Should Senators, Reps impeach Obasanjo?

[EMTL]

Assalamu alaikum,
The following is in National daily..........
These are not the best of times for President Olusegun Obasanjo. A few weeks ago, his sit-tight scheme was abruptly aborted when victory seemed certain. Now he is battling for his political life as a group of federal legislators has kicked-started moves to impeach him. Reason? Obasanjo has indulged in one constitutional breach too many, according to one of the senators spearheading the impeachment move. "As the representatives of the Nigerian people, we would be betraying the people's trust if we were to allow the latest case of executive lawlessness go unpunished," the prominent senator stated in an interview with Leadership Weekend.

He was referring, of course, to the unauthorised withdrawal of N2.1 billion from the excess crude oil funds in March, this year. Following speculations that Aso Rock had been fiddling with the fund, Obasanjo confessed on Tuesday that he had made the withdrawal supposedly to supplement the cost of the extension of the national census.

Curiously, Obasanjo did not bother to inform the National Assembly, let alone the nation, of this significant withdrawal for over two odd months. In fact, he kept quiet until the probe being conducted by the Senate's Committee on Finance and Appropriation started to uncover skeletons in some cupboards. Only then did the president, who is fond of trumpeting anti-corruption slogans like a mantra, found it expedient to come clean.

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Obasanjo claimed $17, 290, 067, 04 (about N2, 187,193,480) was withdrawn after he had "convened an emergency, meeting of the stakeholders". He mentioned only "several state governors" and "the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission" as the stakeholders who apparently induced him to make the withdrawal.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, however, expressly forbids such. Section 80 (3) of the 1999 Constitution states that: "No monies shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those money has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly."

Leadership Weekend learnt that the federal legislators are outraged that Obasanjo never gave any of them an inkling of what he was up to. "The man simply behaved as if he were running his Ota farm and not the Federal Republic of Nigeria," a member of the House of Representatives said. "He claimed to have held a meeting with some governors, yet he lacked the courage to name them. In any case, which part of the constitution mandates him to withdraw such monies with the governors' approval? Since when have the so-called stakeholders replaced an Act of the National Assembly as stated in the constitution?"

Obasanjo has become infamous for breaching the constitution with reckless abandon, particularly in respect of financial issues. Consider the following:

Since the advent of his government in 1999, the president has not fully implemented any of the annual budgets approved by the National Assembly. Instead, selective implementation of the Appropriation Act has been the rule rather than the exception.

Staggering sums of money are frequently withdrawn from the Federation Account without following due process. For instance, $170,549,006 was illegally withdrawn on December 12, 2005. Also, N846, 544, 06 was allegedly withdrawn on October 31, 2005, to cite just two examples.

Early this year, the states and local governments experienced sundry financial crises following the federal government's shenanigans with the Federation Accounts, at their expense. So angry were the two tiers of government over the wuru-wuru that they jointly decided not to accept their share of the federal revenue until the shortfall, involving billions of naira, was explained.

In 2004, Obasanjo unilaterally granted Ghana and the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe unauthorised loans. Only when an uproar broke out across the land over the presidential braggadocio did he dashed to the National Assembly to legitimise his unconstitutional indulgence.

In the heat of the frenzy to pay off the debt owed the Paris Club of creditors, the Senate passed a motion forbidding Obasanjo from dabbling into the Federation Account. In a letter to the Senate dated September 9, 2005, Obasanjo had requested for approval to withdraw $2.4billion from the Account as the government's counterpart fund for the Power Sector Development Scheme (PSDS). He also requested for $12.4 billion to settle the balance of the debt owed the Paris Club.

In its resolution on the letter, the Senate told the president that PSDS fund would be obtained only after it had been "appropriated by relevant authority as required by law." It, however, approved that the $12.4 billion should be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account.

If the senators thought Obasanjo would honour their resolution, they were soon proved wrong. The president simply spurned their advice, and did as he pleased. Indeed, he withdrew the $12.4 billion from the Federation Account (instead of the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account which the Senate had specified). Needless to say, he also withdrew the $2.4 billion PSDS fund without waiting for the approval of the relevant authorities as required by law.

Sources close to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Finance and Appropriation disclosed that the preliminary investigations conducted so far "clearly show that impeachable offences have been willfully committed by the same man who had sworn to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria".

The panel's chairman, Hon. Farouk Lawal, bluntly stated that the president's action was, indeed, padded with irregularities. He wondered why, for instance, Obasanjo's request for fund outside the Appropriation Act was never brought to the National Assembly for consideration and possible approval.

There is also the little matter of seeming dishonesty in the handling of the nation's external reserve. While the government claims that the sum of $34 billion is in the kitty, at least two legislators have claimed otherwise.
Senator Farouk Bello-Munza and Hon. Usman Bugaje declared that the nation's external reserve is barely a little over $9 billion. Bugaje, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, insisted that government was being economical with the truth.

"When we are talking about the reserves, I was surprised that people are not current," he said. "The current things are that when the government is claiming that they have $34 billion in the reserves, the truth is that they have barely $10 billion. They just show histogram and pie-chart in good Powerpoint presentations. We in the National Assembly know them. They break the law and breach the constitution."

On Thursday, the finace minister, Ngozi Okonjo–Iweala, also admitted that the government had been making illegal withdrawals from the Federation Account. According to her, the monies were "loans" taken from the excess crude account, to be "repaid" in due course.

A legislator who pleaded for anonymity pointed out that it was not the first time, "and probably won't be the last time" that Obasanjo "is treating us and, indeed, the whole nation, with such contempt by doing what he likes in express violation of the constitution, only to come and seek approval after the act".

He added: "The challenges facing us now is this: should we allow the president who treats everybody and the constitution with contempt to go scot free? Should we let him go free with this constitutional equivalent of murder? We feel that enough is enough, hence our decision to begin impeachment proceedings against him in due course."

It was reliably gathered that the impeachment project is being spearheaded by senators and representatives from different sections of the country, particularly those from the North, South-East and South-South. As at yesterday, about 30 senators and some 52 representatives were said to have joined the impeachment bandwagon.

Investigations revealed that the plot was actually hatched in the heat of the controversial third term scheme. The legislators involved, spurred by their concern for the state of the nation's fledgling democracy, decided to move against him. Among other things, it was gathered, they had planned to use the unprecedented Ghana-must-go being distributed by the pro-third term campaigners as a launching pad. This is more so as the billions being used to mobilise support for the project was strongly believed to have been skimmed from the excess crude oil account.

The abortion of the tenure elongation dream apparently lulled the impeachment campaigners into inaction. "When, however, it dawned on them that Obasanjo and his boys might have merely made a tactical retreat, waiting to pounce when least expected, they revived the (impeachment) plot," an impeccable source revealed. "Right now, a list of the impeachable charges is being compiled; it's not just the excess crude account accusation that will be brought against him."
Leadership Weekend learnt that apart from the series of constitutional violations, disobedience of court order, unauthorised use of the military ( such as in Odi and Zaki Biam) and corruption are among the charges to be preferred against Obasanjo. "In fact, the impeachable offences the president has committed in recent times are so many that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for him to escape this time", one of those behind the move stated.
Aso Rock is, however, not folding its arms. It was gathered that shortly after the president got wind of the impeachment threat, he mandated four of his close aides, including an influential minister and a female assistant who is a former senator, to lead his counter-offensive.

Obasanjo is said to "be strongly convinced" that the impeachment scheme is the work of his political foes, "particularly those interested in the presidency," hence his determination "to fight back with everything he can muster".

The arsenal being used in his counter-attack, it was alleged, include the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). It would be recalled that ICPC recently signified its intention to investigate the leadership of the National Assembly. The Senate president, Ken Nnamani, and the House speaker, Bello Masari, are believed to be among the 'goldfish' being targeted by the outfit. The duo had stood out in the battle against Obasanjo's tenure extension gambit.

The EFCC also seems to have joined the fray. The Commission's chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, bluntly declared recently that any of the presidential aspirants found to have indulged in economic and financial crime would be barred from contesting the 2007 race. Last week, the EFCC also emphasised that only the governors whose hands are clean would be okayed for the forthcoming general elections.

It would also be recalled that Obasanjo had moved ruthlessly against the then Senate president, Chuba Okadigbo, and the then House Speaker, Ghali Umar Na'Abbah, when impeachment moves were initiated against him during their respective tenures.

The president had pretended to have "reconciled" with Okadigbo, dancing with his wife and eating pounded yam with them. Okadigbo fell for that charmed offensive to his eternal regret. Before he realised what was going on his new–found friend had engineered a coup which sent him crashing from his exalted throne.

Na'Abba proved to be a little more politically astute, but his traducer eventually got him. After surviving a series of impeachment plots, the stubborn speaker was dealt a fatal political punch in the 2003 elections. Despite the fact that he was a member of Obasanjo's party, PDP, everything was done by you-guessed-who to ensure that his ANPP opponent defeated him.

Giving this history of vengeance; a history that stretches back to his days as the country's military ruler, it would hardly come as a surprise to many if Baba Iyabo begins to vent his spleen on those engineering his possible impeachment, sooner or later.

Can the brains behind the scheme outfox the retired general? Can they strike before he outwits them? Time shall tell

[HUSNAA]

Its a little too late in the day to talk about impeaching the president. With the impressive list of his constitutional violations, the senators should have acted much earlier. They only got up the courage having been buoyed up by their recent success in squashing the third term bid. Now he has only ten months to go and the whole of the time could be eaten up in wranglings. But its worth a try, if only so that he will have anxious sleepless nights like the vast majority of other Nigerians experience frequently.