Nigerian Senate Threatens To Impeach President Jonathan

Bamidele Olowosagba,

Latest reports coming out of the Nigerian Senate inform that President Goodluck Jonathan may no longer have a grip on the upper legislative chamber of the Senate.
According to Thisday report, some senators of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Tuesday threatened to impeach President Jonathan for working against their political interests in their various states.
It was gathered that the lawmakers also vowed to team up with the House of Representatives to impeach the president if doing so eventually becomes an option they would have to explore.
This decision was the fallout of the closed-door session held by the PDP caucus in the Senate in protest of their losses at last Saturday’s congresses of the ruling party in their various states.

A cross-section of the Nigerian Senate.

The senators are alleging that they lost out because of the alleged betrayal by the president whom they said they had supported prior to his emergence as acting president on February 9, 2009 up to this last weekend.
Investigation revealed that in a bid to show their bitterness towards the president, the senators boycotted legislative activities on Tuesday by adjourning sitting without considering a single item on the Order Paper.
The senators also vowed to repeat the same during plenary on Wednesday, threatening that the trend would continue indefinitely until the president addressed their grievances.

President Gooduck Jonathan.

The action is, among others, meant to frustrate the consideration and prompt passage of the 2015 budget and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), as they threatened to also shut down the government in pursuit of their personal goals.

One of the aggrieved senators that briefed journalists after the meeting, said with their resolve to abandon legislative business indefinitely, the president is not only losing the House of Representatives but has also lost the Senate.
“You are aware that we adjourned sitting today. That is what we will continue to do. President Goodluck Jonathan has lost the Senate.
“Since he has left the PDP structures in the hands of the governors, let the governors also come and do our jobs. We are going to shut the government.
“What is it that the president asked that we’ve not given to him? We are going to show solidarity with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. We will not sit again. There will be no consideration of the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) and there will be no budget. We may also begin his impeachment.
“When we invoked the doctrine of necessity, we even proceeded to give him the full option. We did the same thing on the state of emergency. But now, he has lost the Senate.
“By the time the House of Representatives resumes on December 3, most of the PDP members in the House would have lost their return bids and they will quickly move to APC and populate the party,” the senator told newsmen.
It was gathered that Tuesday’s session was presided over by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu as the Senate President David Mark was said to be attending the National Council of State meeting at the Presidential Villa.
However, the senators who said they had the full backing of their APC counterparts in their resolve to shut down the chamber, added that if Mark opts to stall the move, he would have to be abandoned and be left to preside over an empty chamber.
It was also learnt that most of the PDP senators whose fate has been sealed are already knocking at the doors of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), asking to be allowed to fly the party’s flag in the next election.
Another source informed that the Senate resolved to shut down legislative business because governors have been empowered by the PDP headquarters to deny them re-election tickets.
The source informed that the Senate would in the next few days show openly its solidarity with House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, whose defection from PDP to the APC has caused a huge row.
He insisted that they are prepared to fight their battle with any weapon open to them, wondering why the President and first-time PDP governors are given automatic tickets and legislators are not.