Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, on Tuesday, supported the move by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari over his failure to end insecurity in the country.
It would be recalled that members of the opposition party at the National Assembly, had given President Buhari a six-week ultimatum to end insecurity or be impeached.
Speaking at an interactive session, put together as part of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Abeokuta Club in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, both Soyinka and Falana submitted that Buhari has failed in the promises he made to Nigerians during his electioneering campaign.
The interactive session, which had Falana; the Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede; a lawyer and chartered accountant, Gbenga Adeoye; a businessman in the state, Ogo-Oluwa Bankole and the spokesman of the Electricity Distribution Companies, Sunday Oduntan, as panelists with the theme, “Good Governance or Mis-governance: The Contract called Democracy,” was moderated by Soyinka.
The Nobel Laureate in his submission said the President should be impeached because he has breached the contract of democracy.
He said, “Very often, the grounds for breach of contract, I think we all agree, is mis-governance and one of the ways of breaking this kind of contract we know even before the duration of a contract is known as impeachment.
“And reason we will go by some legislators to impeach the president who is the head of government. In fact, one cleric has gone even further, he believes that the impeachment should take place not in the legislative home but in the bush with the kidnappers and he appealed to the kidnappers to quicken the process by impeaching the president and take him away alongside some of his aides and one or two governors.”
Soyinka said Buhari is entitled to one vote and that he could campaign for anybody of his liking but added that there is no provision in any democratic constitution which empowers the head of government to appoint his or her successor.
He said, “I am a moderator here today, if I want to go to the toilet and I will be away for a few minutes and I will want to appoint somebody in my replace, I am likely to look for somebody who moderates like I do, someone who shares principles with my moderation, the same methodology and perhaps the same position, somebody whom I believe will moderate effectively as I have tried to do.
“In any democracy, any president, any prime minister or whatever is entitled to one vote, we are not saying we should disenfranchise somebody because they are on top of governance. They have their right to campaign for any candidate they like but there is nothing in any constitution that I know of, in any democratic constitution which says that the head of government should appoint his or her successor.
“I heard the governors go to this individual, go to this failure and say to him please give us your successor. Many of us in this country, including governors, including chairmen of local governments, what comprehension they have of this process called democracy because what these governors are telling us is that after a failure has occupied a seat of government for eight years, that failure should give us another failure for another eight years. So, those who feel that those governors who went to Buhari to give us a successor should also be impeached, can I please see your hands up in the air.
“I hope the governors will make a note of that, please stop desecrating democracy by trying to enthrone the nastic rule by back door because that is what these governors did to intrigue a dynasty of failure, that is the meaning of that appeal to the outgoing president that, please, give us a successor. In fact, it is not democracy and that is not a respect of contract with the people of democracy.”
Falana on his part, corroborated the submission of the Nobel laureate on the need to stop abuse of democratic process.
He lamented imposition of leaders on Nigerians, faulting Buhari for seeking permission from the governors to choose his successor.
“As a follow up, what the president did say was that allow me to choose my successor because in your states, you have appointed your successors without any interference.”
Oloyede in his submission, urged Nigerians not to focus on the faults of the federal government, but concentrate on the state governments’ involvement in the failure.
Oloyede lamented poor condition of education sector, adding that the governments are responsible for the damage.
“Look at how long our universities have been closed now, five months, six months and somebody was telling me some people came from Ukraine and the National Assembly should look at them.
“What of those who are at home who did not go to Ukraine at all and they have not been going to school for five months but because the elites have sent their children to Ukraine and they are back now, so, they must make it a national agenda and that is why everybody is talking about returnees from Ukraine what about those who did not go to Ukraine.”
- Vanguard
