The House of Representatives has
resolved to temporarily back down on the move to commence impeachment
proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that some of the lawmakers
had earlier called for the impeachment of the president for approving the
release of $496 million for the purchase of some fighter jets without
consulting the national assembly.
At plenary on Thursday, the
lawmakers reached a compromise and decided that rather than initiating
impeachment proceedings against the president, the Committee on Rules and
Business should look for a way to resolve the matter.
At first, the house was divided
along party lines, as most members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said
the spending was illegal and unconstitutional.
A letter from Buhari seeking the
approval of the lawmakers to the expenditure after it had been made was
introduced on Thursday.
Muhammed Monguno from Borno State
then moved a motion entitled: ‘Request to include the sum of US$496 in the 2018
Appropriation Bill for the purchase of Super Tucano Aircraft from the US
government’.
Monguno urged the house to
include the money in the 2018 budget as “the president’s anticipatory approval
was granted based on the critical importance of the aircraft to national
security”.
The motion was immediately
countered by Nicholas Ossai, a PDP lawmaker from Delta State. Raising a point
of order, Ossai argued that the request ought to come in form of a bill, not a
motion.
Supporting Ossai’s claim, Lovett
Idisi, another PDP lawmaker from Delta, said: “What we are being asked is to
indict the house, if there is an illegal process, we cannot correct it with
illegality. This process goes against everything we stand for.”
But Munir Danagundi, an APC
lawmaker from Kano, said the president “committed no sin.”
He said: “I did not see any sin
that has been committed, section 82 of the constitution says ‘the appropriation
bill in respect of any financial year has not been passed into law by the
beginning of the financial year, the president may authorise the withdrawal of
moneys in the consolidated revenue fund of the federation for the purpose of
meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the services of the government of the
federation for a period not exceeding months or until the coming into operation
of the Appropriate Act, whichever is the earlier’ so the president has done
nothing wrong.”
Some lawmakers mostly in the PDP
immediately kicked against Danagundi’s claim, accusing him of being
sentimental.
But Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the
House, called for calm and said the matter should be transparently addressed.
“I don’t think as a matter of law
there is straight answer to this question,” he said.
“There are people out there looking
at us, waiting for what we will do, we have to look carefully to see if what we
are doing is constitutional or not, and in the national interest.”
Thereafter, he ruled that the
House Committee on Rules and Business should look at the matter and advise the
house on the appropriate steps to take.
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