Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and human Rrghts lawyer, Femi Falana, yesterday supported the move by the National Assembly members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari. Soyinka and Falana while speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during an interactive session, organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Abeokuta Club, argued that the President had failed in its promises he made to Nigerians. Recall that the plan to impeach Buhari was first moved by National Assembly members of PDP who staged a walkout from last Wednesday’s proceedings, over the President’s failure to put an end to terrorism.
Soyinka was the Moderator of the interactive session, which had the Registrar of the Joint Administration and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede; a lawyer and Chartered Accountant, Gbenga Adeoye; a businessman in the state, Ogo-Oluwa Bankole and the spokesman of the Electricity Distribution Companies, Sunday Oduntan as panelists with the theme: “Good Governance or Mis-governance: The Contract called Democracy”.
In his submission, Soyinka noted that the President should be impeached because he had breached the contract of democracy. The Nobel laureate said: “Good governance or misgovernance, the contract called Democracy, a democracy indicates a contract that is why the candidate puts on a manifesto on the basis of that manifesto or they either be accepted or rejected.
Very often, the grounds for breach of contract, I think we all agree is misgovernance and one of the ways of breaking this kind of contract we know even before the duration of a contract is known as impeachment. “And reason we will go by some legislators to impeach the president who is the head of government. In fact, one cleric has gone even further, he believes that the impeachment should take place not in the legislative home but in the bush with the kidnappers and he appealed to the kidnappers to quicken the process by impeaching the president and take him away and some of his aides and one or two governors.”
Soyinka, however, threw the question to the gathering whether the President should be impeached or not and majority of the people who comprise members of the club and other dignitaries raised their hands that Buhari be impeached. Soyinka asked: “I look around at the assembly and I want to ask you, if you will genuinely feel that mis-governance is taking place which means that there is a serious breach of governance. “I just want a sampling of the opinion, do you really think that it is time for impeachment for this breach of contract?” The Nobel laureate also submitted that, the decision of the President to choose his successor shows that Buhari has breached the contract of democracy. “I am a moderator here today, If I want to go to the toilet and I will be away for a few minutes and I want to appoint somebody in my replace, I am likely to look for somebody who moderates like I do, someone who shares principles with my moderation, the same methodology and perhaps the same position, somebody whom I believe will moderate effectively as I have tried to do.”
