Jonathan’s impeachment: How far can the reps go?
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
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How
far can the members of the House of Representatives go in their threat
to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan over his alleged
non-implementation of this year’s fiscal budget?
This is the knotty question in Nigerians’ minds.
The Reps had, at one of their sittings,
condemned the poor implementation of the 2012 budget and resolved that
the government must achieve 100 per cent implementation by the time they
resume in September. Otherwise, they said, they would commence
impeachment proceedings against the President.
Jonathan, during the presentation of the
2012 budget christened, “Fiscal Consolidation, Inclusive Growth and Job
Creation,” admitted Nigeria “can only progress in this course and turn
our possibilities into reality when we diligently adhere to the
implementation of well- thought-out and articulated developmental
policies.”
Spearheading the sanction is the
Minority Leader of the House and member of the Action Congress of
Nigeria, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who warned, “If, by September 18, the
budget performance has not improved to 100 per cent, we shall begin to
invoke and draw up articles of impeachment against Mr. President.”
He cited Section 143 of the 1999
Constitution to buttress his position, saying the action of the
President amounted to “gross misconduct” and constituted sufficient
grounds to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.
Section 143 (1) of the constitution says
the President or Vice-President may be removed from office “whenever a
notice of any allegation in writing, signed by not less than one-third
of the members of the National Assembly” is presented to the Senate
President, stating that the holder of the office is guilty of “gross
misconduct” in the performance of his official duties.
The original motion on the alleged
non-implementation of the budget was moved by the Chairman, House
Committee on Rules/Business, Albert Sam-Tsokwa, who sought an interface
between Jonathan and the leadership of the House on why it had been
difficult for Ministries Departments and Agencies to fully implement the
budget.
In response, the Federal Government has
admitted that it could not achieve 100 per cent budget implementation by
September, as ordered by the lawmakers. Indeed, the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, argued that achieving 100 per cent
budget implementation was not feasible.
She identified some of the challenges
facing the efficient implementation of the budget to include the
inadequate time frame needed to get the designs and conduct feasibility
studies for constituency and new projects in the budget, as well as the
problem of movement of funds by the National Assembly from one category
to another, to where ministers could implement the budget.
As the Reps were perfecting the impeachment strategies, the Senate may also support them.
It is regrettable that over the years,
the budgetary process has suffered delay for a number of reasons,
ranging from inadequate planning, to the late submission of estimates,
too long a period for its passage, faulty procedure for scrutinising the
budget, corruption, poor implementation and inadequate mechanisms for
monitoring.
In most cases, budgets are approved as
late as the third quarter of the fiscal year. Worse still, supplementary
budgets are usually concluded at the tail end of the financial year.
All these flops do not allow for proper execution of projects,
coordination of programmes and the overall monitoring of the budget,
resulting in decay of infrastructure and economic challenges.
A World Bank chief, Onno Ruhl, in
allAfrica.com noted that “what happens to the budget is that the
projects are there without all the necessary plans. There is a debate
between the government and the National Assembly on why the budget did
not get implemented; it would never get implemented because there were
no plans. This is what people skip when they want to talk about
political debates. Even if you have those plans, my experience is that
any project always takes longer than the plan, not just in Nigeria, but
also in other places.”
It is evident, therefore, that the
problem of budget delays and non-compliance with its implementation is a
virus that must be tackled if the nation must operate a sound fiscal
system.
I wonder how far the lawmakers can go in
their adventure, going by the odds against them and the growing
division among them and the apparent absence of a common purpose,
coupled with the crisis of credibility arising from the bribery
allegations levelled against members over the years.
Again, the House may never be taken
seriously, going by the way previous impeachment threats have gone,
culminating into the widely-held opinion that the legislators could
soft-pedal once they are ‘settled.’ In other words, they threaten the
Executive whenever they are ‘broke.’
Gbajabiamila has raised the alarm that a
faceless and amorphous group has been after him since he moved that
Jonathan should be impeached if he failed to do the right thing.
He said, “To the discerning, it is clear
where these attacks are coming from and, indeed, a crying shame that an
elected representative can no longer speak freely in defence of those
who elected him and in the interest of the country.
“I find it rather curious that these
attacks came within three days of my moving for articles of impeachment
against Mr. President come September 18 if the proper thing is not done
and the constitution and laws of the country continue to be violated.
“At no time did I ever think taking on a
powerful office would be a tea party or would not produce virulent
attacks. Such would be naivety on my part. However, I am propelled by
the belief that the hottest part of hell is reserved for those who say
nothing when they should.”
For now, Jonathan’s party, the Peoples
Democratic Party, has admitted that the “President is making errors that
require impeachment,” but vows that it will not force the House to
change its mind.
Is the impeachment threat ‘business as usual’ or a joke carried too far? Time will definitely tell!
Kupoluyi wrote from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, vide adewalekupoluyi@yahoo.co.uk
