Unnecessary Legislative Brouhaha Over Withdrawal Of $496M

The ongoing legislative threat to impeach Mr. President over his recent withdrawal of the sum of $496m from the country’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) to purchase 12 Fighter Jets for the purpose of combating the ceaseless population decimating insurgency currently ravaging the country, is what we see as absolutely unnecessary, unwarranted and uncalled for. 

Since the withdrawal of that money which was done without recourse to the National Assembly – due to the exigent need to do so – some members of the NA majorly lawmakers of PDP extraction have been making a mountain out of a mole hill by calling for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari for not obtaining legislative approval before withdrawing such amount of money; a move they see as a constitutional breach.

This call for the impeachment of Mr. President by this set of disgruntled lawmakers poses two fundamental questions and answers to these questions basically determine the justification or otherwise of Mr. President’s action. If the answers are in the affirmative, then, it simply means that the withdrawal is justified and therefore the whole shout by the lawmakers calling for Mr. President’s head, is needless but just only politically-motivated. 

The two critical questions which the call for Mr. President’s impeachment demands are: ‘Was there truly urgent need for the withdrawal of that money and was the money used for the purpose for which it was meant? To each of these two questions, the incontrovertible answer is capital YES. Thus, since the answers are yes and yes then the withdrawal of the money by the executive arm of government is highly justifiable and we do not see any need for calling for the impeachment of President Buhari. 

It is instructive to note that putting an end to all the senseless massacre going on in the country is the primary concern of everybody now, for everyone is weary of this wicked and unnecessary shedding of innocent people’s blood. Thus, at this stage, we need highly sophisticated weapons to be able to successfully fight the kind of insurgency currently facing the country. The legislators that are crying wolf know this. And given that the purchase of the aircrafts was time bound, there was no need for all the accompanying hue and cry from these legislators. Or, is it in their interest that the country continues to be handicapped in the face of this insurgency? If that’s their interest, that would of course be highly preposterous! 

Finally, even if there was any constitutional infraction on the part of Mr. President for withdrawing that money, we sincerely hold the view that it was not enough to call for his impeachment as what he did was done in the national interest, and since there is no any proof of selfish interest on his part, this call can only be mischievous, puerile and unpatriotic. It’s nothing but a move simply calculated to score cheap political gains on the part of the PDP. It’s high time our legislators stopped playing politics with critical issues affecting Nigerians’ lives.