There is no doubting the fact that state deputy governors in the country have not stopped being at the receiving end when it comes to impeachment. Apart from the latest saga in Zamfara State where Aliyu Gusau was removed from office amid controversies, states like Imo (Eze Madumere and Jude Agbaso); Oyo (Iyiola Omisore); Akwa Ibom (Chris Ekpeyong); Ekiti (Abiodun Alaeko); Lagos (Olufemi Pedro) Bauchi (Garba Gadi, later reinstated by the court); Bayelsa (Perembowei Ebebi, later reinstated by an Appeal Court in Port Harcourt); Taraba (Sani Abubakar); Ondo (Ali Olanusi, later reinstated), and Enugu (Sunday Onyebuchi, his title was later restored) have also had their own share of the impeachment of deputy governors.
Not surprising to keen observers, the trend had continued in Zamfara, a state where terrorism and kidnapping have become more popular than the government. Sadly, the political class in the state seemed to have only focused on bearing knuckles over the impeachment of Aliyu Gasau as the deputy governor. Gasau was accussed of gross misconduct, self-enrichment with government funds, and abuse of office. Analysts had pointed out that all became sour between the Governor, Bello Matawalle, and his deputy governor when he refused to join the train of the All Progressives Congress when Matawalle hopped on it.
He (Gusau) continued to be a thorn in the flesh of the government especially at the fora organised by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party. The APC-dominated state House of Assembly took a voice vote of 20/24 against Gusau, while the lawmaker from Zurmi East Constituency, Salihu Zurmi, and three others did not vote. All the members of the House assumed their office through a court judgment that brought the deputy governor and the governor to power on the platfrom of the PDP, but they were quick to move camp to the APC immediately the governor did so.
The Speaker of the Zamfara State House of Assembly, Muazu Magarya, had said, “In line with section 1888 sub-section 9 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, quoted herein, we hereby report to the Zamfara State House of Assembly, that the allegation of the abuse of office by his Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, and allegation of the failure to dispatch constitutional duties contained in the notice of allegation had been proved, dated 23rd day of February 2022, and signed by Justice Haliru Tanko, as the chairman.”
The deposed deputy governor was immediately replaced with the Senator representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Hassan Nasiha. Nasiha was asked to take a bow and submit his Curriculum Vitae as deputy governor few minutes after Gasau was impeached. Nasiha later tendered his resignation on the floor of the National Assembly on March 1, 2022.
As Mattawale and his APC chieftains remain sure-footed about the fate of the assumption of the new deputy governor who has left an exalted federal position to support the governor, the PDP believes they can secure victory at the courts. They hope to rely on an interim injunction that was reportedly meant to stop the state lawmakers from impeaching the deputy governor.
In an exclusive interview with The PUNCH, the state PDP Secretary, Faruku Ahmed, claimed that his impeachment was hurriedly done by the state House of Assembly. Faruku noted that allegations of self-enrichment and abuse of office against Gasau were “funny” and “blind” because the deputy governor had spent part of the cumulative N575m received as statutory monthly allocation for the running of his office and for offsetting bills of the underprivileged students.
“Let me tell you, our party is becoming stronger by the day because of the sympathy we are getting from the people of the state as a result of the so-called impeachment of the deputy governor. Many people are not happy with the impeachment of Gusau. I am telling you that the APC is dead in Zamfara State. I don’t think Governor Bello Matawalle will even finish his first tenure because we are still in court as I told you earlier. So, let us wait for the court’s decision before thinking of a second term,” Faruku said.
On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, asserted that the State House of Assembly and the APC had ventured into corridors of illegality with the impeachment of Gasau. Ologunagba said, “The purported impeachment of the deputy governor by the sequestered Zamfara State House of Assembly, which has been annexed by the Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, cannot stand as the entire process remains unconstitutional, illegal and as such, a nullity.”
In a rebuttal, the Zamfara APC spokesman, Idris Yusuf, told The PUNCH that due process was followed in Gusau’s impeachment. He noted that the court injunction that the deputy governor relied upon to forestall his impeachment was a 14-day interim order that had expired. Yusuf also asserted that Matawalle did not have a hand in the impeachment of his former ally and had not influenced the state House of Assembly in any way in the exercise of their constitutional powers and duties to the state, having found the deputy governor culpable of gross misconduct and self-enrichment.
He said, “The Zamfara State House of Assembly has exercised their function based on the constitution. They have followed due process in Gusau’s impeachment after receiving a formal complaint from the Public Account Committee. The petition against him (Gusau) was submitted to the Speaker of the House as provided by the constitution. After that, the House of Assembly went ahead to submit its report after voting before going ahead with the impeachment process.
“Let me state it clearly that the governor has no hand in the removal of the former deputy governor. He (Matawalle) made a pronouncement that despite being in the APC while the deputy governor was in the PDP, he would work harmoniously with him (Gusau). He has displayed that since he (Matawalle) defected last year. It is the former deputy governor that is the architect of his problem,” Yusuf added.
In the Nigerian political firmament, the rancour between governors and deputy governors has produced at least 16 embattled deputy governors in different states of the federation. All the deputy governors were accused of abuse of office, misappropriation of funds, and absence.
Professor Fage Sani, a Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Bayero University, Kano, told our correspondent that the impeachment of Aliyu Mahdi was hurriedly done by the Zamfara State House of Assembly. He said it was important to constitutionally empower deputy governors and by extension the Vice President so that they would not be rendered redundant and driven out of office by their principals.
“It was improper the way it was handled. I think by going ahead with the impeachment, the Assembly also violated the court injunction, which is terribly wrong. Leaders are supposed to provide leadership by example by abiding by the law of the land.
“When he (Gasau) refused to appear before the committee, I think he had the legal backing because the court said that the status quo should remain. That is another violation of the right of the deputy governor. The third problem was the way it (the impeachment was done), it was like a kangaroo court, you could not establish the process. The process has a procedure, although they set up the committee, and the committee made their findings and the Assembly met. They promptly impeached him, and the chief judge was called and promptly sworn in as the new deputy governor. All these show that they are making a mockery of the whole process,” Sani added.
Speaking on the fate of Gasau before the courts, Sani argued that he might emerge victorious like Gidado Gardi if the governor and the political class in Zamfara decided to obey the law.
“It could play out if they decide to abide by the law; what is happening in Zamfara is a clear case of impunity. So, it depends on the powers that be. If he pushes the case, I will say he could win, but whether or not the state government will agree to compensate him is another issue. They may not comply with the court order.
Fage remarked that the deputy governor did not have a clearly defined role. He said, “His position is clearly at the behest of the governor. So, any small disagreement, the governor can take such actions (impeachment). What should be done is to entrench their position in the Constitution. He said the creators of the Nigerian constitution were sceptical about empowering the deputy governor to the point where he would be able to challenge the governor. So, they reduced his power.
While referring to the constitutional roles of the Vice President in the US, he lamented that in the case of Nigeria, the Vice President was not empowered to do so, although he headed the Economic Council. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the countries seemed to assign the responsibilities to the vice president, and here, we are under a democratic dispensation, we gave it the role Secretary to the Federal Government (Boss Mustapha) who is a non-politically elected person, and this gave him enormous powers. He literary wielded more powers than the legally and politically elected Vice President.
“The deputies should be empowered but they should not be like passengers on the ticket of the governors or the presidents, they are together, and they (deputy governors) contributed in a way to the success of the governors or the Presidents because some people may vote for the governors because of the deputy governors, so it shows they have political responsibilities. They should be given certain responsibilities.
“Here in Kano, it is a practice that the deputy governor doubles as a commissioner for education or local government, but that is not a constitutional thing, it was at the behest of the governor. If he likes he can give him, if he doesn’t like he can leave him redundant as the deputy governor,” Sani said.
Lending his voice to the matter, Lawyer and political analyst, Liborious Ochoma, noted that the former deputy governor had a case in court, although the matter might grind slowly which could end with the receipt of only his accrued entitlements at the end of the current tenure. Ochoma stated that while the case might be similar to that of Simon Achuba, the impeached deputy governor of Kogi State, that of Zamfara State was a peculiar and painful situation because the governor and his deputy assumed office due to a court case that removed the APC and declared the PDP as victor.
For Ochoma, in the light of the recent sacking of the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, by the courts, the issues remained contentious until the Supreme Court determined the fate of Umahi. He, however, argued that Gasau was impeached for doing the right thing.
“You know that section 188 of the constitution clearly spells out the procedure that must be taken, but you find out what happens is that deputy governors are not given the opportunity to be heard, ( they are denied) the right to fair hearing, and then you find out that the accusers are also in most cases the judges. The panel is set up in such a way that almost everyone in the panel has been determined by those that set it up, and judgement and decisions had been predetermined before hearing the other side.
“In this case, the governor of Zamfara State defected and the deputy governor refused to defect, believing that the mandate was given to them to hold in trust by the political party. So, there is no need to take that mandate to another political party. For doing the right thing, the man was impeached. If the Supreme Court tomorrow determines that that Ebonyi disposition should remain, Zamfara State governor automatically vacates that position,” he said.
Ochoma also lamented that although certain political calculations were made by political parties in the choice of the governors and the deputy governors, the deputy governors remained powerless counterparts and would exist at the whim and caprices of the governor without delivering the dividends of democracy to their own political constituents.
Ochoma lamented, “Deputy governors in Nigeria are spare tyres; they are not constitutionally empowered to do anything. They are just like commissioners; jobs are delegated by the governors, which ordinarily was not the intendment of the constitution. They are expected to run the administration side by side, but what you have here is that anybody who challenges the governors is kicked out.
However, a political analyst, Jackson Omenazu, said the case of the Zamfara’s former deputy governor and Umahi was due to a defective Nigerian Constitution. He declared that a sovereign national conference should be organised to create an all encompassing peoples constitution that would discard constitutional inconsistencies and give room for courts to renege on existing judgements.
“Morally and politically speaking, it is wrong for an individual to obtain a mandate from another party and in the middle of the match shift the goalpost, it is wrong. They can escape because of the defective nature of our constitution. It is a complete betrayal of trust. Mind you that the only agreement between the people and the political party is the manifesto. The manifesto you presented to the people before you were elected is different from the manifesto you have jumped into. The right thing to do is to go back to the same electorate and present your newfound manifesto and then they will elect you. Using another manifesto to jump into another manifesto without reverting back to the people is the height of betrayal. Politicians should stop this nonsense, they are taking the people for a ride,” Omenazu said.
“Speaking on the fate of deputy governors in the country, Omenazu, “You can see that from the constitution, the deputy governors were not given any specific role to play. They are at the whims and caprices of the governors, including the vice president. They are refined house boys. It boils down to Nigeria’s defective law.”
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