Impeachment | Zikoko!

A minority group of federal lawmakers caused a stir on July 27th, 2022, when they threatened to impeach President Buhari for being incompetent.

The seriousness of the threat is, among other things, betrayed by the fact that no Nigerian president has ever been impeached. But that spotless record isn’t the same when it comes to state governors in Nigeria.

The Nigerian impeachment process isn’t set up to be easy to pull off. Even a bribe-taker caught on tape can escape it.

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To be impeached from office can mean a lot of things — you’re the worst of the worst, there’s a powerful political godfather who hates your guts or you don’t possess enough political clout to ensure that kind of disgrace never reaches your door. Or all of the above.

Here are the governors who belong to the exclusive club of impeached executives in Nigeria’s democratic history:

Joshua Dariye

Don’t let the tears fool you

Joshua Dariye’s run as Plateau State governor, and as a politician, has been nothing short of dramatic. He won his first election as governor in 1999, and again in 2003, which is when things start to get interesting.

President Obasanjo accused the governor of failing to manage a religious crisis that caused bloodshed in the state, declared a state of emergency and suspended Dariye in May 2004.

While on suspension, British police officers arrested the governor in a London hotel in September 2004. They charged him with money laundering but released him on bail and he simply never returned.

He fled back to Nigeria just in time to resume office when the state of emergency expired in November 2004. But this isn’t how Dariye’s story ends.

Plateau State lawmakers impeached Dariye in November 2006 on suspicion of corruption. He disappeared into hiding, from where he fought his impeachment which was invalidly carried out by only six of the state’s 24 lawmakers.

He won the case and returned to the Government House again in April 2007, just one month to the end of his second term. But this isn’t the end of Dariye’s story.

Immediately after he lost his immunity as governor, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) started prosecuting him for stealing over ₦1 billion from the state’s treasury. Despite his criminal case, he went on to win senatorial elections in 2011 and 2015. But his luck finally ran out in 2018 and an FCT High Court sentenced him to 14 years in prison. That’s still not the end of Dariye’s story.

Dariye appealed his sentence, and the Supreme Court reduced it to 10 years. And because Dariye never gives up, President Buhari granted him a presidential pardon in April 2022. He’s currently awaiting release.

ALSO READ: Why Everyone Is Angry Buhari Pardoned Two Thieves for Easter

Diepreye Alamieyeseigha

Like Dariye, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was also serving his second term as Bayelsa State governor when police officers arrested him in London for money laundering in September 2005.

The police found more than £1 million in cash in his London home but still granted him bail. This decision turned out to be a mistake.

Like Dariye, Alamieyeseigha jumped bail and ran back to Nigeria, reportedly disguising himself as a woman.

Bonjour lamasi?

But unlike Dariye, he returned home to impeachment breakfast and was immediately arrested for corruption. He later pleaded guilty to six charges of corruption and was jailed for two years on each count. Goodluck Jonathan, his deputy governor who went on to become president, controversially granted him a presidential pardon in 2013.

He died of cardiac arrest two years later.

ALSO READ: How To Impeach An Incompetent President

Ayo Fayose

“I am the drama!”

Ayo Fayose is remarkable for being the first governor in Ekiti State to serve two terms, but he didn’t complete his first one because he was dragged out of his chair through impeachment.

Fayose won his first election in 2003, but Ekiti lawmakers removed him from office in October 2006 over corruption allegations. They accused him of diverting state funds to do la vida loca for himself and his family.

His deputy, Biodun Olujimi, was also impeached, so the lawmakers swore in the House Speaker, Friday Aderemi, as acting governor instead. This caused a constitutional crisis and forced President Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency, swearing in Tunji Olurin as Ekiti’s sole administrator.

Fayose fled Nigeria while the impeachment process concluded and didn’t return until the heat on him died down. He contested for the governor’s seat again in 2014 and won.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the lawmakers didn’t impeach Fayose in a valid process. The governor briefly flirted with the idea of asking the court to let him contest a third time because of the illegal impeachment, but it never materialised.

Peter Obi

Peter Obi is the first Nigerian governor to win his mandate through the courts. INEC declared Chris Ngige the winner of the 2003 Anambra State governorship election but Obi contested it in court.

When he won three years later, he took office in March 2006. But lawmakers impeached him seven months later for alleged misappropriation of funds and booted him out of office. But he didn’t stay down.

Obi ran back to the courts and won yet again for a triumphant return to office in February 2007. But when Andy Uba won the 2007 governorship election, Obi had to vacate once again in May 2007.

He went to the courts, again, to argue that he’s entitled to four years as governor starting from 2006 when he assumed office.

This is probably how he addressed the courts every time he returned there

The Supreme Court agreed with him, again, and he returned to office in June 2007 where he remained till 2014 when his second term expired.

Rasheed Ladoja

Rasheed Ladoja won the 2003 Oyo State governorship election on the back of support from the influential Lamidi Adedibu. When the two fell out later, lawmakers impeached the governor in January 2006.

He challenged the impeachment and won at both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. This allowed him to return to the governor’s seat in December 2006, but he failed to win his party’s ticket for a second term. Attempts to contest for a second term in 2011 and 2015 also met brick walls.

Ladoja faced the customary probe from the EFCC, but he beat his ₦4.7 billion fraud case and the court acquitted him after 11 years of trial in 2019.

Murtala Nyako

Murtala Nyako’s two terms as governor of Adamawa State governor isn’t any less dramatic than any of the other governors on this list.

He won his first election in 2007, but the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal annulled his victory in 2008 due to electoral malpractices.

Nyako won the election again and returned to office two months later. But the state’s House of Assembly made impeachment moves against him. He survived the plot and even won a re-election in 2012. But he was back on the chopping block two years later.

Dread it, run from it, impeachment arrives all the same

The House of Assembly accused the governor of mismanagement, investigated him, found him guilty of gross misconduct and impeached him in July 2014.

The Supreme Court later overturned the impeachment in 2016, but didn’t reinstate him to office.

The lesson to learn here is if it’s not dramatic and/or very likely illegal, then it’s not a Nigerian impeachment.

ALSO READ: Why You Shouldn’t Hold Your Breath for Buhari’s Impeachment
For a country that doesn’t have a history of exceptional leadership, it’s such a wonder that Nigeria has never impeached a democratically-elected president before.

The only way to explain that is that political interests at the national level are too entrenched to pull off an impeachment — plus the complicated process of removing an elected president from office.

But Buhari is now facing threats of removal if he doesn’t get his act together and fix everything in six weeks.

What’s the real tea?

During a plenary session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 27th, 2022, senators on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dramatically walked out of the chamber.

‘Buhari Must Go’ Senators Say, Stage Walk Out

Some senators walked out of the red chamber on Wednesday, in protest at the worsening insecurity in Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/6fKYHbbeGy
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) July 27, 2022

The protest happened shortly after the end of a two-hour closed-door executive session. This is the kind of session where the senators discuss things they don’t want the public to feast on.

When they resumed regular session and let the media and public back inside the chamber, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, just wanted things to proceed as outlined on the day’s agenda. But the Minority Leader, Philip Aduda, said, “Hold on, wait a minute. Aren’t we forgetting something?”

The something Aduda was referring to was a discussion during the closed-door session that involved Buhari. Apparently, senators expressed their disappointment about how the president has handled Nigeria’s security crisis so badly.

They’d agreed to publicly ask him to fix the situation in six weeks or face impeachment, but Lawan failed to allow the issue to be tabled when they resumed the public session.

Aduda then staged a walkout with other senators in minority parties, before briefing the media on what they’re cooking.

ALSO READ: How Zamfara Deputy Governor Played the Game of Thrones and Lost

Will Buhari be impeached?

The impeachment position of the rebellious senators resonates with a section of Nigerians, but there are a number of reasons it’s doomed to fail.

APC majority won’t let it happen

This is kind of straightforward. The APC controls a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. For a Nigerian president to be impeached, a two-thirds majority of all National Assembly members must be on board once a notice is served.

Just by the pure politics of it alone, there’s no way an impeachment proceeding will fly in an APC-dominated parliament. As hopeful as it is to believe Nigerian lawmakers can put party loyalties aside and evaluate Nigeria’s dire situation more objectively, it’s unlikely to happen.

Buhari has survived impeachment threats before

If there’s a Nigerian politician who has nine lives, his name is Buhari. He didn’t contest for the presidency five times, survive a bomb attack and battle mysterious illnesses, to fall to impeachment.

This isn’t the first time Nigerian lawmakers have threatened Buhari with impeachment over incompetence on security. But the history of those threats shows it’s all bark and no bite. An impeachment notice for Buhari will likely never even reach the floor of the National Assembly.

It’s all political theatre

If the senators that threatened to impeach Buhari are actually serious about it, they’d just go ahead and do it. Instead, they’ve set him a deadline of six weeks to solve the insecurity he’s failed to solve in seven years. What would be the metric of success in six weeks? Less frequent terrorist attacks or an impossible zero? How will they determine his success or failure? What’ll happen when the Senate resumes from its “summer break” in September?

There’s a timeline issue

Even if all of the points that have come before this are irrelevant and protesting lawmakers actually have a shot at removing the president, there’s a question of if it’s worth the trouble. Impeachment is a long and tedious process that gets very political and messy. It all seems like unnecessarily rocking the boat for a president with 10 months left to retirement.

But, in any case, we watch and wait.

ALSO READ: How To Impeach An Incompetent President
Zamfara state deputy governor, Mahdi Aliyu, secured a court order on July 19, 2021 that protected him from removal from office. But he was removed on February 23, 2022.

Officially, the reasons for Aliyu’s impeachement are abuse of office, criminal self-enrichment and failure to discharge official duties. But the real reason for why he got booted out is a simple tale of power struggle.

This is the story of how he ended up here.

Genesis

Aliyu and Governor Bello Matawalle were candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 Zamfara governorship election.

It wasn’t much of a secret that Matawalle chose Aliyu as his running mate because of the political influence of Aliyu’s father, the retired General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau.

The two lost the governorship election to the All Progressives Congress (APC). But it turned out the winners didn’t conduct valid primary elections, so the Supreme Court handed Matawalle and Aliyu the keys to the kingdom.

And they lived happily ever after. Until they didn’t.

Trouble in paradise

As many Nigerian politicians tend to do at some point, Matawalle decided in June 2021 to jump from PDP to APC. The governor dragged many federal and state legislators with him to hand back to the APC all the seats they lost in the Supreme Court.

Sidebar: Can he even do that?

Because candidates can only be sponsored by political parties for elections in Nigeria, votes actually go to parties, not the candidates. This means that if an elected candidate is holding an office but leaves their party before their tenure is over, they should not retain that office.

The constitution states clearly that lawmakers that change parties must lose their seats, except for specific circumstances. However, this is hardly ever enforced. And the recommendation of such punishment doesn’t exist for other public office holders like governors who do the same.

So the answer to “Can he even do that?” is Yes. I guess?

Back to the troubled paradise

As the son of an influential PDP member, Aliyu refused to defect to the APC with Matawalle. State lawmakers who dumped the PDP suddenly found him in violation of a bunch of things to get him removed from office.

One of the first things Aliyu did was to request and get that July 2021 restraining order by the court to block the attempt. And then like any self-respecting politician, he went on the offensive.

Despite the law not being clear on removing a defecting governor, Aliyu and the PDP wanted the courts to step in once again and remove the traitors that joined the APC. They asked the court to order Matawalle’s resignation, and give free rein for PDP to conduct a fresh election within three months to replace him.

Aliyu was well placed, no doubt, to become the beneficiary of that election since he took over the party’s structure following Matawalle’s exit. It was the perfect play, but only if everyone agreed to play by the rules.

Zamfara lawmakers said:

Breakfast is served

The Zamfara House of Assembly announced on February 7, 2022 that it had served Aliyu an impeachment notice for abuse of office, among other things. The lawmakers claimed that they didn’t really intend to impeach him when he got his court order in July 2021. They explained that they actually invited him for a separate issue at the time, and that the court order only allowed him to escape that invitation.

Aliyu ran back to the Federal High Court in Abuja on February 14, 2022 to ask that the restraining order be reactivated. The court said:

The court did not grant the requested restraining order, but promised to hear the case on March 10, 2022 instead.

Around the same time, the Zamfara state Chief Judge, Kulu Aliyu, moved at the speed of light to set up a panel to determine the merit of the allegations against Aliyu. The deputy governor went on to call the Chief Judge an idiot. Not directly, but he did say that she was allowing herself to be used by illiterates in the House of Assembly, which is basically the same thing.

On February 23, 2022, a majority of the House voted to impeach Aliyu, and his fate was sealed. A serving senator, Hassan Nasiha, was nominated to replace him, and he was screened and confirmed by lawmakers on the same day. The impeachment of the old and confirmation of the new took the same amount of time you’d need to cook noodles.

The PDP is still talking tough about violation of court processes something something, but it appears to be the end of Aliyu’s time as deputy governor.

That does not mean that this is the end of his story. He’s already committed to shooting for the throne in the 2023 Zamfara governorship election.

His watch is not over by any stretch of the imagination.
To impeach a president is to charge the president with a crime or misconduct. It is after being found guilty that the president can then be removed from office.

An impeachment process is a very serious process. It amounts to reversing the decision of the people at the elections. This is why not less than two-thirds majority need of elected senators and representatives all need to agree to the removal of the president before he can be removed from office.

The process of charging the president with allegation of gross misconduct is the impeachment itself, after which a removal can happen when the president is found guilty and lawmakers agree to adopt the report against him.

Nigeria’s constitution recognises the process of removal of the president from office on account of “gross misconduct”.

Section 143 of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution explains how Nigeria’s president or vice-president can be removed from office on account of misconduct.

Is Anyone Talking About The Criminality of Imo State’s Criminal Law?

We’ve broken the process into 10 steps:

Step 1: The notice of allegation

A notice of allegation in writing must be signed by not less than one-third of all the members of the national assembly, i.e. one-third of the combined 360 members of the house of representatives and 109 members of the senate, making a total of not less than 157 signatures.The notice of allegation must be presented to the senate president.

Step 2: What must the notice of allegation say?

The notice of allegation must state that the holder of the office of president is guilty of “gross misconduct” in the performance of his official functions, including the particular things he did wrong.

What is gross misconduct, anyway?

The constitution defines a “gross misconduct” as a grave violation or breach of the provisions of the constitution or misconduct that appears to be gross misconduct in the eyes of the national assembly.

Step 3: Allegation is sent to the president and all members of the National assembly

The senate president must, within seven (7) days, deliver a copy of the written allegation to the president and to every member of the national assembly.

Step 4: The president gets to respond:

The senate president must also deliver any statement by the president in response to the allegation to every member of the national assembly, if he has any.

Step 5: Moving the motion to investigate the allegation

Within fourteen (14) days of the notice of the allegation, each house of the national assembly, i.e. senate and house of representatives must decide by a motion, without any debate, whether or not the allegation must be investigated.

The motion must be supported by not less than two-thirds of the members of each of the senate and the house of representatives, i.e. 73 members of the senate and 240 members of the house of representatives.

Step 6: What if the motion is not supported by the required number of members?

If the motion is not supported by this number then the impeachment process ends immediately. If it does, then it moves to the next stage.

Step 7: Appointing the investigation panel

Within seven days of the passage of this motion, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, must, at the request of the senate president, appoint a panel of seven people who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity.

These seven people must not hold any public office, belong to any legislative house or any political party, and they are to investigate the allegations of “gross misconduct”.

The powers and procedures of the panel may be set out by the national assembly.

Step 8: Can the president defend himself at the panel?

The president has the right to do this. defend himself before this panel, and he also has the right to be represented by legal practitioners before the panel.

The powers and procedures of the panel may be set out by the national assembly.

Step 9: On reporting back to the National Assembly

Within three months, the panel must report back findings of its investigation to each house of the national assembly.

What if the allegation cannot be proved?

In a case where the panel reports to each house of the national assembly that the allegation has not been proved, no further action will be taken with respect to the allegation.

What if the allegation can be proved?

Where the panel reports back to each house of the national assembly that the allegation against the president has been proved, then each house of the national assembly must consider the report within fourteen (14) days of receiving it.

Step 10: Adopting the report

If the report of the panel is adopted by not less than two-third members of each house of the national assembly, then the holder of the office of president stands removed from office as from the date of the adoption of the report, but if it is not then the president is not impeached.

Can the court come in at any point?

No proceedings or determination of the panel or the national assembly or any related matter to this process can be entertained or questioned in any court.

But, in order to reduce the abuse of the “impeachment” process by lawmakers, the courts have held in recent court cases that the courts are empowered to determine the legality of the process leading up to the impeachment process.

For instance, the court of appeal held in 2016 that the impeachment of Murtala Nyako, a former governor of Taraba State was void and that the impeachment process was illegal because he was not given fair hearing in the impeachment proceedings by the investigating panel.

#EndSARS: Who Has Powers Over The Nigerian Police?

Impeached Governors In Nigeria

No democratic president has been impeached in Nigeria, but seven democratically elected governors have been impeached.

It is harder to impeach a president because it involves one-third and two-third majorities at the senate and house of representatives at different stages of the process, a majority that is not easy to find. Moreso, many presidents are members of the majority political party in the houses of assembly, which makes it politically hard to impeach the president.

Balarabe Musa of Kaduna State, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, Peter Obi of Anambra State, Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja of Oyo State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State have all been impeached.

Joshua Dariye was impeached on allegations of siphoning public funds and money laundering, while Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was impeached on allegations of theft of public funds, abuse of office and money laundering.

The process of removing a state governor from office on account of gross misconduct follows almost the same process of removing the president from office on account of gross misconduct, except that it is contained in section 188 of the constitution.

How Can You Be Involved In This Process?

In theory, the lawmakers are the representatives of the people. So whatever legislative process they partake in, in the national assembly, is interpreted by the constitution as being done on behalf of the people they are representing. Therefore, an impeachment of the president on allegations of gross misconduct means that the people are the ones impeaching and removing him.

But Nigerian lawmakers can be something else. They, too, might not represent your interest. Which is why we have also explained how they can be recalled.

Read: How To Recall A Silent Senator

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We hope you’ve learned a thing or two about how to unfuck yourself when the Nigerian government moves mad. Check back every weekday for more Zikoko Citizen explainers.

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