NASS Threat to Impeach Buhari

It was a measure of how far relations between the Executive and Legislative arms of government have sunk at the Federal level that on Tuesday last week, June 5, the National Assembly threatened to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari if he did not accede to a list of demands it made. The threat, though thinly veiled, was handed down after a joint session of both chambers of the Assembly.

The threat was a culmination of several weeks’ tug of war between the Senate and Police Inspector General Ibrahim Idris, who refused to appear before it to answer questions about insecurity in the country and instead sent his deputies. Irked by this, Senate declared Idris unfit to hold public office and an enemy of democracy. Not long afterwards, Senate President Bukola Saraki charged that the police were trying to rope him into a crime using some cultists arrested in Kwara State.

That one did not happen but last Sunday, the police paraded the men it said did the dastardly Offa robbery. The men told reporters they were Saraki’s political thugs. They however said he did not send them to do the robbery. Police then declared Saraki wanted for questioning but the next day, after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo intervened, Saraki was told to make a written statement instead. That did not mollify the Assembly, which went ahead to issue a twelve-point joint resolution.

The MPs’ main grouse was contained in resolution two. It said, “The systematic harassment and humiliation by the Executive of perceived political opponents, people with contrary opinions including Legislators and Judiciary by the police and other security agencies must stop.” Resolution 4 said, “The President must be held accountable for the actions of his appointees,” i.e. the IG. NASS threatened to escalate the quarrel by reporting Buhari to IPU, APU, ECOWAS, CPA, Pan African Parliament, EU, UN, US Congress and British Parliament. It then said, “Finally, the National Assembly will not hesitate to evoke its constitutional powers if nothing is done to address the above resolutions passed today.”

A threat to impeach the president is the hottest possible heating up of the polity and we urge NASS to immediately withdraw it. A president installed in office by 25 million voters should be impeached only in the gravest of circumstances. This quarrel with the IG hardly amounts to that. Still, we are also appalled that the Presidency allowed the IG to engage the Assembly in an open confrontation. IG Idris’ repeated refusal to appear before the Senate is a very bad example and very disrespectful of a central democratic institution.

As for the police’s case against Saraki, we reiterate our stand that no one is above the law and the police should investigate anyone where there are reasonable grounds to do so. Whether reasonable grounds exist to link Saraki with the Offa robbery is however doubtful and almost no one believes that the Senate President can rob a bank. The alleged robbers’ leader also said he didn’t send them. If men he used as political thugs did it, they should answer for their crimes.

Finally, President Buhari should urgently take steps to repair his battered relations with MPs, majority of whom belong to his party, APC. The MPs have many faults but Buhari should not treat them shabbily or encourage his appointees to do so. This is no way to run a democratic order.

A president installed in office by 25 million voters should be impeached only in the gravest of circumstances. This quarrel with the IG hardly amounts to that. Still, we are also appalled that the Presidency allowed the IG to engage the Assembly in an open confrontation