Why Senate, House of Reps want Buhari impeached
on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters. It was at this point that Saraki told his colleagues that the matter be referred to the committee and they voted in its supported.
“So their argument for and against, I think these arguments are valid and I don’t want us to bring it down to partisanship issues. These are not partisan issues. The suggestion of the leader that we should send it to the judiciary to advise if the constitution has been breached, the circumstances surrounding the breach of the constitution, and the justification, is sound. What do we do going forward in trying to even appropriate because the funds have already been spent. Do we go under what the leader has done, or do we start the whole process of appropriating?” he asked.
The committee, chaired by Senator David Umaru (APC, Niger) is expected to report back on the matter on Wednesday. The plot in the House
At the House on Tuesday, lawmakers, mainly of the opposition PDP, expressed anger with the president for giving an anticipatory approval of $496 million for the purchase of Super Tucano Aircraft without recourse to the National Assembly. Buhari’s letter informing the House about the anticipatory approval he gave was read at plenary that day by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
Soon after that, a PDP member from Rivers State, Rep Kingsley Chinda raised a point of order, saying there is no constitutional provision for “anticipatory approval.” He said the National Assembly should not be treated as a rubber stamp of the presidency, noting that the breach was an impeachable offence. “I want to move that this House begin an impeachment process on the president,” he said.
However, the chairman of the Rules and Business Committee, Emmanuel Orker-Jev (APC, Benue) said based on the provisions of the House rules, the president’s letter was in form of a bill, and that it should be allowed to come for second reading before a debate could be done.
But his colleagues protested by shouting him down, demanding that the letter should be treated there and then.
In countering Orker-Jev, an APC member from Kano State, Aliyu Sani Madaki, said the rules of the House could not be applied on the matter as Section 1 of the constitution provides that the constitution shall be binding on everybody, and that any other law inconsistent with it is null and void.
In his intervention, Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno) said: “I concur with the submissions of the Chairman of the Rules and Business Committee. It is the same constitution that gives us the right to come up with our rules.” Disagreeing with the position Deputy Minority Leader, Chukwuka Onyeama (PDP, Anambra) noted that “it has been established that there’s a breach of the constitution. What we should be talking about now is to reply the Executive.”
Several other lawmakers such as Tajuddeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi), Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo), Samson Okwu (PDP, Benue), Shehu Garba (PDP, Kaduna), among others all said the president has breached the constitution, which should ordinarily lead to an impeachment process.
After long debate on the matter, Dogara ruled that Buhari’s proposal should be presented for second reading and that members have the right to express whatever views when the time comes. A lawmaker told Daily Trust that they were angry that the president could approve such an amount without their approval and did not even deem it fit to inform the leaders of the National Assembly.
The matter then came up on Thursday via a motion sponsored by House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) and read by Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno) due to the House Leader’s absence.
The motion sought for the inclusion of the $496m in the 2018 budget proposal, but Monguno barely moved the motion when Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta) raised a point of order, saying the matter has been rested by the president’s assertion that the money had been spent.
But Rep Munir Babba Dan-Agundi (APC, Kano) argued that Buhari did not breach any constitutional provision, while Deputy Speaker Yussuff Suleimon Lasun (APC, Osun) noted that the procedure to bring a substantive bill was belated, hence the president’s communication.
Also, Rep Aminu Shehu Shagari (APC, Sokoto) pleaded with his colleagues to grant the president’s request in view of the sensitivity of the security situation in the country.
Rep Simon Arabo (PDP, Kaduna) observed that Buhari should have forwarded an addendum to the 2018 Appropriation Bill instead of such letter.
From the direction of the debate, it was apparent that the PDP lawmakers are hellbent on an impeachment process against the president. But in the end, Speaker Yakubu Dogara referred the motion to the Rules and Business Committee to look into, and advise the House on what to do.