Content area
Full text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
INTRODUCTION
It has long been recognised that the concentration of two or more powers in one body is antithetical to the rule of law. According to Montesquieu (1949: 152), 'there would be an end of everything, were the same man or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and that of trying the causes of individuals'. It has therefore become normal for states to separate power between the legislative, executive and judicial arms of government. Not only must power be separated; one power must be a check to another to prevent abuse because 'constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go' (ibid.: 150).1
Nigeria has followed the tradition of separation of powers. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (sections 4, 5, 6) contains explicit provisions on it. It has also made provision for checks and balances between the arms of government. For instance, in addition to the law-making function of the legislature, it also checks the executive in a number of ways. One of these ways is impeachment, the subject of this article.2 Neither a president nor a vice-president has yet been impeached in Nigeria. But a number of state governors have been impeached, the first case being that of the governor of Kaduna State in the Second Republic, Alhaji Balarabe Musa. All the remaining cases have happened in the Third Republic, during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), when five governors were impeached in succession.
This article examines the five impeachments that took place at state level during the Obasanjo regime. It shows that though the powers of impeachment are relevant because they provide means of subjecting the president, vice-president, governors and deputy governors to law, notwithstanding the immunity they enjoy against civil or criminal proceedings, such powers have been flagrantly abused. Nigeria operates a federal structure of government (Constitution 1999: section 2 (2)); and impeachment at the state level lies entirely within the jurisdiction of the state concerned. But evidence shows the...