Senate bared its fangs yesterday over the refusal of the President Goodluck Jonathan to abide by National Assembly resolutions, as some Senators at plenary have threatened to impeach him.
This is the second time Impeachment threats have come from the legislature. The first was from the House of Representatives over poor budget implementation.
The issue however resurfaced at plenary on Thursday while the Senate was considering a bill for an act to amend the Public Enterprise (Privatization and Commercialization) yesterday, sponsored by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
Miffed that their resolutions arising from intense debate is treated with a wave of the hand by the presidency, The senators demanded that President Jonathan implement its previous resolutions on the probe of Bureau of Public Enterprise, BPE, by immediately sacking the Director General, Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa who was indicted for gross misconduct in the sale of government enterprises.
The House of Representatives is still at daggers drawn over the retention of the boss of security and exchange commission, Ms Oruma Oteh, whom they had asked to be sacked for abuse of office.
At the Senate, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the bill urged President Jonathan to ignore the declaration by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku that National Assembly’s resolutions are mere advisory tools which can be implemented or ignored by the Federal Government without any consequences.
He said, “I do not think we need the Minister of Information, indeed any minister to remind us that our resolutions are not binding just as we do not need to remind him that he was not elected. So we know that our resolutions are not binding, but the decisions we take in this Senate, especially regarding the resolutions are all well thought of.
“They are borne out of patriotism, they are well researched and it is the amalgamation of the views of very responsible Nigerians. And to that extent, it is very persuasive and anybody who is ignoring the resolutions of this Senate is doing it at the expense of good governance and we cannot encourage such a thing.
“We believe that this is an opportunity for Mr. President to go and look for the resolutions of the Senate regarding the BPE investigation. If there are very fat buttocks that are sitting on it, I think he should use his executive powers and push them out and get the report out and begin to implement them for the overall interest of this country.”
Chairman of the ad hoc committee that conducted investigation into sale of government enterprises by the BPE, Senator Ahmed Lawan, in his contributions, urged Jonathan to implement all the recommendations.
He urged the President to ignore comments from Maku adding that Senate resolutions are on critical issues which are meant to move the nation forward.
According to him, “It is time that the BPE resolution of the Senate that had been passed to Mr. President for his action is considered forthwith. Mr. President must ignore people like Labaran Maku who will always Nigerians, unfortunately that the resolutions we passed are only advisory and have no weight and do not matter.
“While it is true that the resolutions of National Assembly are advisory, members of the National Assembly passed a resolution that are so important, so critical to making Nigeria work, therefore I urged Mr. President to now take immediate action on the BPE resolution passed by this Senate.”
But Senator Uche Chukwumerije, PDP, Abia invoked the threat of impeachment of the president, saying he has begun collecting signatures to force President Jonathan to implement resolutions passed by National Assembly or risk being impeached.
Chuwkumerije offered to lead the motion on the impeachment if nothing is done to curb rising corruption in Nigeria, which he blamed on none implementation of National Assembly’s resolution prescribing punishment for indicted public office holders.
He said, “The BPE report shows uninhibited siphoning of public funds through all sorts of substitutes into private pockets and private companies. We must pass a resolution calling on the attention of Mr. President to the main body of that report.
“As of two weeks ago, with Lawan and others, I started collecting signatures that if we could collect two-third or so, we are going to get it here, a motion that gives marching order to Mr. President, do something about this report or else.
“We are going to that stage in this country. We cannot continue like this with the impunity in which they continue looting public funds and nobody is saying anything. When it comes to the stage of threatening impeachment, Uche Chukwumerije will do it and move a motion.”