| dc.description.abstract | The study assessed the politics of impeachment in Nigeria with a special focus on the impeachment of the Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, in February 2022, which was the only case of impeachment in the political development of the state. As one of the constitutional powers of the Legislature, impeachment of Chief Executives remains the last option mechanism for checking the excesses of the Executive Arm of Government in a democratic setting globally. This study pursued two specific objectives: to ascertain the extent of compliance with the constitutional provisions in the impeachment of the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State and to determine the motives behind the said impeachment. The justification of this study is that the outcome and findings will provide empirical knowledge and information to students, researchers, and the general public on the circumstances that surround the impeachment of the Zamfara State Deputy Governor. It will also stimulate more research efforts in this domain and, hopefully, a better understanding of democratic practice in Nigeria.
The study adopted a survey design, with data from both primary and secondary sources providing the necessary information. Primary data was sourced through structured questionnaires and oral interview instruments. Taro Yamane’s sample size derivation technique was adopted on the population of Zamfara State to arrive at 400 respondents for questionnaire administration, which were distributed proportionally across the 14 local government areas of the state using purposive sampling techniques in the selection of respondents, while Key Informant Interview (KII) sessions were organized with 31 interviewees drawn from different political camps in the state. Secondary data came from documented information in textbooks, journals, reports, newspapers, bulletins, etc., which were sourced from both hard and electronic forms. The data collected from the combined instruments was triangulated descriptively.
For the first objective, it was discovered that the constitutional procedures were followed in establishing the allegations leveled against the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State in February 2022 by the Zamfara State House of Assembly. On the second objective, the study revealed that a political motive triggered the impeachment of the former Deputy Governor of Zamfara State. The political motive discovered in the study was the Deputy Governor’s refusal to decamp with the Governor from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to All-Progressives Congress (APC).
For objective one, it was recommended that other State Houses of Assembly may wish to emulate the Zamfara State House of Assembly by observing due process when impeaching the Deputy Governors. For the Objective two, it was recommended that the State Houses of Assembly may wish to consider the interest of their states and not political motives when making moves for impeachments. | en_US |
