The persistent threat by members of the National Assembly, the House of Reps in particular, to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan is no longer taking as a joke.
The President has called on the National Assembly to stop threatening him with impeachment and allow him to do the job for which he was elected for a four-year mandate.
President Jonathan spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, at a press briefing in Abuja. Okupe said there was no way there wouldn’t be friction between the executive and the legislature but cautioned that every disagreement should not lead to impeachment threat.
He said, “We would want to appeal to our respected lawmakers to sheathe their swords. They should stop threatening the President with impeachment every time there is a disagreement.
“They should allow the temperature of the polity to come down. We will continue to have executive/legislative conflict, but we should continue to allow maturity to come in.
“Yes, the legislature has the power to impeach, but we should not be flaunting this every time. We should forget about impeachment in order to build this democracy; conflict will always be there, but we must manage it.”
Asked why it was difficult for the President to implement the resolutions passed by the National Assembly, Okupe could not give any reasonable answer but said the action of the President was not meant to spite the lawmakers.
He also called on Nigerians to stop disparaging the office of the President. Okupe said this in reaction to the comments credited to the Convener, Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, describing Jonathan’s condemnation of the protest that greeted the January 1 removal of subsidy on petrol as “bunkum”.
Recall that Jonathan had said the protest was sponsored by unnamed people, and that Nigerians were not totally against the policy of government.
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