AKWA IBOM SPEAKERS IMPEACHMENT: MATTERS ARISING

Sir,

AKWA IBOM SPEAKERS IMPEACHMENT: MATTERS ARISING

Unless there is genuine separation of power in our polity, there is no moving forward for Nigeria. The pace we are going shows; one step forward and two backward, each time. Twenty-one out of twenty-six members of the Akwa Ibom House Assembly signed a document that impeached their Speaker and his deputy.

Nevertheless, a situation where Akwa Ibom lawmakers gave their impeached officers seven days to resign only to deny them those days before passing a signed Resolution impeaching them smacks of transparency. If, according to them, they had condoned the duo’s attitude since they were elected, in the case of the Speaker Ignatius Edet for three years, why couldn’t they have allowed the seven days to lapse?

Meanwhile, the part played and being played by the executive arm of Akwa Ibom government stands condemned. The Commissioner of Police Rugbere, was quoted by Nigerian Tribune of Friday May 21, 2010, as having told journalists that he had to order sealing off of the Assembly premises a day before because of crisis there. What crisis; when more than two-thirds of members peacefully impeached their appointed officers? When has it become the duty of Police to so do and on whose orders have they acted if not that of the Governor? Furthermore, in the Daily Sun of the same date, it was reported “that attempt by Governor Akpabio to save former Speaker Edet and deputy Uwah failed as his emissary, the state commissioner for finance, was pushed out of the premises where the impeachment was conducted”. The action of the lawmakers should be instructive to the Governor. Each arm of government is supposed to be independent of the other; and the action of the governor goes to justify the frequent criticisms of the governor of meddlesomeness in the duties of both the legislature and the judiciary in his State.

Dr. Peter Kosowei, 421 Aba Road, P.H. Rivers State.