Nasarawa State governor Tanko Al-Makura has explained that the 20 members of the State House of Assembly attempted to impeach him purely for egocentric reasons.
According to him, the 20 members of the assembly wanted to use coercion due to their majority status to get what they couldn’t get through free and fair elections in the state.
Speaking in Lafiya at the weekend, Al-Makura said: “For 20 out of 24 legislators to wake up one morning and feel that such a person should not continue in office, not necessarily by lack of competence or inability to deliver democratic dividends to the people, but purely for egocentric reasons; just for the fact that they want to use coercion of the majority for something they have been longing for which they could not get through free and fair election, and now they want to have it through the backdoor by instituting the process of impeachment, even without the consent of their constituencies, to remove a governor that has been put in place by over a million people is an aberration.”
He added that even though the process of instituting the impeachment proceeding against him was fraught with constitutional illegalities, he decided to appear before the panel so that he could help in deepening democracy in the country.
“If you look at the process from the beginning to the end of this impeachment process, there were a lot of infractions, serious violations in the way the legislators carried out the process of impeachment. But in spite of that, even without being served properly up to this time, according to the provisions of the law, the process did not adhere to the constitution where I have to be served in person.
“As I am talking to you, I have not been served. But I think that I should be able to help our democracy to grow by waving that away, for the time being, to appear before the panel so that I will convince my well-wishers and the entire people of this country that I have nothing to hide, and I deferred to the panel, because it is a constitutional creation.”
He further said that the issue of his not being served properly with the impeachment notice “is a matter that I told the panel that I was going to take it up at a different time and in a different forum. I am doing that not because I want to be punitive or show agony or bad blood against the members of the legislature, but as a player in the democracy we practice”.
He added that his victory at the investigation panel was a victory for not just him, but for rule of law, for the citizens of the state and all Nigerians.
“I say this because we are operating a constitutional democracy, and as leaders we are supposed to be guided by the law of the land, which is the constitution,” pointing out that not adhering to the constitutional laid-down rules in any impeachment process is an infraction of the constitution.
In addition, the governor said the spontaneous reaction of the people to the attempted impeachment on him shows that he should have been the last person to have experienced an impeachment attempt.
Speaking on whether he will contest the governorship election in 2015, Al-Makura said the people of the state will decide that for him.
“I have had one or two promptings by admirers and stakeholders in the state clamouring for me to continue what we have started, but I have not made any commitment as at now, because I don’t want the issue of partaking in the elections to be my own decision. To have the audacity to do that will appear immodest. One would wait for the stakeholders to intimate us on whether they would want us to continue.”
Leadership Newspaper
