Political Notes

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Debasing of Impeachment

Impeachment in a democratic setting is supposed to be a serious process. In Nigeria it is supposed to lead to the removal from office of those elected to executive office positions who have been found seriously wanting. But apparently in line with the bastardisation of democratic norms, a supposedly sombre process has now been turned into a mockery defying democratic ethos.

As politicians get set for the decisive round of elections next year, it is no surprise that politicians who are able to sway legislative houses are mobilising legislators to “impeach” governors and deputies who they perceive as obstacles to their 2015 permutations.

ADAMAWA—Acting Chief Judge of Adamawa State, Justice Ambrose Mammadi (L), administering Oath of Office on the Acting Governor of the state, Alhaji Ahmadu Umaru, at the Government House in Yola after impeachment of Nyako yesterday.

It started in Rivers State where a group of five lawmakers “impeached” the speaker of the House of Assembly before they were muscled out of the legislative complex by associates of Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Perhaps the most contentious case still in the courts is that of the erstwhile deputy governor of Imo State, Mr. Jude Agbaso who was impeached on the allegation of fraudulently collecting money for a road project even though the money was eventually traced to a strong associate of the governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

Madam Due Process

In and out of government, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili has been a sore to many Nigerian politicians. While she served in government as the director-general of the Due Process Office, she became a sort of nightmare to fraudulent politicians with her insistence on the implementation of due process in the payment for government jobs. She was especially loathed by many members of the National Assembly as she insisted on subjecting the contracts many of them fronted for to the due process of the government.

Out of government, she has become a sort nightmare to those in government. Her role in mobilising attention to the fate of the Chibok girls has been particularly hailed even by some of her former critics, that is those with human feelings. While some Nigerians would prefer that Ezekwesili and the Bring Back Our Girls campaign keep quiet, Ezekwesili has remained undaunted. She has in her words laid aside her international private consultancies to draw attention to the fate of the girls.

It was no surprise that on her way to London earlier this week that some overzealous security agents panicked and tried to stop her, apparently afraid that she would go and embarrass the administration abroad.

In the end, the agents embarrassed the administration with the action portraying the government as insensitive to the plight of the girls still held under the captivity of the Islamic Boko Haram insurgents.

Whither Governor’s Forum?

It is just over a year that the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF broke into two factions. That was when Governor Rotimi Amaechi was elected by 18 to 16 votes against or when Governor Jonah Jang was elected by 16 to 18 votes against; that is depending on how you read the superiority of numbers.

Before that ugly division, the NGF had become a platform for peer review offering indolent governors opportunity to see what their colleagues were doing and how they could improve. Through the peer review mechanism a number of governors were known to have been challenged by some good things they saw done by their colleagues.

Besides peer review, the NGF was also a platform for the projection of programmes of common concern to the governors. One of such was the immunisation support programme. All those projects have now been buried on account of the factionalisation of the forum.

However, it is not as if genuine critics of the forum did not have solid reasons for their objections. One of such criticisms was the use of the forum by the governors for the projection of political points against other political stakeholders.