President Buhari: Wole Soyinka Reveals Stance On Impeachment

Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has weighed in on the impeachment threat against President Muhammadu Buhari, stating his support of the move by some federal lawmakers over the insecurity crisis in the nation.

While speaking on Tuesday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during an interactive session organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Abeokuta Club, the renowned scholar hinted that the impeachment was necessary over what he called a breach of contract on the part of the president.

"Democracy indicates a contract, that is why the candidate puts on a manifesto. On the basis of that manifesto, the candidate is either accepted or rejected.

"Very often, the grounds for breach of contract, I think we all agree, is misgovernance and one of the ways of breaking this kind of contract we know even before the duration of a contract is known as impeachment.

“The reason we will go by some legislators to impeach the President who is the head of government.

"In fact, one cleric has gone even further. He believes that the impeachment should take place not in the legislative home but in the bush with the kidnappers and he appealed to the kidnappers to quicken the process by impeaching the President and taking him away and some of his aides and one or two governors.

"... In any democracy, any president, prime minister or whatever is entitled to one vote. We are not saying we should disenfranchise somebody because they are on top of governance.

“They had their right to campaign for any candidate they like but there is nothing in any constitution that I know of, in any democratic constitution, which says that the head of government should appoint his or her successor.

“I am not aware of it and this is a head of governance who is generally agreed, I believe, as having failed, having misgoverned to the point that impeachment is being considered.

"I hear the governors go to this individual, go to this failure and say to him ‘please give us your successor.’

“Many of us in this country, including governors, including chairmen of local governments, what comprehension they have of this process called democracy because what these governors are telling us is that after a failure has occupied a seat of government for eight years, that failure should give us another failure for another eight years", Soyinka stated.