Trouble as Professor Soyinka Drops Bombshell Over Lawmakers' Move for Buhari's Impeachment

Trouble as Professor Soyinka Drops Bombshell Over Lawmakers' Move for Buhari's Impeachment

  • Professor Wole Soyinka has joined lawmakers in the National Assembly to call for the impeachment of the president
  • To the Nobel laureate, President Muhammadu Buhari has at many times broken the contract of democracy which was handed to him
  • Soyinka confirmed that once the contract of democracy is broken by a leader, an impeachment process is in order

The move by lawmakers to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari over the growing insecurity in Nigeria, especially in the Federal Capital Territory has received a major boost as Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka gives his two pence.

Speaking at an interactive session to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Abeokuta Club on Tuesday, August 2, Soyinka said good governance or misgovernance, the contract called democracy, indicated a contract on which a candidate is either accepted or rejected due to his manifesto.

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President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Wole Soyinka, Impeachment process, senators, lawmakers
Professor Wole Soyinka said that when one fails to abide by the contract of democracy, he or she should be impeached as demanded by lawmakers. Photo: Nigeria Presidency
Source: UGC

PM News reports that Soyinka added that misgovernance is one of the ways a democratic contract is broken and thus possible impeachment.

His words:

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“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 and some of his aides and one or two governors."

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He further stated that the decision of the president to choose his successor is also a breach of the contract of democracy.

He added:

“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 had 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."

Leaders who have failed the Nigerian system

Noting that leaders including governors, and chairmen of local government areas have continued to fail the country.

He also said that he heard some governors had visited the president who is known to have failed in his duty as a leader to demand that he give them a successor.

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A failure that should give rise to another failure of eight years, the Nobel laureate added.

He said

“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 the 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."

Prominent APC senator backs call to impeach Buhari

More federal lawmakers are now backing the widespread call for President Muhammadu Buhari to be impeached.

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One of those who lent his voice to the growing call was Senator Elisha Abbo of the APC on Friday, July 29.

In Abbo's view, President Buhari should leave office because he has failed Nigerians in terms of security.

Buhari’s impeachment: Nigerian senators hold close-door meeting

Amid calls for Buhari's impeachment, some lawmakers were in a closed-door meeting.

Those in separate meetings over the issues were senators of the opposition parties and their counterparts in the House of Representatives.

It was gathered that after the separate meetings, the lawmakers of the lower and upper chambers are expected to harmonise their positions and issue a public statement afterwards.

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Nnenna Ibeh avatar

Nnenna Ibeh Nnenna Ibeh is a journalist with over 10 years of experience with various media organisations including Premium Times. Being on the front burner of reporting politics and the different dimensions of governance, she is also passionate about girls' education and women's and children's health. With degrees in Journalism, Peace Studies & Conflict Res., and Dev. Studies, Nnenna has worked in the dev. sector as a communications officer for the Centre for Democracy and Dev. email: ibehnnenna@gmail.com