Obasanjo asked to resign or face impeachment

Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Tuesday asked President Olusegun Obasanjo to resign in two weeks or be removed from office, a move bound to add to growing political tension in Africa’s most populous country.

A motion overwhelmingly supported by the 360-member lower chamber of the national legislature, accused Obasanjo of corruption, incompetence, breach of the constitution and "inability to steer the ship of state". Consequently, the House advised the president "to resign honourably…within two weeks from the date of this motion or face impeachment".

For the president to be removed from office, a two-thirds majority of both legislative chambers must support impeachment.

The move is the latest twist in the power tussle beween President Obasanjo and the legislature that has been a dominant feature of Nigeria’s latest attempt at democracy since more than 15 years of military rule ended in 1999. The dispute between the executive and the legislature has stalled the implementation of the 2002 budget and grounded most government activities, leaving civil service salaries unpaid for months.

Though sponsored by Mohammed Kumalia of the oppositon All Nigeria People’s Party, the motion was supported by most representatives of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, which has a commanding majority in both houses of the legislature but has been dogged by intra-party feuding over the last three years.

The House of Representatives had cut short its recess to reconvene on Tuesday to discuss what members considered matters of urgent national importance. But their action has fueled growing uncertainty over the future political direction of the country of 120 million ahead of crucial general elections next year. Obasanjo intends to seek re-election.

No civilian government since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 has organised a successful transfer of power to a successor without precipitating chaos and military intervention.

Expectations that the coming vote will be different have been dimmed by
rising political violence and the confusion surrounding twice-postponed
local elections. First scheduled for May and deffered to August, the polls have been postponed indefinitely over the failure of the country’s electoral body to update the voters’ register.