In light of the preponderance of the use of Impeachment mechanism in modern day Nigeria one begins to wonder if Nigerians actually understand this term and its role in a democratic society. Nigerians are known for their pervasive misunderstanding and misinterpretation of European Culture, for instance to most Nigerians a tractor is seen as a trailer. The same could be said of British Institutions such as universities, for the average Nigerian politician a university is no more than a day care for adolescents. In turn, these institutions fail to play their rightful roles in the society. Nigerian policy makers and leadership fail to understand the students of today are the scientists and medical doctors of tomorrow. This paradigm underscores the reason for underfunding the research, science and technology programs of these institutions. The universities in particular, the law schools watch in dismay the politicians misinterpret and subsequently misapply checks and balances mechanisms which are de-facto lubricants that enhance the functionality of democracy.
In terms of the issue at stake, Nigerian legislatures have demonstrated to the world their gross misunderstanding of the term impeachment and its role in a democracy. The word “impeachment” is a Latin derivative which is an expression of the notion of being entrapped and is parallel to a modern French verb “empecher” (to deter) and contemporary English usage of “impede”. Though there is a school of thought which associates this term with the Latin word “impetere” which means attack. In contemporary usage impeachment implies a challenge of one’s credibility or the veracity of one’s statement in a witness setting though Nigerian legislatures misconstrue this term as an instrument of personal vendetta. An impeachment is not synonymous with a recall election in that the latter is normally initiated by the electorates while the former is initiated by a dully constituted body though both instruments can be accompanied by allegations of improprieties. But these improprieties do not need to be indictable in all cases.
All students of British Constitution or American Politics are very conversant with the process of Impeachment thanks to the President Bill Clinton Affairs and Richard Nixon Watergate Debacle. From a historical perspective, impeachment is an invention of the British Parliament which it uses in curtailing the abuse of office charges levied against its members. Though, in a legislative environment in which the literacy rate is very minimal the application of the principles of impeachment becomes analogous to arming a schizophrenic with a loaded gun with life ammunition. As stated earlier, the first case of impeachment can be traced to Baron Lotimer’s case which took place in the second half of the fourteenth century. From this experience, the process of impeachment was imported into the United States in 1776 in the State of Virginia and in 1880 in the State of Massachusetts. Thereafter, other states in the union incorporated these mechanisms into their constitutions. However, the last usage of the instrument of impeachment by the British Parliament was in 1806 during the impeachment proceedings of Henry Dundas, the First Viscount Melvile. Nigerian Law schools should conduct seminars for their legislatures on the etymology, the use and role of the instrument known as impeachment in a democracy otherwise your legislatures will impeach your president for not locating the Chibock girls. Furthermore, there is great need for this technical assistance since the legal education of the president of your senate and the collective educational exposure of the members of this institution is problematical from western education perspective. If Nigerian legislatures continue to be uninformed about impeachment principles the incidence of abuse of the doctrine might have undesirable outcome someday as is the case in Enugu.
Dr. Peter Ejirika,CPA
Department of Econometrics of Higher Education
University of Mary Hardin Baylor, Texas
