The Nigerian Impeachment Process

This paper sets out to analytically x-ray Legislative prerogative in impeachment proceedings, the loopholes of such proceedings and recommendation to curb the lapses created by these loopholes. Impeachment was first employed in the Nigerian history during the second republic in the case of Balarabe Musa, Ex-Governor of Kaduna State. Since then impeachment process has become a topical issue in Nigeria’s Constitutional development, typical in this regard is the case of the Governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye and others that have preceded it. It is against this background that impeachment will be considered. The word impeachment derives its root from the Latin expression which means; ‘be caught’ or ‘entrapped’. The purpose of impeachment has been

It cannot be extended as in military dictatorships, to ‘any part thereof (of Nigeria) with respect to any matter whatsoever. According to Professor Nwabueze, ‘The phrase ‘peace, order and good government’ does not delimit the purpose for which the power is granted, in the sense that a law must be for peace, order and good government in order to be valid13. It is simply, as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has held, a legal formula for expressing the widest plentitude of legislative power exercisable by a sovereign legislature, subject to limitations arising from the divisions of powers between a central and regional governments in a federal system such as Nigeria. Thus, the legislative power of the National Assembly in Nigeria is not a power to make law for ‘peace, order and good government’ generally, but a power to make law for ‘peace, order and

In all regions and climes, ancient communities had traditional methods of removing erring public Officers. This practice was well entrenched in ancient Greece African Traditional societies were no exemption in its modern usage. However, the history of impeachment could be traced to the 14th century England, 42 when the parliament began to see it as central to the control of King’s Ministers so as to hold them accountable. Ever since, impeachment has assumed ubiquitous statutes such that its provisions can be found in the Constitutions of most countries of the world, even though they were rarely invoked and to that extent largely redundant. The case of United State where only three Presidents have ever been charged with impeachment offences by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1768, Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1978 illustrate this reality. The first impeachment that took place in England was of Lord Latimer in 1376, followed by Fracis Bacon. The Lord High Chancellor in 1621, the Earl of Strafford in 1641, Archbishop Lord in 1645, Warren Hasting in 1788 and Lord Malville being the last person so far to be impeached in 1805.43The history of impeachment in Nigeria, particularly in its formal sense is relatively new. This development is attributable to the fact that the Nigerian State itself is relatively new, coupled with the fact that out of its short history of existence as a