The impeachment inquiry into US PresidentTrump’s presidency is a bell that calls much to mind.After the Adam Schiff’s Intelligence Committee rounded up last
week and reported to the judicial counterpart, the inquiry turned it all to anaccount of scholarship. Five law professors from different universitiesappeared before the Judicial Committee last Wednesday, and getting the nod fromthe scholars, the JC now can push for impeachment.It gives a sense of pride to any scholarof good selfreckoning. Do not rush me. I am not interested in the impeachmentas an end, or want Donald out at all cost. No. That is not even as important. Afterall, Trump has both sides of good and bad, and whether the bad side outweighsis entirely the business of his immediate victims. Of course the Trumpianimpact has global effects but the roots are in America.
Only that many times, the Americanbusiness concerns us, too, even if for the model of democracy we take afterthem. And here is why I am gaped by the system’s reliance on academics to getthe point home. My tummy turned, for many obvious reasons you too, know. Butthat is no excuse for any loss of hope. It should spur us to the challenge.
While the impeachment saga wages, I standfrom here, as a student in learning about the goodness of the system and howindividual, group and collective human behavior, attitude and the processes ofreason, conviction and accountability to fellow humans, officially orpersonally, can make or mar any public policy, plan or programme. And it is asweet experience catching up with the sittings and the coverage from bothshades of Fox News and Aljazeera
I am interested in the process of theimpeachment as a learning rope that we can hold to lift ourselves from theshackles of embarrassing fallouts from the failure, or the many policies aimedto redress the local system in Nigeria, for efficiency. Face it, with all itscorrupting and devilish effects, the American system always has something toteach the rest of us.
Get that line in my opening paragraph: theprocess of inquiry and the JC needed the last input from scholarship in orderto make a final decision about whether or not to continue with the process andit is this point that interests me. And because of what those five lawprofessors said, impeachment hearings became elucidate and clear, and can nowcontinue Monday.
It is huge respect, at first, Congressgives to scholarship. This is on the simple account that as leaders of thought,academics are the mindguards of any nation. I am awake to the fact that in anydecent society academics are important to both the guidance and the protectionof the public sphere, public interest and accountability processes to thepublic. This, more than the immediate function of the classroom, should be theburden that scholars should hold for humanity in a given context.
I am pinched by the transparency of theprocess, even when Reps complained the Dems influenced, shaped and teleguidedthe stages and denied many Rep-leaning witnesses. Well, the White House andeven some Reps did same by refusing to appear to testify in the inquiry, sothere is the argument from both sides. The Dems astonished me by their calm andmaturity during the repeated calls minor Intel Committee members made on Schiffand co to end the inquiry for lack of basis or ‘substantial evidence’.
This lesson would not have been passed tothe rest of the world; if Reps wish to kill the inquiry prevailed long beforenow. I am even more astonished by the resilience of the inquiry amid the almosteven-divided public opinion on the process. For a minute, I used to think forthand back that somehow, somewhere, someone may still be holding that knob thatturned Trump against Hillary in a guffy.
I mean, Trump is by all accounts, liable.And this inquiry is about Trump’s abuse office, directly linked to his requestfor Ukraine to charge political rival Joe Biden, but remotely also, relating tothe Russian or Ukrainian interferences in US elections. I mean, how sure iseveryone on any side that the US system is free even as the tussle sails, even theprocess of inquiry is not entirely free from the said external influence,interference.
Or how else can you explain public opinionof the no nonsense people about an irresponsible President can be so tilted toraise questions on a process that has been so clearly indicting. Except forTurnley, all the other law professors told the JC Trump is liable. Theirinterpretation of the offence was guided by simple definitions of the keywordsand constitutional clauses, put forward by book or oral submissions.
No public opinion or political sentimentwas either allowed or could stand the eerie silence at the descent of reason onthe saga. The scholars made it so easy for the JC and for everyone seekingjustice, whatever the cost. This is in my believe that justice for the systemis supreme to the cost we individually will eventually bear as a cost ofeffect.
The process of justice is a long road fullof rigours and thorns. But the Dems are teaching us it is worth the travel. Itis just amazing and it is good if we can rely on our academia and accounts ofscholarship to shut down and out wailing, lies, hate and ungodliness from theNigerian political process to justice and public accountability. I know youwant to ask me, “is our scholarship, the academia reliable?”
No.you are right. How can we trust academics and scholars amid the careless publicopinion about professors rigging elections; when the profession is sold out toincapacities; or when scholars cannot overcome sentiments for justice, thetruth or accountability? But it is not late to wake. We should bypass the pastand shape into the good roads to system reform of the FGN.
It is shameful sometimes, when you find anacademic challenging rule of law or order of processes of reform, adjusts andtightening. No intent to IPPIS, please. I think ASUU has a case but one thatdifficult, by accounts of existing realities and the dilemma of the Government.Our scholars need to stand up.
Every certificate you hold and promotion you attain is akin to public demand and expectation that you stand up as the conscience and guard of the public on all fronts. This public demand is a grand responsibility humanity places on your shoulders as thinktanks who must always point out the way to the end where everyone expect the better and the best. Kada a faadi ba nauyi, don Allah.
Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)a[email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
