Nigeria: The Senate Impeachment Bogey

opinion

It is indeed very amazing that while the senate is debating the probable impeachment of the president neither the media nor the citi-zens are bothered about it. This indifference is to my mind, either because the people have lost confidence in the senate or it is because Nigerians have learnt to see beyond any political smokescreen arising from the National Assembly.

It is in this light that one can to some extent examine the political brouhaha that enamated from the senate in the last few weeks. There were basically two issues but rolled into one: whether President Obasanjo had violated certain constitutional provisions especially as they relate to the non-implementation of Appropriation Acts since 1999 and if so, whether this would warrant his impeachment. This latest impeachment debate is triggered from the report of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts that indicted the presidency over the non-implementation of the 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 budgets. Though the presidency has denied most of the allegations contained in the report, the fact of the matter is that not many people take the senate serious for a number of reasons. Firstly, why is it only now that the senate would begin to investigate constitutional violations by the presidency? Secondly, why is it only now that the senate would be worried about non-implementation of budgets a phenomenon that has been happening right from the first day of Obasanjo's presidency? Thirdly, would there be other reasons behind this latest development which everybody knows will be a futile exercise?

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