₦airaland Forum

With the ongoing impeachment back-and-forth involving the Rivers State Governor, many Nigerians are asking what the law actually says and where the courts fit into the process. Beyond political statements and counter-statements, impeachment of a sitting Governor is governed strictly by Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Below is how the process works, step by step.

Step 1: Initiation of Allegation
The impeachment process begins with a written notice of allegation of gross misconduct. This notice must be prepared and signed by not less than one-third of the total membership of the State House of Assembly. The Constitution requires that the notice clearly state the specific particulars of the alleged gross misconduct. No person or body outside the House of Assembly has the constitutional authority to initiate impeachment proceedings against a Governor.

Step 2: Presentation and Service of the Notice
Once the notice of allegation is ready, it must be presented to the Speaker of the House of Assembly. Upon receipt, the Speaker is constitutionally obligated, within seven days, to cause the notice to be served on the Governor and to ensure that copies are served on every member of the House. Proper service of the notice is a mandatory requirement, and failure to comply with this step renders the entire process invalid.

Step 3: Resolution to Investigate
After the notice has been served, the House of Assembly must decide whether the allegation should be investigated. The Constitution provides that within fourteen days of the notice being presented to the Speaker, the House must pass a resolution on whether to investigate the allegation. This resolution must be supported by not less than two-thirds of the entire membership of the House. If the required majority is not achieved, the impeachment process comes to an immediate end.

Step 4: Notification of the Chief Judge
Where the House validly passes the two-thirds resolution to investigate, the next step is for the Speaker of the House to formally notify the Chief Judge of the State of the resolution. The House itself does not appoint investigators and cannot bypass the Chief Judge in this process. The Constitution assigns this role exclusively to the Chief Judge.

Step 5: Constitution of the Investigation Panel
Upon receiving the notification from the Speaker, the Chief Judge is required, within seven days, to constitute an investigation panel of seven persons. The Constitution stipulates that these persons must be of unquestionable integrity and must not be members of any public service, legislative house, or political office. The panel is independent and not subject to the control of the House or the Governor.

Step 6: Investigation and Right of Defence
The investigation panel proceeds to examine the allegations of gross misconduct. During this stage, the Governor has the constitutional right to defend himself, either personally or through legal practitioners of his choice. The panel must conduct its investigation fairly and must submit its report to the House of Assembly within three months.

Step 7: Consideration of the Panel’s Report
After receiving the panel’s report, the House of Assembly considers its findings. If the panel reports that the allegations have not been proved, the Constitution expressly forbids the House from taking any further action on the matter, and the impeachment process ends permanently. If, however, the panel reports that the allegations have been proved, the House proceeds to the final stage.

Step 8: Final Vote and Removal
Where the panel’s report finds the allegation proved, the House of Assembly votes on whether to adopt the report. A two-thirds majority of the entire membership of the House is required for the Governor to be removed from office. Once this resolution is passed, the Governor is removed immediately, and no further confirmation or ceremony is required.

Role of the Courts
Although impeachment is fundamentally a legislative process, Nigerian courts play a crucial supervisory role. Courts do not initiate impeachment and do not replace the House of Assembly. However, the courts have the constitutional power to review compliance with Section 188.
Importantly, courts can intervene before or during the process where there is clear evidence of constitutional breaches. This includes situations where the required one-third notice was not validly signed, where service of the notice was defective, where the two-thirds resolution was not properly achieved, or where the House acted in clear violation of fair-hearing requirements.
On the specific question of the Chief Judge, courts can restrain a Chief Judge from constituting an impeachment panel where it is shown that the constitutional preconditions for his involvement have not been met. If there was no valid two-thirds resolution, or if the process leading to the request was unconstitutional, a court may issue an injunction preventing the Chief Judge from acting on an invalid request. In such circumstances, the Chief Judge is not expected to proceed in defiance of a subsisting court order.
That said, where the House has strictly complied with Section 188 and no court order exists, the Chief Judge has a constitutional duty to constitute the panel, and courts will not interfere merely because the process is politically controversial.

HarunaWest:
How can USA be isolated? Who will isolate the USA? A country where the whole world is forced to use their currency for transactions?. Trump has realized that the world needs USA more than USA needs the world.

Before the US withdrew, dedollarization had already begun in many countries. This isolation would further worsen it and cede power to their enemies Russia and China. Many countries are now drifting off to Russia and China including the US neighbours Canada and Mexico. They're now shifting towards BRICS. Trump is messing up big time

Putindbutt:
Nigeria is going to the World Cup, shame on haters. We saw how DR Congo were exposed at the AFCON, Nigeria is far superior in every area. We are going to be a better representative for the African continent. Forget about a sick DR that can't cure himself. God bless Nigeria.

Why are we robbing another team after we refused to do our homework. DRC were clearly better in the qualifiers and earned it. Even Nigeria's performance at the afcon were not convincing enough or rather inconsistent. The match against Morocco exposed that. Let's stay back and rebuild this team and allow the team that fairly earned it to go to the world cup

meobizy:
Nairaland: femboys who hate women circlejerking femboys who also hate women. A case of the blind leading the blind.

I’m out of this thread.

Good for you!

zmanto:
God bless you... with the level of problems we have in this country people still have time to discuss irrelevant things

What is relevant to someone might be irrelevant to you. Not everyone is partaking in the same degree of problems as you. If you feel the problems in the country are so much to you and choking you, why don't you go out and protest openly against the govt instead of trying to force others to share equal problems with you.

illicit:
Because every guy wants sex

But every guy dont want a d same quality nor quantity of sex

To maintain her integrity she should have avoided sex with another guy until marriage. At least she would have proven her decision to leave her first guy because of sex correct if she abstained from sex in subsequent relationships until marriage. But diving into sex in subsequent relationships shows she lacks principles

illicit:
The issue she had with the other men might not be too much sex

I have excused myself from a lady that could fvck all d time but she waits for u to initiate it


D moment u do mistake touch her, u might end up blaming urself sha

I could have died

The point is, why break up a relationship with a guy because he asked for sex, only to enter another relationship and give sex freely to the other guy without blaming him. Why break up with your first guy simply because he asked you for sex and you felt it was sinful to engage in sex with him, only for you to meet another guy and freely give him sex without finding that sinful or without condemning that new guy?

This is not a gender war.
I am specifically referring to women, and I want honest discussion.

I find this behaviour hypocritical and two-faced, and I’ll explain why.

A woman accuses her boyfriend of “disturbing her for sex,” says he’s too sexually demanding, and uses that as a major reason to end the relationship.

Fine. She has every right to leave.

But after the breakup, she goes on to date other men and ends up having the same sex she complained about — sometimes even more. Those relationships don’t work out. Then she comes back to the original man.A lady broke up with my friend because she said he was disturbing her too much for sex. After leaving him, she entered two separate relationships at different times and had sex with both men. Both relationships ended badly. She later tried to return to my friend.

The issue is not that she dated other men — that is her choice.

The issue is this: How do you accuse a man and blame him for wanting sex, end a relationship because of it, and then turn around to willingly give even more sex to other men?

To my friend, this came across as dishonest justification for the breakup, a clear case of blaming him for something that was not really the problem, and an attempt to return only after discovering the grass was not greener elsewhere. Naturally, he no longer saw her the same way. Respect was lost, and attraction died.

So my questions are straightforward: First, Isn’t it hypocritical to condemn a man for wanting sex, only to offer the same or more sex to others? Second, Why expect a man to accept you back after treating him like the problem? Don’t actions like this damage how a man values and respects you?

This is not hatred. It is a real pattern I’ve observed, and it deserves honest conversation.

MODS which one is Morocco 1 Senegal 0. Or are you guys also part of the biased CAF that wants Morocco to win by any means possible

tonididdy:
Senegal should be fined heavily



So unprofessional

And the referee cheating them isn't unprofessional right?

This is really embarrassing. Worst afcon ever. Like the bias is so obvious!

blowjohn:
The ref was more vicious.
Getting past the semis was the main target

Even the ref is biased against the Senegalese in this game yet they're literally destroying the Moroccans. They have a tactically sound coach. Nigeria was just disgraceful against Morocco

I hope Nigeria is seeing how to approach this Moroccan team, not the disgraceful defensive game we played by having 1 shot on target. Senegal has limited the Moroccans to 0 shots on target first half. That's how to approach this Moroccan team.

Just look at how low we've descended as a country. A whole Nigeria celebrating common bronze medal as gold? That's way below the Nigerian standard for the afcon!

This is stale news. Tunisia just appointed a new coach, Sabri lamouchi two days ago, to take charge until 2028.

Arizoner:
how do they settle this coaches after sack

They have a very very deep purse

ceejay80s:
Leave story oga,
Super eagles were bad, compared their previous game with Tunisia to Morocco,
Morocco wasn't that good but the seized the opportunity by pressing super eagles, they noticed eagles were tensed and confused with the ball,
Leave referee part aside , if eagles had played a good game like they did wit Tunisia, the referee won't have any choice, abi referee wan cancel a clear goal wey enter and VAR dey?
Tunisians will be so happy now

Your analysis of the game is well on point 💯

orazx:
Well, I don’t think you have ever played a football competition in your whole life.
If you have played one then you will know what it takes to play against the Ref.
Your defence can’t tackle well, any touch in the box is a penalty, your midfielders won’t be able to intercept or tackle well.
Let’s be honest we had a bad game but it all came from the Ref, we all saw what we played for the first 10mins.
The boys read the game and they know if they fumble the ref will always protect the host.
Do you know how many times the Moroccan striker fell Baseey? And he went without a single booking

Both of you guys analysis are in point

eslek5:
Their change of style caused it and I still don't know why they had to change the confirmed attacking style that got us so many goals already. I d prefer that we'd even lost with 90mims play our normal attacking football honestly

Exactly 💯

Lamasta:
In as much as what you typed is correct don't rule out the fact that this Moroccan team is a very good side with the referee support, my only take is that Nigeria did not come to party today and it showed all through the game, our midfield is where we lost it today

I completely agree with you

seunlayi:
I beg to disagree with you. The present set of players Nigeria is having in that team cannot be outclass by any team in the competition. All blame is on the coach. It his his job to make them play accordingly.

You obviously didn't watch the game. They were already outclassed, pummeled, pinned down and defeated so I don't understand what you mean by "the present set of players Nigeria is having in that team cannot be outclass by any team in the competition"? You're speaking future tense for an event that just occurred few minutes ago. Just go and watch Morocco's match against Mali. They narrowly escaped defeat by Mali if not for the referee's bias. I expected Nigeria to have studied that Mali game. But the players lack winning mentality

GreatrAnalyst:
You are funny though

This Super eagle squad seems the best in the recent time.
If we had won, most of the comments here people would not drop them.
Do you really think that Morocco team is bad? Nwabali saved so many...Bassey was superb...

To hold a hosting country for an extra time is not a joke, even Nigeria fan base there, their impact couldn't be seen. Everywhere is red because of home base...it is not that easy. The boys tried. Even the best of the best have lost penalties before.
The coach wasn't bad...

If e easy, all of us suppose dey play ourselves, I know it is painful but the boys tried.

Brazil lost even in world cup final to France many years ago...football isn't mathematics

Did you watch that game? From start to the end of that match, Nigeria was outclassed! Even the coach got confused. Only 1 shot on goal for 120mins is shameful. You should probably go and watch how Mali outclassed this same Moroccan team. Morocco only escaped defeat to Mali by whiskers. I expected the coach to have watched that Mali game and adopt the Mali approach. Judging from this game especially now that they faced a good opposition, I think the coach Chelle isn't up to the standard. It reminded me of the dr Congo wcq game in which we were outclassed and only tactically waited for penalties to see if we'd have luck on our side. It's the same approach he adopted in this game.

SundiKeita:
coach plan from start b penalties

Very shameful indeed. Just when I thought he was worth it, he just made us know he's not a good coach. This match reminded me of the wcq against dr Congo in which we were outclassed and only waited to hope on penalties. And to even think that a team like Mali took this same Moroccan side to the cleaners, yet this same Morocco team outclassed us from start to finish today.
I honestly don't think Chelle is good enough for this team

Goo0dHardDick:
6 Moroccan players that played in the 2022 world cup semi finals are currently in that match, how on earth are SE supposed to compete with those professional experience Morocco players who have appeared and played in world cup semi final? Just how?

Wether home or not, they'll beat Nigeria hands down.

What kind of inferiority complex is this? Mali in this same tournament took Morocco to the cleaners. Morocco only narrowly escaped Mali. Senegal will beat this Moroccan team hands down. I'm utterly disappointed in Nigeria's approach to this game.

Rebuke:
Una don start this blaming thing again. Kai, Nigerians!

No matter what, we win today.

Seeing this game, I'd prefer Morocco gets to the finals. Nigeria has been abysmal.

This reminds me of the world cup qualifiers game against dr Congo. Nigeria is being made so ordinary and outclassed. Just that the referee is shamefully biased in this game

The Mali team that played and drew 1-1 with these Moroccans put up a way better performance than Nigeria. They matched these Moroccans pace for pace, ball for ball and created excellent chances. I don't know why this Nigerian team is giving too much space to these Moroccans.

From the way this game is going Morocco may win win a big scoreline. The Nigerians look very clueless in front. They're making these Moroccans very very comfortable!

These Moroccans have taken over complete control of this game. Nigeria are giving them a lot of spaces to operate and the Moroccans are getting really comfortable on the ball!

Putindbutt:
The resident doctors are mere trainees, they have no rights to dictate to Govt or post medical college how to issue a certificate. If you're hungry for a certificate before sitting for your final exam, you can relocate to the UK. If they can't focus on their trainings and then see how to better and further develop their carrers after their training, then they should refund Govt funds for their training and relocate to wherever butter their bread.
The senior doctors started like they are and did not make unreasonable demands as these GenZ doctors whom many Nigerians are even reluctant to have them treat or attend to them but would rather prefer the senior doctors. They should first learn than putting money before their carrer. Greedy trainees.

If they're mere trainees like you say then they shouldn't attend to patients but should only go to the hospital to learn. The fact that they see and treat patients mean they ought to be paid for rendering such services or would you allow someone work for you for free without being paid? And if we should follow your reasoning then it shouldn't bother you that a lot of them are leaving the country in droves to countries that appreciate their values. Afterall you can't force someone to 'train ' under you. Let them go and train in countries that understand and appreciate their value. Funny thing is that even your so called politicians whom you have refused to hold accountable for the rot in the health sector would still travel out to these countries and be treated by same Nigerian resident doctors you call trainees or incompetent and whom they refused to pay well. And even more funny, these your so called politicians would pay them 100 times over there for treatment what they would have paid them here in Nigeria. I know of a doctor who left Nigeria about 2 years ago to the UK because of this same issues. Funny enough, in the hospital he works he was the one that treated one of your very popular politicians (I wouldn't mention his name for sake I patient privacy). That politician paid thousands of pounds for consultation and treatment to that same doctor who was despised when he was in Nigeria. So who lost in the end? Was it the doctor who got more than double in hard currency? Or you the masses who's tax money was paid to another country in hard currency. So Nigeria and Nigerians eventually lost out not the doctor they crucified.
Instead of you to attack your politicians who are supposed to make healthcare fantastic in your country, you're wrongly directing your invectives at a doctor who has so many options at his disposal.
Indeed common sense is not common.

Putindbutt:
After the Government has reviewed your allowances by 90 billion, the 90 billion has already added more expenditure to the budget every year. That one never do you, you still asking for specialist allowances?, Resident doctors o, these are still trainees o, asking for specialist allowances?. People who are not yet consultants o. E be like these people are not normal at all.



Look at another useless demand they are asking for, Lol. How can you be asking the medical college to issue you a certificate after Part 1 examination?. I just want someone to tell me these guys are not sick, biko. How can undergraduates be asking for certificate after only passing part 1 exam?. Do you enrol to only sit for part 1 exam, is certificate not supposed to be issued after you have fully passed all the exams to the final class?. Is like law students asking for certificate after stage 1. But I get it, they want the certificate for japa, so even if they couldn't finish the post medical courses till the final class, they can use the one they have to apply for japa, very useless people.

And some ignorant people who do not know what's going on will be quick to insult the Government when these doctors threaten the Govt with strike. They don't know that many of their demands are unreasonable and useless. But because they know the people are always sympathetic to them, they use that opportunity to exploit their crazy demands.

Doctors and lecturers be acting as if they're the only two professions we have in the country, always threatening the Govt with crazy demands. The Govt should also learn to sack them and replace them with those willing to work. Other professions do not disturb the country like these two greedy professions

You're obviously the very ignorant one here. I probably would have glossed over your ignorance but I'd just be merciful to address a couple and enlighten you. Calling medical graduates doing a residency programme as undergraduates is complete lack of knowledge from your part. If a PhD holder can be classed as a postgraduate, then calling resident doctors who are way above that level as undergraduates is utterly ignorant.
As per the certificates, maybe you don't know what obtains in other countries including the UK who issue MRCS or MRCP certificates for their equivalent part 1 programmes. These are called membership certificates and are well in line with their demands. It's already being implemented even in all West African countries except Nigeria which is embarrassing. I don't have the energy to banter childish arguments with you. Before you make more ignorant posts please enlighten yourself further.

Pierocash:
Anybody must be mad to compare a country with social amenities with Nigeria with practically no government presence. Comparing a country with higher Standard of living, , higher minimum wage, higher level of accountability.

The person must be mad

The point he's trying to make is that there's no justification for Nigerian govts tax to be that high considering the fact that the citizens benefit almost nothing from the govt. He's trying to say the Nigerian govt is moronic attempting to copy high taxation styles from Western countries when they do not use that same taxes to provide basic stuffs for its citizens compared to what obtains in the western countries they're copying the taxation policies from.