Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, analyses the impeachment fever in some APC-controlled states, throwing to the fore the impact of the trend on the country’s democracy
Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, perhaps, could be right in describing the June 21 governorship poll in his state as a proxy war for 2015 general elections.
Nyako Murtala
Dr. Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) incidentally lost the election to Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). However, his analysis may have been right on target, given that following the outcome of the Ekiti poll, a quiet but defining battle line seems to have been drawn for the 2015 polls between the PDP and APC.
For example, while congratulating Fayose on his victory, President Goodluck Jonathan had reportedly told Nigerians to expect a replication of the Ekiti feat in the August 9 governorship election in Osun. Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who is gunning for re-election on the platform of APC, is billed to slug it out with, among others, Senator Iyiola Omisore, the PDP candidate.
The Osun contest is less than a month away. But the hawks in Wadata Plaza, Abuja, headquarters of PDP, are already on heat in their calculations on how to regain the state that they lost to APC through Appeal Court judgment.
APC governors as targets
PDP is not relenting in reversing the loss of Osun and other South West states. In fact, buoyed by its victory in the Ekiti governorship election, the party has not hidden its agenda at coasting home to victory at the 2015 governorship election by increasing the number of states under its control from the present 19 to 28.
Godswill Akpabio, Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum (PDPGF), who briefed newsmen shortly after the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja, gave insight to the thinking in the party.
“When I came in, there was a period that PDP had up to 29 governors. In 2011, we still had up to 25 governors and then of course some governors tried to defect to other political parties which they are at liberty to do, because this is democracy; but we are gaining more. Now, we have at least 19 governors with the coming of Ekiti. We also have three deputy governors who are still with us.
“That brings our number to about 22. So, if we shoot to 28, it is not too bad in the 2015 elections,” he stressed.
The party had earlier claimed that in achieving its expansionist intention, it was already strategising on deepening its internal democracy. However, developments in states with APC governors but under PDP-controlled legislature rather prove that the party may have another strategy than its mantra of internal democracy.
Last week, for instance, Governor Murtala Nyako became the first to go down in the obvious rat race. After weeks of tension and intense political intrigues, the Adamawa State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, impeached him, following his indictment by the seven-man investigative panel which probed him over a 16-count charge bordering on gross misconduct and financial mismanagement.
Bala James Ngilari, Nyako’s deputy, who was to have been removed with him, had allegedly rushed in a resignation letter, announcing that he was quitting office.
Following the resignation of Ngilari, the Speaker, Umar Fintiri, was sworn in as the acting governor of the state. Nyako’s impeachment had stirred controversies and had attracted mixed feelings. Renowned lawyer, Professor Itse Sagay, had, for example, raised questions on whether the action was actually an agenda of the Adamawa Assembly or at the prodding of the presidency. Beside feeble and largely unconvincing efforts by media handlers of the president to absolve him of involvement in the Adamawa saga, there was no official explanation on who really was behind the former governor’s travails.
Investigations by TheNiche, however, indicated that the fall of Nyako was essentially a fall-out of a consuming battle that had existed between him and Jonathan. The face-off was an outcome of a chummy relationship that went awry along the line.
Nyako had come to office on the ticket of PDP. Initially, he was among the governors that were counted among Jonathan’s henchmen, having, at a time, been appointed his honorary adviser on agriculture. In the run-up to the 2011 election, he played tremendous role in the presidency’s agenda at neutralisisng former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in PDP presidential primaries.
While he delivered on the hatchet job for the presidency, his relationship with Jonathan swelled. Cracks, however, began to develop between them, towards the March 2012 convention of the party when Nyako, in league with his North East PDP governors, rooted for Musa Babayo, former PDP acting national secretary, for the post of national chairman. Jonathan had preferred Bamanga Tukur, governor of old Gongola State and current chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC). The president eventually had his way. What further alienated Nyako from the intrigue-infested PDP politics was the perceived overbearing tendencies of Tukur in supplanting the Adamawa executive of the party with his supporters.
Ensuing developments in the party saw Nyako leaving the party alongside Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).
Nyako had, since the move, not had the best of time with members of the House of Assembly who refused to dump PDP with him. What further nailed him, our reporter learnt, was his letter to other governors in the North earlier in the year in which he accused President Jonathan of masterminding the insurgency in the zone.
Following the letter that many described as hollow in content, Nyako’s support base, even in the North, was gravely weakened, TheNiche was told.
“That provided the opportunity for the presidency to move in, realising that he was virtually an orphan, politically. The result was that with just a little push, he fell like a pack of cards,” a presidency source, who asked not to be identified, confided in our reporter.
Testing the waters
Moving against Nyako, a retired Vice Admiral and one-time Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), was intended to serve dual purposes. It was aimed at testing the waters for more programmed assault on the other APC states in the North East and their counterparts in the South.
Yobe and Borno are the other states in the North East with developments that have seen them on the edge. Aside being in APC column, they are also bearing the brunt of Boko Haram insurgency.
Ordeal of their governors may not be of the same magnitude with Nyako. TheNiche, however, learnt that the ravaging impact of Boko Haram in their states and their obvious helplessness in the face of the insurgency have portrayed them as lacking in capacity to provide purposeful leadership to their people.
Other APC states on the line
Somehow, there have been fears of the sordid drama in Adamawa being replicated in Nasarawa, where legislators in the House of Assembly have thrown up impeachment offences against Governor Tanko Al-Makura.
The lawmakers had raised a document containing allegations of gross misconduct against the governor, which was signed by 20 of the 24 members of the Assembly.
Al-Makura and his supporters had condemned the action of the lawmakers. Youths in the state capital had also protested the action. But the extent they would go in dissuading the Assembly from moving against the governor is yet to be seen.
Keen observers of Nasarawa politics are, however, uncertain on the governor swimming through the tide successfully. His relationship with the legislators, even before the present development, had at best been lukewarm. Al-Makura, the only governor on the ticket of the then Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) before the party’s fusion into APC, had had running battles with the Assembly that has been under firm control of PDP.
There were occasions in the past that he had had some of his policy initiatives blocked by the Assembly. To worsen matters, he has been at daggers-drawn with his deputy, who, curiously, refused to empty into APC with him, opting rather for PDP. With the impeachment notice dangling on him, his critics are said to have commenced addressing his deputy as “governor-in-waiting”. What this implies, according to our findings, is that Al-Makura’s days in Nasarawa Government House are numbered.
Edo, Borno on the cards
Though of different proportion, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State is not completely spared the days of the long knives. In the last couple of days, the House of Assembly has been experiencing severe crises that have seen the members divided into two camps. In one camp are APC members led by the Speaker, Uyi Igbe, while the other faction led by Deputy Speaker, Festus Ebea, comprises members who had left APC for PDP. Since the commencement of the crisis, each camp has been holding its sessions separately.
While the APC legislators loyal to Oshiomhole sit at the Government House, the Ebea group meets at the legislative complex that is said to be undergoing repairs. While the impasse lingers, Edo electorate have not been amused. It has also raised the fears of untoward moves against the governor.
APC National Chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, alluded to this last Monday when he led some national leaders of the party on a solidarity visit to Oshiomhole at Government House, Benin City.
He said: “Beside the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, you are the most current target of attack in their quest to destabilise APC governors. What the party (APC) has come to realise is a properly mapped out war by the PDP to destabilise the APC.”
As in the case of Osun, APC was able to snatch Edo from PDP through court pronouncement. PDP is said to be lamenting the wound inflicted on it by the loss, given, particularly, that it was interpreted as a direct attack on the perceived invincibility of the state’s strongman, Tony Anenih.
Every politically-viable option, our reporter learnt, is being considered by the party in reclaiming Edo, including impeachment of Oshiomhole, if it is seen as realistic.
While the situation in Edo still remains hazy, the battle in Borno is gradually taking shape. Last week, for instance, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor and key member of APC, who has been seen by some as the godfather of Borno politics in the current dispensation, dumped the party for PDP. There had been speculations on his discomfort with developments in APC days to its maiden convention of June 14.
What has remained the point of apprehension since his exit has been his relationship with his successor, Kassim Shettima, which has remained frosty lately.
Shettima, even as governor, has been seen as a surrogate to Sheriff. He actually was Finance Commissioner in Borno under Sheriff’s administration. He was originally not in the picture for Borno governorship. It was when Boko Haram insurgents felled the candidate that was propped up by Sheriff that he quickly reached out for Shettima. The godfather and his godson initially had a smooth sail in their engagements until perceived overbearing tendencies of the former governor brought them on collision course.
The concern by analysts is that the governor is yet to be identified with any independent political structure, except those handed over to him by Sheriff. It is thus estimated that with his suffocating hold on Borno politics, the former governor may instigate House of Assembly members, also seen as his ‘boys’, to move against Shettima.
Return to Rivers
Given the dexterity and proactive politics of Governor Amaechi, PDP tacticians had beaten a momentary retreat in going after him. TheNiche, however, gathered that buoyed by the success of their onslaught against Nyako, arrowheads of PDP attack may resume their assault on the Rivers governor. Part of the strategy, this time, sources told our correspondent, would be to woo the lawmakers on the side of Amaechi with return tickets to the Assembly if they would dump him. But the governor and his supporters are not resting on their oars in the event of resurgence of hostilities.
Informed observers are, however, not comfortable with the hazy turn of events in the nation’s politics. Oludayo Balogun, lawyer and Osun indigene, warns, for example, on the danger of the agenda at decimating opposition, describing the move as creeping tendency at civilian autocracy.
“This is not in the interest of our democracy. I am not a member or supporter of APC. But we must allow the opposition to thrive. That is the beauty of democracy. Anything to the contrary is a drive to civilian autocracy,” he told our reporter in his Satellite Town, Lagos, office.
Atiku, who had made similar observation, warned against the excessive use of power by the PDP-led federal government, stressing that the trend was not good for decent democratic practice.
The former vice president, who was reacting to Nyako’s impeachment, said in a statement issued by his media office in Abuja that wielding the axe of impeachment against elected public office holders to settle scores by the PDP-led federal government would needlessly build up tension in the country.
Nyako would be the sixth governor to be impeached since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999. Others who had experienced similar action were Peter Obi of Anambra State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State, Rasheed Ladoja of Oyo, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti and Joshua Dariye of Plateau.
But the courts later reversed the impeachment of Obi, Dariye and Ladoja.
