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Third
Term: Obasanjo is endangering the polity -Ejoor
• It is arrant nonsense - Bode George
By Augustine Avwode
Amidst
speculations that President Olusegun Obasanjo may be planning to re-contest for
the office of the president in 2007, the first military governor of defunct
Mid-West Region, Maj-Gen. David Ejoor (rtd), who described politics in Nigeria
as a game of ‘money and assassination’, has warned the president
not to contemplate succeeding himself again, as the consequences on the polity
could be very grave.
Speaking
with Sunday Independent in an exclusive interview, Ejoor, who reacted angrily to the
speculation, said “speculations or not, there is no way for that kind of
thing, the constitution does not allow that. Look, people should not endanger
this democracy. In any case, he (Obasanjo) has done it twice before, he is on
the third term. He had one as a military man and he is on the second term as a
civilian. What is it? Is he the only person in Nigeria? He has no chance, and
he should not do anything to endanger the polity”.
Ejoor,
however, added that the speculation could just be, a way of testing the waters
to gauge the reactions of Nigerians.
But
speaking with Sunday Independent, also in an exclusive interview during the week, National
Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the South-West, Chief
Olabode George, described as arrant nonsense and absolute rubbish all
speculations about President Obasanjo planning to succeed himself in 2007. He
argued that by 2007, the President would not have anything to do with the
nation’s leadership, as he would be 70 and must have seen it all.
“It
is arrant nonsense and you can quote me; it is absolute rubbish! By 2007, this
old man would be 70. He has been head of this country before, and he came back
after 20 years.”
George
contended that Obasanjo presently holds enough public office not to want more
in 2007.
“Today,
he is the President of the G77. He is the Chairman of African Union (AU),
Chairman of Commonwealth; he is Nigerian President, and the G8 people respect him
more than any leader in Africa. So what is he going to do?”
George,
who lampooned the speculators behind the self-succession story, advised that
such people should find something to do for the development of the nation.
“Anybody
talking about that one is an irritant. All these liars had better spend more of
their time looking for the best way to help the nation and not all this
beer-parlour talk.”
Since
Alhaji Wada Nas, former Minister for Special Duties during the regime of the
late Gen. Sani Abacha, alleged that there were plans to get President Obasanjo
to succeed himself, sundry reactions have trailed the allegation.
Last
month, the rumour mill was agog with talks of a special committee set up for
that purpose by the president and which had Ondo State Governor, Chief Segun
Agagu, as a key member.
It was
also alleged that at a meeting hosted by Alhaji Waziri Mohammed, Chairman of
the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC), the subject
was upper most on the agenda.
However,
Alhaji Waziri, while admitting that he actually hosted the said meeting, denied
that the issue discussed was how to fine-tune the third-term ambition of
President Obasanjo. He said what the group rather discussed was how to evolve a
formidable platform for politicians of their generation to be able to play
active role in deciding who becomes president in 2007.
Just like
Waziri, Agagu has equally refuted the speculation. Though he admitted that a
committee was truly set up by the president, to which he is a member, he said
it was not for the purposes of ensuring that President Obasanjo succeeds
himself in 2007.
“The
President has set up a committee. It is not a committee that is meant for
everybody to know about. He set up a committee on how we can deepen democracy
in the country.”
On why
the committee is operating in secrecy, Agagu explained that: “It is not
every meeting you hold that you must issue a communiqué”.
It would
be recalled that even the President himself had in an interview on Cable
News Network (CNN)
dismissed the speculation, affirming that the constitution does not allow that.
However,
a source in Lagos told Sunday Independent that a clean copy of the reviewed constitution,
“now in the cooler waiting to become operational in May 2006, is the
joker. With it, the President can now run for a third time, and because all the
elected officers now stand to gain, its passage would be quicker than that of
the Labour Bill,” the source said.
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