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Last Updated: Thursday, November 11th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page
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Scheming for a five-year tenure
By Wada Nas
As the plot by some vested interest groups to have Chief Obasanjo run in 2007 for the third tenure assumes national
discourse, Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, who also doubles as the Chairman of the National Assembly
Committee for the review of the constitution, has denied that the National Assembly is part of such a grand plot.
In an interview with Vanguard of October 30, for instance, he said that the committee was still to finish its work
and so it could not have made any provision for a single five-year tenure.
The New Nigerian and Daily Trust of October 28 both quote Chief Austin Opara, Deputy House Speaker and Deputy Chairman
of the Committee, as saying also the same thing that they were yet to conclude the assignment. He specifically
said that the committee did not include a single term of five years in its recommendation to the National Assembly.
The truth, however, is that the draft constitution has already been produced and section 140, sub-section 2 says,
in part: �� the president shall vacate office at the expiration of a period of five years �� This is a clear indication
that work has been completed on the draft constitution and provided for a single tenure of five years for the President,
contrary to the claims of Mantu and Opara.
Sections 140, 141, 142 are lifted from sections 135, 136 and 137 respectively of the 1999 constitution, except
for the target area under section 137. Subsection (1) states inter alia, �a person shall not be qualified for election
to the office of president if � (b) he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections��
This subsection is split under subsection 142 (1) b and c of the proposed constitution, to read �if (b) he has
been elected to such office in the immediate past election under this constitution or (c) ��if he has been elected
to such office at two previous elections� Section 142 (1b) qualifies Obasanjo to contest while subsection 1c of
the same section does not.
If in spite of this provision, they still claim that the committee was yet to report on the matter, the question
now is, who formulated the draft provision?
According to very reliable but unconfirmed information, it was formulated in The Presidency under the authorship
of Dr. Kanu Agabi, a one-time minister of Justice and now a Special Adviser, and professor Jerry Gana, another
former minister and also now an adviser. What is implied here is that the two are now the ones charged with foisting
a constitution on the country in the likeness of their minds, which is far worse than the one foisted on the people
by the military, at least in terms of representation. If Nigerians are complaining that the current 1999 constitution
was a product of the military and therefore unrepresentative of their views, the one being proposed is a product
of Jerry Gana and Agabi in collaboration with some powerful forces in The Presidency who believe that their constitution
for the country is the best.
As said, Section 142, subsection (1) provides that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of
president if (c), ��he has been elected to such office at two previous elections�, implying that Obasanjo is not
qualified to contest when the constitution comes into force having been elected twice in �previous elections�.
However, according to information, members of the groups struggling to ensure that the coast is clear for Obasanjo
to contest for a third term are said to be opposed to this particular provision. These include, among others, those
who are beneficiaries of the privatisation policy, fuel importers, Corporate Nigeria and some former and serving
ministers and special advisers. They are said to be working day and night, to ensure that this provision is not
included in the final draft and the constitution itself. Indeed, it is said that this sub-section was inserted
in protection against possible leakages but the real intention is to mount pressure on the National Assembly to
expunge it out in the last minute.
The point however needs to be made that in the event that they succeed in the plot, it is not Obasanjo and the
clique in the presidency that are to be blamed alone but also the members of the National and State Houses of Assembly
who are the only persons authorised to effect changes in the constitution. Nigerians should therefore hold them
responsible should Obasanjo be foisted on them again, whose only motive for doing so is rooted in self-interest
and not for the good of the people.
Having said this, Nigerians have an obligation to salvage this country from the misrule of this regime before it
goes aflame. Nobody should dismiss the comments by Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie when he warns that if things
continue as they are, �Nigerians will be pushed to revolt�. The Cardinal has been very forthright in his denunciation
of bad governance and anti-people policies, which he has repeated in Vanguard of October 30, a piece I believe,
is a must-read by all those who love this country.
Presently, Nigerians are under the jackboot of Gen. Obasanjo. First, he has subdued the National Assembly to rubble,
worse than a conquered and defeated people, because he knows that most of them in strategic positions in the Senate
in particular, were handpicked by him and not by Nigerians. Thus, their first loyalty is to him, second to themselves
and a distant third, to the electorate if at all they still think of them as people worth their protection.
On his own initiative, the constitution of the PDP is being changed with the hope of dealing with its governors,
who he sees as constituting part of the opposition against him. The defense of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC,
is crumbling, as Nigerians, due to poverty, cannot sustain strikes for long. We can appreciate why some people
want them to remain poor, though when finally pushed to the wall, they may consume their oppressors. Quite recently,
he warned the Nigerian Bar Association against constituting themselves as opposition members, and who knows, a
law may be in the making to attempt to disband them as being done to the NLC.
There is a time in the life of a people when a few rise up to pull their country from the brink and salvage it
from the ravages of an exploitative class who have no regard for the welfare and well being of the greater number
but are only interested in empowering the tiny rich and emasculating the poor. One of the papers recently quoted
the IMF as saying that 80 per cent of Nigeria�s wealth is controlled by only one per cent, while the rest share
20 per cent.
Let us go back to the issue of Third-Term. Going by what Senator Kola Ogunwale has been preaching that if violence
persists up to 2007, Obasanjo will not handover, it stands to reason that the prospects of his going in 2007 is
remote because there is nothing as simple as setting this country ablaze enough to justify him to sit tight. Perhaps,
we can count this as one of the strategies needed to elongate Obasanjo�s stay beyond 2007. Let us put a keen eye
on the senator as he goes about flying the kite.
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