Last resort as first resort 

MAHMUD JEGA VIEW FROM THE GALLERY

There have been three attempts in thirty-three months to impeach Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara. That means, an attempt is made every eleven months to impeach him by 26 out of 32 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. If this latest effort succeeds, Fubara will be only the seventh state governor since 1981 to be impeached and removed from office in Nigeria, two of them later reversed.

Impeachment for purely political reasons was kicked off in Nigeria in June 1981 when NPN members of the [old] Kaduna State House of Assembly, whose party ruled at the Federal level, impeached Governor Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa after nearly two years of hot ideological battles. No other governor was impeached in the life of the Second Republic but in this Fourth Republic, rapid-fire impeachment of governors took place between 2005 and 2007 during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term in office.

Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was impeached in December 2005. In January 2006, Governor of Oyo State Rashidi Ladoja [recently installed as Olubadan of Ibadan] was impeached. Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose was impeached in October 2006 and in November 2006, six out of 30 members of Plateau State House of Assembly impeached Governor Joshua Dariye. All four governors were impeached at Obasanjo’s behest, essentially due to political quarrels although corruption and misconduct were always alleged. Sometimes with good reasons, though; Dariye was arrested in the UK with hoard of cash; Alams jumped bail in the UK after his arrest for alleged money laundering. Ladoja however was impeached because he fell out with Ibadan strongmen Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, as Obasanjo himself stated at former Governor Alao Akala’s book launch. Though the courts later reversed some of the impeachments, Federal hanky panky was evident in Ladoja’s case when then Attorney General Chief Bayo Ojo stopped the Police from providing him with security escort to resume his seat after victories in the High and Appeal courts, saying he must await Supreme Court ruling. In November 2006 Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, who had been instated by the courts only eight months earlier after a protracted legal fight, was impeached by the PDP dominated State Assembly, though the courts reversed it.

In terms of impeachment, the most fatal executive office in Nigeria since 1979 has been the Deputy Governor’s office. At the last count, Deputy Governors have been impeached or otherwise forced to resign in 19 states. Rivers State deputy governor Mrs-Ngozi Odu, now joined in the Fubara impeachment notice, might swell their number. In 1982, as part of the split within the Peoples Redemption Party [PRP], Kano State Governor Mohammed Abubakar Rimi got the state assembly to impeach his deputy, Ibrahim Bibi Faruk. In this Fourth Republic, deputy governors have been impeached in nineteen states. They include Iyiola Omisore of Osun State in November 2022; Abubakar Abdullahi Argungu of Kebbi State in December 2022;Madam Kofo Akerele Bucknor  of Lagos December 2022; Ibrahim Shehu Kwatalo and Ubale Shittu both of Jigawa State 2001 and 2003;  John Oyom Okpa of Cross River in January 2003; Enyinnaya Abaribe of Abia State in March 2003; Uba Maigari Ahmadu of Taraba State in March 2004; Abiodun Aluko of Ekiti State in September 2005; Chris Ekpenyong of Akwa-Ibom State in 2005; Otunba Femi Pedro of Lagos State in May 2007; Alhaji Garba Gadi of Bauchi State in 2009; Peremobowei Ebebi of Bayelsa State in June 2010; Sani Abubakar Danladi of Taraba State in 2012; Jude Agbaso of Imo State in 2013; Sunday Onyebuchi of Enugu State in August 2014; Ali Olanusi of Ondo State in 2015; Eze Madumere of Imo State July 2018; Simon Achuba of Kogi State in 2019; Mahdi Aliyu Gusau of Zamfara State in 2022; Rauf Olaniyan of Oyo State in  July 2022 and Phillip Shaibu of Edo State in 2023.

Some of these former deputies, such as Madam Kofo, insists that she was not impeached but apparently resigned when she was served with the impeachment notice. Some State Assemblies went ahead to impeach deputy governors even after they resigned, as in Cross River State. In Sokoto State in March 2006, Deputy Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko resigned moments before the State Assembly, at Governor Attahiru Bafarawa’s behest, voted to impeach him. While the courts reversed some of the impeachments, such as in Kogi and Edo, state assemblies themselves rather reversed one, Femi Pedro’s in Lagos, but only after their terms in office had expired.

Although reasons were always adduced to support impeachment of deputy governors, in all cases the not-so-hidden motive was falling out with the governor politically. Mrs. Akerele said then Governor Bola Tinubu initiated her impeachment because she refused his plan to confiscate leadership of their Alliance for Democracy [AD] party from its gerontocratic leaders. Garba Gadi was impeached in Bauchi because he refused to follow Governor Isa Yuguda to defect from ANPP to PDP.  Ali Olanusi of Ondo was impeached, at the behest of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, for alleged absenteeism [to do what in a redundant office?].

A big rigmarole took place in Taraba State in 2012 when deputy governor Sani Abubakar Danladi was impeached at the behest of Governor Danbaba Suntai. Garba Umar UTC was sworn-in as replacement and he became Acting Governor in October that year when Suntai was injured in a plane crash. According to pundits at the time, Suntai’s godfather General T.Y. Danjuma did not like UTC’s speculated 2015 governorship ambitions, so a court case was engineered that quashed Danladi’s impeachment; he was then installed as Acting Governor with a promise not to contest for governor in 2015, thus paving the way for T.Y’s godson Darius Ishaku. Also curious was the 2023 impeachment of Zamfara’s deputy governor Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed, who remained in PDP when his governor Bello Mutawalle defected to APC. Edo’s Shaibu was impeached in 2003 because he insisted on contesting for governor even though Governor Obaseki had anointed someone else.

Impeaching an elected governor, or for that matter an elected deputy governor, is supposed to be a very serious matter under the 1999 Constitution. Why because, a person who got into office due to millions or even hundreds of thousands of votes should be removed from office by no more than a few dozen legislators only under grave circumstances. During the impeachment and Senate trial of US President Bill Clinton during the Monicagate scandal in 1996, I heard a Harvard University constitutional law professor saying on CNN that ordinarily, an elected person should be allowed to complete his tenure and voters should be allowed the chance to pass a verdict on him in the next election. However, he said, impeachment should be undertaken in the gravest circumstances when allowing the person to remain in office could imperil the Republic. While President Clinton’s frolicking with a White House intern and lying about it was descending very low morally, I believe the Harvard professor implied that it hardly amounted to imperiling the Republic.

Now, whenever state legislators embark on impeaching governor or deputy governor here, they draw up charges as required by the Constitution and allege misconduct and other issues. They never mention the real reason for the impeachment, which almost always is falling out with the governor, with a godfather or with the president. Former President Obasanjo was a complex man who often did the right things in the wrong way. He probably had good reasons to be angry with Dariye, Fayose and Alamieyeseigha, but engineering their impeachment was very well for political reasons. In Ladoja’s case, the President’s hand became visible when Ladoja won his cases at the High and Appeal Courts but Attorney General Bayo Ojo stopped the police from providing him with security escort to resume his seat, until he won at the Supreme Court. PDP national chairman Dr Ahmadu Ali sensationally said that Ladoja must submit to the authority of the Garrison Commander, i.e. the Presidency-backed Lamidi Adedibu.

It is true, I believe, that many of our elected leaders commit impeachable offences every day, such as spending money without appropriation, withholding funds of local governments despite a Supreme Court ruling, receiving bribes from contractors, money laundering or operating secret foreign bank accounts. Luckily, frolicking with a Youth Corper or High School student is not regarded as an impeachable offense here. While the 1999 Constitution as amended never intended falling out with a godfather to be an impeachable offence, it has become the main impeachable offence here, though Only it is never listed in the Articles of Impeachment that are served to a person. A tool of last resort has become the tool of first resort here.

How will it be, for instance, if the Rivers Assembly for once decides to be truthful, stops beating about the bush and states in the impeachment  notice to Governor Fubara that, “Whereas you fell out with our Political Godfather, Nyesom Nzom Wike; you refused to take orders from him; you are nursing an ambition to run for a second term even though he will not anoint you; you defected to APC without his approval; you are trying to substitute his leadership with your own by getting APC National Chairman and National Secretary to say you are now the Leader of APC in Rivers State; and you keep Rivers State Treasury to yourself and deny access to the Godfather…”