By Okey Ndiribe & Emman Ovuakporie

The impeachment threat issued against President Goodluck Jonathan penultimate Thursday is for real.

Contrary to the perception in some quarters that it was a mere saber-rattling strategy to arm-twist the executive arm of government into succumbing to both the written and unwritten demands of the law-makers, there is a real possibility that the law-makers could go the whole hog to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President.

Watchers of goings-on at the National Assembly have observed that unlike in the past when the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had overwhelming majority in the House, things have changed as the opposition membership in the House is now 158 – more than enough to initiate real impeachment proceedings.

The ACN has 66 members, CPC 35, ANPP 25 while the rest is made up of smaller parties.
Observers of the House have pointed out that if the large members in the opposition parties in the House join forces with rebellious members of the ruling party they could go far with the move to remove the President from office.

A member of the House who, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the number of opposition law-makers in the House could pose a serious threat to the President, insisted that if they decide to move against him.

The impeachment motion was actually tabled by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamilla, the Minority Leader and leader of the opposition in the House.

Another member who also spoke in confidence said that apart from the threat posed by the opposition, many members of the PDP in the House are also dissatisfied with the manner the President had handled bills and resolutions passed by the House.

Indeed, the stage was set at the plenary session of the House penultimate Thursday when the impeachment motion was presented.  There were signals earlier that the day’s proceedings were going to be different. The first ominous sign was when the usual resumption time of 11am was shifted backward to 10am.

Principal Officers of the House were seen as early as 9.30am already waiting at the Speaker’s office.

It became apparent that something was fishy as Hon Aminu Tambuwal stepped into the Complex; the body language of most legislators changed as some even showed copies of their motions prepared to move for the impeachment of Mr. President.

Three members from the core north had approached a colleague to lobby for his cooperation to ensure that the day’s session was completely different as they could no longer tolerate the style of the President and his poor implementation of the 2012 Appropriation Act.

A source in the House said that “in a bid not to get any PDP member roped into the issue, the opposition had to be used to table the matter on the floor of the House. To give a bite to the planned impeachment threat, the session started with a motion sponsored by Sam Tsokwa, Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business tagged “non-implementation of 2012 Budget” which was supported by other members of his committee.

Various committee chairmen including those on Appropriation – Hon John Enoh – and Jibril Abdulmumin – Finance – took turns to x-ray the performance of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, and scored them below average except for Ministry of Niger Delta Committee headed by Hon. Warman Ogoriba. He said the Niger Delta Ministry and NDDC had performed well.

JONATHAN’s REFUSAL TO HONOUR HOUSE INVITATION
Many members feel that Mr. President has so far violated the rule of mutual respect. Some members who spoke to the Sunday Vanguard in confidence said, “Mr. President should understand that there are three arms of government that must work hand in hand to achieve results. If he had accepted our olive branch by appearing before us, we could talk as friends or agree to disagree but at the end of the day we would still remain friends.

“Instead the man chose to be arrogant; our meeting with him would have led to far reaching decisions that could have reformed most sectors.”

Continuing, he said “The President had invited us twice to Aso Rock and we humbly obeyed him. Why is he avoiding us when we are not cannibals?

Are we going to eat him if he comes to let us know his challenges; we might find a way out of the woods for the country” he said.

The high level of insecurity in the country was the major reason that led to the invitation of President Jonathan by the House.  At a plenary session held last month the law-makers had summoned the President and his security chiefs over their inability to contain the security challenges in the country.

The decision of the House followed the overwhelming adoption of an amendment to a motion moved by Yakubu Barde (PDP, Kaduna) by the Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN, Lagos) who regretted that deliberations on the floor had to shift to the spate of insecurity in the country.

Barde, in his submission described as unfortunate, the  loss of lives and destruction of property that followed the Sunday, 17th  June, attacks in Zaria, Kaduna State, and the subsequent  reprisal attacks. He said the peaceful coexistence in the State was greatly affected.

Barde said: “Kaduna has always been known to be peaceful but these unfortunate attacks are driving fear into the minds of the people. Now, some people will say the attacks were not religiously inclined but my people are now afraid of going to their places of worship.

“Not only that, businesses are now badly affected in the region and which investor would want to go to that area to invest? In other words, poverty is being perpetuated in that region.

“To me, the question is no longer when would the next bomb blast go off or when would the next attack be launched and where but for how long are we going to live with this?”

Benjamin Aboho (PDP, Benue) in his contribution regretted that President Jonathan has not been unable to tackle the security situation thrown up by the Boko Haram insurgency since it assumed a more dangerous dimension about two years ago.

Several members had condemned the President’s decision to travel while Kaduna State was burning.
“Does that mean that the climate change conference was more important to the President than the lives and property of Nigerians?” a member had asked.  While contributing to another motion on insecurity in Zamfara State, Jumoke Okoya-Thomas blasted President Jonathan for his insensitivity by traveling out at time the when the country is boiling.

“I think the time has come for the House to summon the President and give him a matching order on steps to take in addressing the question of insecurity in this country.  To whom much is given, much is expected,” she said.

Gbajabiamila, in his contribution, regretted that President Jonathan had abandoned the last line of the oath of office he took on assumption of duty where he swore to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.

“Rather the President felt that traveling overseas for some climate change confab not minding the fact that the insecurity situation in this country right now is infringing on the rights of Nigerians to religion and peaceful assembly. “The current situation has also infringed on the rights of Nigerians to free movement and rights to life. How do we relate with a situation whereby for five hours, state security agencies could not contain this attack”? No deadline was given to the president yet no response came from the presidency.

NON-IMPLEMENTATION OF HOUSE RESOLUTIONS
Several members also claim that they had lost count of the number of resolutions sent to the Executive arm of Government without getting any reasonable response.

The snail pace of doing things in this present dispensation is considered by members as one of the major sins of Mr. President.

SHODDY TREATMENT OF THE GREEN CHAMBER
The Reps also hate a situation whereby they are relegated to the background by the Presidency.
A recent development was cited when the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB was sent to the National Assembly. The presidency sent 200 copies to the Senate that has 109 members and sent only three copies to the Green Chamber that has 360.

The Reps again complained bitterly over this development telling whoever cared to listen that it took the executive arm over one year to work on the draft that Nigerians should not expect a speedy treatment of the PIB.

THE ROLE OF SENATE PRESIDENT
It was reliably gathered that immediately after the Thursday impeachment threat, the President had summoned the Speaker.

The Senate President, Senator David Mark, was said to have told the President that the issues raised by the House were germane and needed immediate attention.

In turn, the President was said to have admitted that he was having difficulties with the manner things were being done.

WHY REPS CHOSE THEIR LAST SITTING TO THREATEN JONATHAN
Most Reps agreed that the long break will give the presidency enough space to have a fresh breath of air. The seven week period that the Reps will be away will allow the president address their demands before resumption of the House.

House Leader, Hon Mulikat Adeola-Akande, said it all on the floor of the House when she said “the presidency by September must have disbursed funds to all the MDAs so there is no cause for alarm at all”.