The Dividend of Impeachment Threat
By
M. L. Maikudi
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.