Matters are coming fast to a head in Nigeria. It may be pretty late in the day, though. A cross-section of senators of the Federal Republic woke up last week to demand that President Muhammadu Buhari should resign from office, if he cannot act without further delay to stem the tide of unprecedented insecurity that is on verge of consuming the country.

The senators left an ultimatum: the President should do something drastic about the national security crisis in the next six weeks, or they will commence impeachment processes against him.

The stern warning from the senators was clearly out of character. The 9th National Assembly as led is not known for resoluteness or radical tendencies. It was not surprising, therefore, that the manly ultimatum was soon attributed to only senators from the opposition parties. There were verifiable reports, however, that the decision to send Buhari an ultimatum on the security crisis was not the sole initiative of the opposition senators. The ultimatum derived from a resolution with support from across the aisle. However, after the leadership of the ruling All progressives Congress (APC)promptly weighed in on the matter, senators of the ruling party backed off, leaving their colleagues on the opposition side holding the rope. The latter resolutely took up the task all the same and delivered the necessary message to the emperor.

The basis for the distress and anger of the senators is not only cogent but also urgent. It derives from a general alarm ringing out from all over the country. The ground is caving in so fast as it were, both on the Jews and the Gentiles. The bandits and terrorists are running rings with ease round the country.

With the fire now at their doors, which had seemed insulated until recently, the national legislators, hobbled from the very outset of their tenure by self-serving considerations, have been jolted to a new reality. No place in Nigeria is safe anymore, including Abuja. No one is safe either, not even senators. Suddenly, the legislators can no longer afford to balk at calling the spade its name.  Of course, there are those among them still hiding behind their own fingers. 

It does not seem, however, that the distinguish senators consulted widely before embarking on their present mission. If they did, chances are that they would have found a society very uncertain about their proposed line of action, justifiable though it may be.

The reasons the public may not readily lend support to the pursuit of any impeachment processes against President Buhari at this juncture are at once complicated and simple. Those reasons will surely have little to do with love for him, or approval of his performance either as Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces or Minister of Petroleum Resources. On both scores and on the general matter of managing Nigeria, be it the economy, the politics, or the social relations among the constituent parts of the heterogenous society, it is unlikely that the people will hesitate to send the man promptly back to Daura.

However, there are other critical considerations. For one, it may be too late in the day to meaningfully commence the process of getting rid of Buhari as President. In any case, the chances of any such procedure succeeding under the blunt-edged leadership of Ahmad Lawan at the National Assembly do not exist.

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Impeachment is a very complicated political process. It is a tricky stick wielded decisively in a setting where the capacity to pull it through clearly exists. Seven months before a general election in which the official concerned will be serving out his term is certainly not the best time to initiate an impeachment process, even if the numbers exist to pull through the cause. In this case, the numbers are not there.

Then again, there is the very fractured nature of the Nigerian state, anchored heavily on primordial sentiments and loyalty – the very factors that have hamstrung the Nigerian state, more so in the last seven years. A successful impeachment of Buhari at this juncture, even if it was possible, will throw up all manner of problems that will compound an already bad situation. In other words, the senators woke up very late.

It is true, going by records, that the prognosis for Nigeria in the next nine months under President Buhari and his team are bleak, extremely so, but, still, impeachment at this juncture does not offer a viable solution. Talk of being between the devil and the deep blue sea.

If impeaching Buhari nine months before his exit is an option fraught with dangerous implications, offering an opportunity to the ruling party in the upcoming election to continue along the course of the grief it has led Nigerians in the last seven years, is not and cannot be an option at all. This is beyond politics. It is matter of survival for a people. This however, is Nigeria, the land of impunity and illogicalities.

Now, the truth is that the Senate is not exempt from the calamity that has befallen Nigeria, for which it is threatening to impeach Buhari. Indeed, the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly is complicit in the dire fate of the country today, whether it relates to the subsidence of the economy or the collapse of national security. A legislative house that readily appropriated stupendous defence budgets and approved streams of executive requests for foreign loans, without effectively activating its oversight duty of monitoring judicious application of these public monies, is guilty of gross dereliction of duty. You do not wake up by midnight after the black goat has bolted to begin to search for it.

It is very unlikely that anything drastic will change in the security structure and management of the country in the six weeks the senators have given President Buhari to wake up. The threat of impeachment is at best a symbolic statement. The key question is; if in six weeks Buhari does not wake up, as he may well not do, what next?

In any case, what, if, by then the bandits make good their threat and kidnap the man, as they threaten to do, who will the senators impeach? The senators better prepare for various possibilities. Impeachment is a process that is pursued by legislators in the cosy confine of their chambers. A different setting is possible. The price of abdication of responsibilities by any of the arms of government in a democratic setting can be costly. The Ninth National Assembly has been a letdown.