Jonathan in Obasanjo’s shoes

Written by Kunle Oderemi.

One can only guess what former President Olusegun Obasanjo could be making out of the unfolding political drama between the executive and Lower Chamber of the National Assembly. Last week, the House of Representatives’ members issued an impeachment threat to President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged constitutional breaches. Could Obasanjo, who is now tending his chickens at his farm in Ota, Ogun State farm, dey laugh again? Maybe, in the days ahead, he might volunteer a few words or another weird coinage depicting the scenario as the counter down to the September ultimatum given by the House if the impeachment plot progresses.
About 10 years ago, the country was the threatre of a similar ‘comedy of errors.’ Obasanjo had come under a grueling experience in the hands of the House when Alhaji Umar Ghali Na’Abbah was Speaker. In the midst of the battle, a popular news magazine had tagged Na’Abbah a tyrant because of his intransigence on the impeachment move against Obasanjo, while the latter was described by some critics as an ‘unteachable’ dictator and bull in a China Shop, averse to all democratic finesse and ethos. The Senate soon joined the impeachment plot with Senator Jonathan Zwingwina from Adamawa State moving the enabling motion. The plot was a climax to a face-off between Obasanjo and the leaders of the National Assembly over what was generally seen as an imperial presidency after a deranged millitarianism.
Though the action of the lawmakers had elicited anger from certain quarters, only a few individuals had given Obasanjo a chance of surviving the onslaught from the legislative arm of government, because of the grounds enunciated by the initiators of the plot. Coupled with it was the fact that the principal characters behind the ploy were members of the ‘behemoth,’ PDP, which controlled majority in the legislature and formed the executive. This was aside from the fact that the plot was coming from those forces that actually foisted the Obasanjo presidency on the nation.
Then, the plot against the man was hinged on some fundamental provisions of the 1999 Constitution. One of the 17-point grounds the House listed was the non-implementation of federal Appropriation Acts for three consecutive years. On its part, the Senate was convinced that the executive was “totally incapable of restoring peace and stability to the polity and throughout the nation.”
Interestingly, some dramatis personae in the episode then remain key players in the current political dispensation.. The present Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria [SGF], Chief Anyim Pius Anyim was the President of the Senate then; Chief Audu Ogbeh, now a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN], was the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP], while Lawan Farouk, who is in the eye of the storm over the $620,000 fuel subsidy bribery allegation, was the Chairman, House Committee on Information.
Obasanjo and members of the National Assembly cannot be said to the best of friends now. He has criticised them perhaps, more stridently than any other single individual or group. On the other hand, the lawmakers have never failed to deliver severe jabs at his jugular for occasionally treating them with disdain. But the current impeachment saga is coming at a time the former leader is seen to be in a love lost relationship with his political son in Aso Rock, just as Jonathan is believed not to enjoy the most cordial relationship with the House based on some critical state matters, which means that the stage appears set for the reenactment of the 2002 conundrum.
It is also noteworthy that the greatest irony about the botched move to sack Obasanjo 10 years ago from the Presidency was that the initial plot was hatched by the opposition, but which was scuttled in the Senate before it could even commence. An All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP], Idris Abubakar, had brought the motion on the floor of the Senate, but it was dead on arrival because of the antics of PDP, as the eloquent senator had accused the president of failing to implement the 2001 and 2002 budgets as passed by the National Assembly.
But some weeks after, the House decided to toe the line and provided details of the expenditures Obasanjo had engaged in without recourse to the National Assembly for appropriation to warrant the move against him. Among them were that he purchased 51 houses for ministers without recourse to the legislature; releasing N12 billion to a construction firm, as well as having spent N60 billion on the National Stadium, Abuja.
Just as we have now, there was a conspiracy theory on the move by the lawmakers to send Obasanjo back to his Ota farm prematurely. Many amorphous groups decided to cry more than the bereaved. Rather than addressing issues, some ethnic jingoists went shadow-chasing. Yet, the president had consistently said the country was still in a learning process on the ethos of democracy and the belief was that the action of the National Assembly was meant to put the 1999 through a rigorous but genuine and sincere democratic test. So, that singular effort to test national political maturity at the centre was eventually sacrificed on the altar of gimmickry with some centrifugal and centripetal forces acting as facilitators at the height of what had promised to be a historic battle. Thus, we were taking for a ride by the political, nay ruling elite.
Suffice to say the current impeachment threat from the House does not amount to guilt by the president of the accusation of constitutional breaches against him. Therefore, we must show uttermost restraint so as to avoid infantile arguments that could engender further tension in the land. The onus is on his accusers to provide sufficient proof and evidence about the grave allegation that he had indeed failed to uphold the constitution concerning federal appropriation. Nigerians needs facts and not fictions; reality as opposed to fantasies; truth as against falsehood to arrive at an appropriate conclusion on the issue on who is right and who is only playing to the gallery. It is the responsibility of both sides to avail the public with those facts on the allegations by not subjecting us to Gestapo tactics, which have reduced Nigerian politics to the phenomenon of Ghana-must-Go. It should not be another season for clairvoyants and self-styled mavericks, who want to feather their individual nests.
Let’s give the two camps the benefit of doubts on the current impasse, as each should know what constitutional breaches. I am not too sure the House would want to embark on a sensitive matter such impeachment, with all the inherent intricacies and booby traps when it lacked sufficient evidence and proof to prosecute and sustain it, as the consequence would be too grave for the initiators. Neither would the Presidency deliberately flout the provisions of constitution, which encapsulates the grund norms for democratic rule and good governance in the country.