Rumour of impeachment

Many people were calling me to find out what stage the impeachment process has reached. I did not want to admit to them that I did not know anything about it. That will mean I am not an important politician, if something like this can happen in this state and I am not in the […]

Many people were calling me to find out what stage the impeachment process has reached. I did not want to admit to them that I did not know anything about it. That will mean I am not an important politician, if something like this can happen in this state and I am not in the center of it. So I kept telling people, “Yes, it has already gone far. We expect him to be impeached by next week.” As an afterthought I added, “Together with his deputy.” Within minutes of my saying that, the rumour mill came right back to me with people calling and saying, “Have you heard that the deputy governor is also being impeached together with the governor?”
Maikahon Karo and Alhaji Gohe arrived at my house at the same time. From my seat in the living room I saw them hurrying to come in. I stood up to meet them at the door. We did not even exchange greetings. Maikaho said, “This impeachment. We must seize the opportunity and tailor it to our advantage.” So I said, “Is the rumour true? I was thinking it is just a rumour.” Maikaho did not even blink. He said, “If it is rumour, we must turn it to be true. We must add fuel to the fire. We cannot let it go away just like that.”
We were soon on the move. Our new-found godfather Alhaji Maitumbin Kudi easily agreed to be part of it. He invited us to lunch at his house and by the time we got there, he had got two members of the State Assembly and several other important politicians there. Tsinin Kusa had tipped off the chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel that a meeting was taking place at Maitumbin Kudi’s house to finalise the impeachment plans. The reporters rushed there in their chapel’s bus, hid it behind a tree where they could observe people going into the house. The next day, the newspapers named me as the arrowhead of the plot. They said I held a meeting with “over a dozen” State Assembly members. One paper added in its story that Maitumbin Kudi has budgeted N500 million for the impeachment.
That night I stayed away from my house because I suspected what will happen. Sure enough, my senior wife called around 11pm and said the state party chairman Alhaji Sallama Maikudi was there together with the treasurer and the governor’s Political Adviser, that they desperately wanted to see me. I told my wife to tell them that I had travelled to Abuja. This made them even more desperate because Maikahon Karo had spread the rumour that it is the Presidency that is backing the impeachment plot. It was said that when the governor was asked what percentage of the vote the President will get in Tafki State, he said “between 20 and 23%,” so they earmarked him for impeachment.
In fact, by the next day, the thing was really getting out of hand. The Speaker sent his assistant to invite the correspondents to his office for a briefing. They however refused to go because one of Maikaho’s boys told them that the Speaker had hidden some thugs behind his office to beat them up when they show up. So the Speaker mobilised four other Assembly members and they went to the Press Centre to deny the rumour. By the time they got there, our Youth Wing leader Mai Tawaye had planted 50 tough thugs in front of the press centre. When they saw the Speaker and his colleagues, they quickly surrounded them and began chanting, “Thank you, thank you! Impeachment today, impeachment tomorrow, impeachment forever!” When the Speaker saw thugs everywhere, he raised his hand and said, “Yes! We will impeach him by tomorrow!” He then ran to the radio station and gave an interview saying it is not true, there is no impeachment plot. When he got to his house that evening, a crowd stood across the road from his gate shouting, “Hypocrite! Hypocrite!”
I was hiding in my guest house together with my top campaign aides when I saw a car drive in with some people inside. The gateman allowed the car in because my younger brother Bilal was driving it. As soon as it stopped, I saw Sallama Maikudi and the treasurer Musa Kutunku jump out. Before we knew it, they were inside the living room. “Aha!” the chairman said loudly as he came in. “At last we have found the ringleaders of the impeachment plot!”
Maikaho quickly jumped to his feet and accosted the chairman. “Who are the leaders of the impeachment plot? Look Chairman, we will not take this insult from you. Are we the ones who told His Excellency to commit impeachment offences? Are we the ones who said he should go and annoy Abuja? Is it we that told him not to eat with members of the State Assembly? Is it not people like you that are deceiving him, telling him to make Goshin Bauna his successor while H.E himself becomes a senator and you will become a minister? Are the three of you the only people in this state?”
Sallama Maikudi is a jovial man and he kept on laughing while Maikaho went into a tantrum. He finally sat down on an empty chair and said, “Maikaho, cool down. Alhaji, are you hearing me? Please let us iron out this matter. H.E has been unable to sleep for several days due to this impeachment rumour.”