatization of Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) Malam Adamu Ciroma also cited the servicing of external debt as another reason.

The Minister's posturing sounds logical and may be appealing to economic and financial experts who can either locate loopholes or believe they are foolproof. That is by the way. However, if we recall what President Obasanjo and Malam Adamu Ciroma told Nigerians when the 2002 budgets was amended by National Assembly, that he (President Obasanjo) would not implement the budget as passed by the National Assembly, one could easily believe that Malam Adamu was being economical with the truth.

The release of the money at this time is nothing but a fire fighting response to the impeachment threat by the National Assembly. If the National Assembly, more specifically the House of Representatives, did not make the threat of impeaching Mr. President, funds might have not been released in spite of the wide spread poverty and hunger that are ravaging the country.

Even the order that foodstuff should be released from grain stores would amount to nothing since majority of Nigerians wouldn't be able to see the grains. Those who are lucky to see it may not have the money to buy it because the economy was grounded. Thousands of casual laborers have lost their means of livelihood due to withdrawal of constructions companies from sites.

Government contractors have gone underground for the failure of government to pay them. Almost all businesses were grounding to a halt with only the super rich who are living comfortably. So if the National Assembly had not taken the decision to impeach the President, the government wouldn't have cared a little about the situation in the country. One other thing, which the nations nascent democracy has provided Nigerians, is a sort of hope in the National Assembly as a vanguard of the people.

Previously, whenever the legislators attempt to call the Executive to order, they receive the bashing of the vocal few that enjoy government patronage either directly or indirectly. Even when House of Representatives gave the two-week ultimatum for President Obasanjo to resign or be impeached, the vocals were quick to rise and started defending the President blindly. Even Mr. President was carried away by their unguarded utterances and finally joined them and called the ultimatum a joke taken too far, instead of showing remorse and seek for amicable resolution of the problem, His aides and appointees started suggesting to him that the House leaders committed an act of treason and therefore should be arrested and charged.

The President would have been roped in by this group if not for the intervention of some foresighted patriots. So another dividend of impeachment threat is for some advisers to realize that the project of misadvising and misleading the President has probably reached a dead end. Hence Nigerians can now clearly see whether the ministers, advisers and assistance are really assisting him to run the affairs of the nation or only helping themselves.

Another impeachment dividend is loyalty to a political party. Even though the party ought to be respected by all members, whether elected to occupy a government position or party position, subordinating the party, just like what PDP government has done, could lead to a problem that could be very difficult to resolved.

When PDP nominated Obasanjo as a presidential candidate at its convention in Jos in 1998, Obasanjo was a loyal party member. But when he won the presidential election in 1999, he assumed a status of demi-god and before him, every one must bow.

When he was eventually sworn-in as President on May 29, 1999, he announced that whoever invested in his election should consider his investment lost. So those who used their wealth of political experience to form the PDP, ensure it success from local councils, state and national level stood irrelevant.

There was no area in which the President remains consistence as this. The politicians who spear-headed his election where the first causality. Remember what happened to Chief Sunday Awoniyi and his colleagues. See how they edged out Chief Solomon Lar, Don Etiebet, Chief Barnabas Gamade and Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim and a host of others. In essence, the party, PDP, has been reduced to a platform for crisis and violence. Its leaders are just followers, awaiting and taking orders from the executive arm of government.

This manifested itself when the House of Representatives gave the President the ultimatum to resign or be impeached. The PDP national leaders made effort to douse the tension but they met a brick wall. All entreaties to make the Lower House soft peddled could not work. It is now evident that PDP leadership may not achieve what it may desire to achieve because it has become a sort of directorate under the Presidency. Whatever it says or does is considered a message from Aso Rock.

This is the danger of being partial in a situation where one is expected to be fair to all sides. The impeachment threat has therefore shown that indiscipline in a party, no matter how strong it could be, may breed violence and ineffective leadership. As for the investment of the Nigeria's electorate, I thing they are the worst hit! No job, no security, abundance, religious intolerance, and ethnic chauvinism lack of focus and respect for the rule of law and the courts. If a nation is faced with this kind of situation, it could indeed accept that it has lost a lot of investment.

Finally, I implore the National Assembly to continue with impeachment process so that the Executive can respond to the yearnings of Nigerians. But the process should not only be fair but should be seen to be fair to all.