Balogun Rilwan
Where Laws do not Rule There is no Constitution- Aristotle
On Friday, October 18, Nigeria woke up to another theatrical “theatre” premiered in its political space as the news of the impeachment of the Deputy Governor of Kogi state, Simon Achuba filtered the air. Impeachment proceeding is not alien to our nascent democracy, however, the flagrant defiance tocrystal-clear provisions of the constitution and the political abracadabra perpetrated by the Kogi State House of Assembly’s members made this issue attract more brouhaha and attention than ever.
This has generated unwelcome hoopla and the integrity of the ruling party seems to have been put at stake on its stance on rule of law and fight against corruption in any form. This was reported to have been justified, rather contemptuously, by the State House of Assembly after the submission of the Report of the Panel of Investigation, comprising 7 members, headed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. John Bayeshea. In its findings submitted to the House of Assembly, it was confirmed by the chairman of the Investigation Panel himself that in line with section 188(8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) “ ….we hereby report to the Kogi State House of Assembly that the allegation contained in the Notice of Allegation admitted in evidence by this panel as exhibitc7 have not been proved. One would then wonder the malicious evil that befell the law-breakers masquerading as law-makers to still go ahead and place something on nothing. How on earth could one phantom the audacious act of blatant abuse to a self-explanatory provision of the law? In fact, to a farther absurd level of such when, it came from an institution (Legislative Arm) that is expected to be the bastion of the tenet of constitutionalism. This I must say, that the illegality is horrendously contradictory and asinine as sentencing an accused to a term of imprisonment even after he has been acquitted of same matter at same court sitting.
The travail of the embattled Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Simon Achuba started where on July, 2019 in a widely broadcast program on Channels TV’s Politics Today, he alleged that his salary and imprests had been maliciously withheld since 2017 in addition to other malfeasance allegedly committed by governor Yahyah Bello of Kogi State. It is on this damning allegation that the governor threw caution to the wind, set the law in motion against his erstwhile deputy, thus forcefully see to his eviction as a co-holder of the baton of leadership in the state. Consequentially, the State House of Assembly hastily galloped into assuming its constitutional role under section 188 of the 1999 constitution and caused the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Nadir Ajana to constitute an investigation panel which adjudicated over the allegation, hence John Baiyeshea’s Investigation Panel, which would later find the allegation levelled against the deputy governor not proved. Without mincing words, I will at the inception of my well-grounded opinion state that the bizarre act of illegality and the resurfacing of the gale of illegitimate impeachment of states’ Chief Executives during the reign of former president Olusegun Obasanjo have been condemned times without number where impeachment was seen as malicious axe targeted at edging out
Impeachment of executive office holders to wit: the president, vice president, governor and deputy governor is not a tea party or a weapon of vendetta. It is a strong, but positive political weapon entrenched bequeathed to the legislature in order to checkmate the excesses of executive highhandedness. Barely after the perpetration of the sheer political rascality and brazen abuse of political power, the House Majority Leader, Hon. Hassan Abdullahi further displayed the sheer premeditated loathe and malice behind the broad-day-light robbery termed “impeachment”. In his statement, he accused the members of the panel that investigated the allegation levelled against the former deputy governor of compromising the assignment given to them. In a bid to satisfy and complete the innocuous “assignment” given, the House of Assembly members attempted to assume for themselves power they were never given by the constitution to brazenly enter into miasma of the political cauldron and have themselves bloodied, thereby adorning themselves with the toga of potpourri of law breakers, thus losing respect in their quest to play the legendary Don Quizoe De La Manche.
Without much ado, I would like to confine the coverage of this piece to 3 major determinants of impeachment proceeding as regard section 188 (1)-(11) dealing with removal of governor and deputy governor which is in pari pasu with section 143 (1)-(11) dealing with the removal of the president and vice president accordingly.
In impeachment proceeding, there are basically certain procedural ingredients that need be embarked on and be seen to have been complied with. This to wit are: the concept of gross misconduct, right to fair hearing and findings of the investigation panel The bedrock of the ground(s) upon which an executive office holder can be impeached is on ground of gross misconduct. Section 188 (11) gives a lucid interpretation of the phrase “Gross Misconduct” to mean a grave violation or breach of the provisions of this constitution or a misconduct of such a nature as amounts in the opinion of the National Assembly or the House of Assembly to gross misconduct- see also section 143(11) of the 1999 constitution. In the unreported case of Anya v A.G of Borno State (suit No FHC/141/82), the Federal Court of Appeal defined gross misconduct to mean an unlawful behavior by a public officer in relation to the duties of his office, willful in character… or acts which the office holder had no right to perform, act performed improperly and failure to act in the face of affirmative duty or act.. emphasis mine.
According to Professor Ben Nwabueze in his book titled “Nigeria’s Presidential Constitution” gross misconduct suggests a misconduct that is so revolting or outrageous to the moral sense of the community as to undermine the intergrity or credibility of the office and public faith in it, example of which is a criminal act which outrages or profanes some important moral or social values of the community. Inakoju v Adeleke the learned justice of the supreme court, Justice Niki Tobi (rtd) not only defined the phrase “gross misconduct” but also went ahead to enumerate acts that could not translate to gross misconduct.
The erudite law lord in the above case espoused that it is not every violation or breach of the constitution that can lead to the removal of a governor, only a grave violation or breach of the constitution can lead to the removal of a governor or deputy governor and that grave in this context does not mean an excavation in earth in which a dead body is buried, rather it means in my view serious, substantial and weighty allegation- see the dictum of JSC Niki Tobi (rtd) in Inakoju v Adeleke (2007) 1 SCNJ at p. 55.
The Kogi state House of Assembly’s rascality was foreseen when his lordship Dahiru Musdapha (rtd) JSC admonished that “…the meaning of gross misconduct as contained in the constitution in relation to impeachment proceedings whatever the legislature deems “gross misconduct”.
Balogun writes from Lagos.