By Umar Muhammad Puma
The Civil Society Legislation Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has urged the Nasarawa state House of Assembly to exercise caution and not to abuse their powers of impeachment or deploy it arbitrarily against governor Tanko Al makura.
The group, in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja and signed by its Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, noted with great concern the sudden resurgence in the spate of impeachment and threats spreading across the political landscape of the country.
“We are concerned that the ongoing spate of impeachment may not pass the test of credibility, popularity and rationality, if closely examined. Without prejudice to the right, duties and powers of state legislature to impeach erring executives, we are worried that many of the reasons invoked are either belated of flimsy. Others are indulgent and ridiculous with the procedures flawed and hurried in a manner that cast doubts as to the motives behind the actions.
The group wondered why legislators would overlook acts of corruption or having to discharge their functions of oversight effectively or worse still, benefitted from such corrupt practices and looked the other way, suddenly awake, retroactive to exhume such corrupt practice and use them as allegations for which a governor should be impeached.
The group however advised the lawmakers to concentrate on using their position to promote community development, peace-building and citizens’ warfare through effective oversight and representation, rather than engage in issues that could further polarizes the people, heat up the polity, create acrimony and fuel intolerance and conflict.
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