POLITICS OF IMPEACHMENT: A CRITIQUE OF THE NIGERIA EXAMPLE

Abstract

The act of impeachment has been used by the Nigeria Legislature as a tool to remove political office holders who are found wanting constitutionally. Thus, the concept of impeachment, in common law, is a proceeding instituted by a legislative body to address serious misconduct by a public official. However, the application of impeachment and its process in the Nigerian context has repeatedly shown to be misapplied or abused, and has continuously remained a misnomer in the Nigerian political space. This work, therefore, looks critically at the abuse of the impeachment process in the political history of Nigeria, which is an impediment to national development, and how to proffer solution to it. It sees the indiscriminate cases of impeachment permeating the political scene as an obstruction to good governance, and thus, misused to foster narrow political affiliations, instead of serving to ameliorate a major problem in the Presidential system, which is to remove poorly performing chief executives. The study made use of the case study approach and documentary method thereby relying on secondary sources to critically examine the eventual reoccurrence of the ugly trend of politics of impeachment in the Nigeria democratic journey with its associated irrational and unreasonable abuse of the process by the stakeholders. The paper makes some recommendations to forestall such unbecoming tirade in Nigeria political arena. Students of law profession, the legislature, the judiciary, historians, and political scientists have a lot to benefit from this study towards the realization of good governance and sustainable democracy in Nigeria.