By Musa Azare
On the 13th day of August, 2009, late Alhaji Garba Mohammed Gadi was impeached as deputy governor of Bauchi State. And the Speaker of Bauchi State House of Assembly, who presided over the impeachment, Babayo Garba Gamawa, now also late, was swiftly sworn-in as the new deputy governor. Gadi’s impeachment was masterminded by his boss, Isah Yuguda. I fought along with Garba Gadi, during and after his impeachment saga, up to the time when court reinstated him on 25th June, 2010. In fact, even after his death, I sustained the fight for his rights and benefits, in various courts, up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. But at that time, impunity reigned the land. So, the court order to reinstate him was never followed by Isah Yuguda. Bauchi now had two deputy governors – Garba Mohammed Gadi and Babayo Garba Gamawa. I remember vividly, the day Garba Gadi tried to access his office, after his reinstatement by the Bauchi State High Court of Justice, the Police, apparently acting on orders from Gadi’s tormentors, sealed up the office (see comment section for the news).
I mobilised likeminds across Nigeria, to join the fight for justice for Garba Gadi. Shehu Mustapha Chaji, Emmanuel Iriogbe, Auwal Dankano, Ahmad Rasheed Makarfi, Adamu Muhd Usman, Nduka Chiejina are among the many friends I invited, and have helped a lot against Garba Gadi’s illegal impeachment. I remember, also vividly, how then General Muhammadu Buhari was bitter about the illegal impeachment of Garba Gadi.
The case of Barrister Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, the just impeached Zamfara State deputy governor is a twin brother of late Garba Gadi’s. Gadi refused to join the PDP along with his boss who had decamped from the party that brought them to power, the defunct ANPP; Mahdi refused to join the APC along with his boss, from the party that brought them to power, the PDP. And like Barrister Mahdi’s case, Garba Gadi’s impeachment process was been challenged in the court, when the “illegal” impeachment was executed by a highly compromised State House of Assembly.
In Zamfara, like in Bauchi, a new deputy governor was also swiftly installed.
If Barrister Mahdi decides to challenge his impeachment in the court, it is very likely he will win. But his reinstatement is certainly not going to happen. Because nothing has changed in Nigeria since Gadi’s times. Impunity still reings in our land. The promise of change has become a fallacy, as Nigeria is still a theater of absurdities and abuses of various forms and magnitudes.
Azare a public affairs commentator wrote in from Bauchi state.