Impeachment at States’ Level in Nigeria: Osun State as a Case Study

Abstract

As a three-tier government that Nigeria is, three legislatures exist and all of them have impeachment powers that have often been grossly abused: The National Assembly, the States Assemblies and the Local Government Legislative Councils. A close study of their activities, regarding impeachment duties, showed a consistent power struggle between chief executives and their deputies. This was the case between Chief Adebisi Akande and Otunba Iyiola Omisore; Governor and Deputy Governor of Osun-State respectively. It was interesting to note that this power struggle did not exclude the then speaker of the State House of Assembly, Dr. Mojeed Alabi. Chief Bisi Akande, OtunbaIyiola Omisore and Dr. Mojeed Alabi deployed all necessary powers and influences within and without their respective corridors of powers to achieve their inordinate ambitions. In the titanic sweepstake, extraneous actors such as party leaders, presidency, inspector general of the police, Afenifere (a yorubal socio-cultural group) and traditional rulers were not left out of the crisis that led to the impeachment of the first Deputy Governor of Osun-State in the Fourth Republic, OtunbaIyiola Omisore and the subsequent assassinations of Hon Odunayo Olagbaju the then Osun State House of Assembly member and, the Federal Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, who was also deputy leader of Afenifere. Party leaders refer to leadership of the various political parties, especially the ruling ones at the local, state and federal levels. The following officials: party chairman, zonal chairman, state chairman, local chairman and their secretaries are very critical in the running of their various political parties at all the levels of government. Specifically, in the case of Alliance for Democracy (AD), the national leaders of the party that intervened in the crisis that rocked Osun-State between 1999 and 2003 included: the leader of Afenifere, Pa (Senator) Abraham Adesanya; Deputy leader of Afenifere and Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige; Senator A. A. Abdulkadir, national chairman of Alliance for Democracy; Pa Archdeacon Emmanuel Alayande; Justice Adewale Thomson; and All the AD Governors (Olasupo, 2014). Although attempts were made to impeach the then governor and even the speaker, both failed except that of the deputy governor, OtunbaIyiola Omisore. Why did the other two impeachments failed and that of the Deputy Governor who was from a different political party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), succeeded? This is a big question. The interplay of how these took place is the concern of this paper.