SINCE the sudden lift in the political fortunes and strength of the opposition groups, which have transformed into the All Progressives Congress (APC), unfolding events in the landscape have continued to create anxiety and fear in the minds of patriots and interested observers.
This is so as the fate of the leadership of the country is hanging in the balance.
One of the most recent of such unfolding events is the call by the APC on the National Assembly to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan following an 18-page letter written to him by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The letter contained many explosive allegations made against President Jonathan, with the APC weighing on the accusations to want the president be removed “before he crashes the country.”
The National Assembly has not heeded the call to commence impeachment moves against Jonathan. Indeed, the Senate on Tuesday dismissed the call off-handedly.
However, in the light of yesterday’s announced defection of 37 National Assembly members and five governors who had defected earlier from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, the opposition is now in the majority in the Assembly.
Consequently, the fears are being raised that the APC members could heed the call of the party hierarchy to remove President Jonathan from office via impeachment.
Even when it is heart-warming that the Senate had dismissed the call, that may not be enough deterrence, if the comments of the APC Leader in the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, is given consideration.
Gbajabiamila had boasted during the week that the House has more than one impeachable offence against Jonathan.
In particular, he warned that should the PDP go ahead to unseat the five new governors of the APC, the national legislators would react in-like manner against President Jonathan.
In the interim, a barrage of reactions has trailed the call on the National Assembly to commence impeachment process against Jonathan.
The demand by the APC was contained in statement by its interim National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said that the call was made with a high sense of responsibility and the strong belief that the impeachment of the president was a legitimate constitutional option available to the National Assembly “not only to protect the nation’s democracy, but also to ensure the country’s unity.”
Mohammed challenged the lawmakers to rise beyond partisanship and save Nigeria from imminent collapse by immediately kick-starting the process of impeaching Jonathan, for what he called “gross misconduct.”
In a strong term, the statement said: “If the National Assembly fails to act and do so very fast, it will share with the clueless and feckless Jonathan.”
But in a swift reaction, the Presidency condemned the call, which it said showed the desperation of the APC for power.
It vowed that it would not hesitate to bring a charge of treason against those behind the move.
However, in their reactions to the APC call, some Nigerians urged the National Assembly to ignore the impeachment call, while others said it was a matter Nigerians should view with seriousness and give it the attention it deserved.
To Chief Ebenezer Babatope, a former Minister of Transport and member of the PDP Board of Trustees, “the impeachment call was a wild and empty bravado, one that cannot materialise and would in no way benefit the to anything APC.”
Babatope called on the National Assembly to ignore the call for, saying, he knows “the voice of democracy will surely override the voices of anti-democratic forces.”
He posited that what was before Nigerians and the president “is beyond the frivolities now characterising the activities of a losing, and visionless APC, a party that knows nothing other than to feed on the carcasses.”
Former Nigerian envoy to Ethiopia, Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, is of the view that the impeachment of a sitting president is a purely constitutional matter.
“The Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression and also stipulates the procedure for impeaching Mr. President,” she said.
Toyo, who is a member of the House of Representatives said: “I have no doubt that with last week’s high profile letter by our former president and a host of other commentaries, the call by the opposition can be situated in a similar context.
“All forms of views remain essential for a democracy and such a call is at best a call for a debate and engagement of the issues by the ruling party not necessarily Mr. President.
“I have no doubt that at the appropriate time, reactions will follow.
“For the National Assembly, every debate and discussion is within our primary mandate and we remain committed to address things in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians and therefore will not be thrown into bipartisan war of words.”
Another member of House of Representatives, Dr. Stella Dorgu, described the call for impeachment as frivolous and called on the country’s political class to desist from heating up the political landscape.
According to her: “What has President Jonathan done to deserve impeachment? Has he violated any constitutional provision?
“I think our political class should stop heating up the polity unnecessarily. Have they read what the Constitution says about impeaching the president?
“Impeachment process is a grave issue that should not be toyed with just like that. I think this is just borne out of frivolity. Everything should not be reduced to political gerrymandering.”
Also considering the call as not only amusing but insincere, the General Secretary, United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDESS), Mr. Tony Uranta, said while such call is not new to our democratic system, “there are sinister motives behind this particular one.”
He described it as mere calculated attempt to undermine President Jonathan and his concerted effort to revamp Nigeria, “most especially with the ongoing plan to convene a national conference.
Saying that there is the need for more clarification, Uranta said, “it is very unfortunate that since Jonathan emerged as the president in 2011, some selected set of people have vowed to make the country ungovernable for him, and they have done everything within their capacity to ground the Nigeria under him.”
Wondering whether the call for Jonathan’s impeachment by the APC has anything to do with the recent letter by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to Jonathan, the UNDESS secretary said:
“While I have nothing against the letter, Obasanjo is equally more guilty of what he accused President Jonathan of in his letter.
“To me, I think all the past rulers of Nigeria deserve to explain to us what they did, rather than pointing accusing fingers as at now that we are looking forward to using the conference to address so many wrongs in the country.”
Uranta said instead of calling for the impeachment of Jonathan, “the ongoing National Conference should be allowed as a means to provide veritable solution to all the problems in the country.”
He, however, warned that the Niger Delta people would resist any back-door attempt to stop President Jonathan from running for a second term in office.
“It is becoming obvious that every move and the body languages of some retired generals and politicians are suggesting nothing other than the president shouldn’t run for second term,” he said, stressing, “we the Niger Delta people would not allow it.”
According to him: “If his (Jonathan’s) party (PDP) refused to field him and or if Nigerians did not vote for him is another case, but it would be unacceptable if some people decide to stop Jonathan from contesting in 2015.
“Nigeria is at present enjoying peace and it is better we remain peaceful.”
The call to impeach Jonathan also did not go down well with Chief Owolabi Salis, a PDP chieftain in Lagos State, who contested the party’s National Secretary with Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola last year.
Salis noted that those calling for the removal of Jonathan were not just enemies of democracy, but were enemies of the country, “whose sole objective is to plunge the country into anarchy.”
The party leader, who described Obasanjo as a loyal member of the PDP and a foremost patriot who would not want Nigeria to break up, warned the APC not to climb on the former president’s letter to bring down the country.
He lamented that the APC, because of its desperation for power, has refused to see the good work Jonathan is doing in the aviation sector, the power sector and the national dialogue, which he recently inaugurated.
Mr. Yinka Odumakin, a top notch of the Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group, said the APC’s call for Jonathan’s impeachment was part of the orchestrated and masterminded plans “to disorganise the president, to frustrate the proposed conference and force the agenda of certain set of calibre and powerbrokers, who have held the nation to ransom since the sixties that Nigeria obtained independence.”
“The call for Jonathan’s impeachment didn’t come as a surprise, but a thing that should give every Nigerians serious concern,” Odumakin said.
“I am bothered looking at the entire scenario when the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the defected governors went to visit the retired generals, whom Obasanjo referred to one after the other in his letter.
“Thereafter, the G-5 Governors and their cohorts merged with the APC. After the merger, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, came up with a bombshell to lampoon President Jonathan after which Obasanjo came up with this letter.
“Three days after the letter, we are again being fed with APC’s masterstroke card, ‘impeach Jonathan,’ all within weeks. There must be something amiss going on and there is the need for Nigerians to be weary.
“I think we should rather wait to allow Mr. President respond to some of the allegations before calling for his impeachment.”
Odumakin added that the entire game plan was targeted at destroying the planned national dialogue “where Nigerians are getting set to trash all the issues hampering the development of the country.
Also reacting to the vilification of President Jonathan, a member of the PDP in Ogun State, Prince Buruji Kashamu, said Nigerians should be allowed to decide between what is good and what is bad.
As he asked: “What do you expect the opposition to say about the Jonathan? They have concluded that anything Jonathan is doing or has done is bad.
“What I want all Nigerians to understand is that those people that are bent on pulling down Jonathan’s administration at all cost, as if Nigerians have no choice in the matter, are the enemies of this nation.
“I call them enemies of Nigeria because millions of Nigerians voted in the 2011 presidential election for Jonathan. We decided through the ballot box that Jonathan should rule us for four years; the onus is now on us to support him to succeed.
“If we don’t want him, that should be kept within and when another election comes, we decide through our votes.”
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