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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Strange talk about third-term bid
IT is noteworthy that President Olusegun Obasanjo, the other day, laid to rest all speculations about his purported bid to do a third term in office.
The current gale of unconfirmed reports on President Obasanjo's alleged surreptitious bid to perpetuate himself in office derives its force from the communique issued by the Northern Senators' Forum at the end of its retreat at Sokoto a few weeks ago.
The Forum, comprising Senators from all the 19 states in the North, forcefully and resolutely stated that any change in the 1999 Constitution as a result of the forthcoming amendment exercise, should not affect the tenure of any elected official as enshrined in the Constitution under which he or she was elected.
Apparently responding to the Northern Senators' statement, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, Senior Special Assistant on Media to the President, re-assured the nation at a recent press briefing that the President was "committed to serving his term" and that "all other innuendoes and statements that are being made by the people remain a figment of their imagination..." Mrs. Oyo also pointed out that although "there have been deceits in the past... this President is not deceiving Nigerians." We hope so too.
Reacting to the same issue, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, simply gave the lie to the insinuations that President Obasanjo would seek a third term in office. According to the Minister, the on-going amendments to the 1999 Constitution are not meant to prepare the ground for the President to have another shot at the presidency under the guise of a single five-year term.
In his language, "if you have heard the President say he will not contest in the 2007 presidential polls even with a new Constitution stipulating a single five-year term, why is it that Nigerians keep speculating about 2007 election as it concerns the current President?" Speculations about President Obasanjo's stealthy intention to remain in office after 2007 are not new. We had had to warn in a past editorial against any attempt, overt or covert, on the part of the President and/or any of his army of obsequious advisers and legislator friends to plot a third term for President Obasanjo, using the new-fangled single five-year term as a subterfuge.
The 1999 Constitution unambiguously provides that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of president, if he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections. There is hardly any doubt that the President has proposed some amendments to the 1999 Constitution, which amendments, in all probability, contain some provisions that may have been, we hope, misinterpreted as designed to legalise the incumbent President's aspirations to contest for a single five-year term. Not a few Nigerians have conjectured that some of the Senators (those from the North) may have read between the lines of the amendments and are consequently of the opinion that some mischief is afoot.
Be all that as it may, we think it is proper to advise President Obasanjo, as a person, against any thought that may be propelling him in the tempting, but hazardous, direction of a third term in office, under whatever stratagem. We also warn against the activities of those brazen-faced fellows, most of whom are manifestly steeped in political jobbery who may be promoting the idea of a third term. It is on record that so many unwanted Nigerian politicians got embroiled in politics on the dubious pretext that they had to bow to the wishes of their people! The point should be made that Nigeria is not a banana republic where rogue leaders had the temerity to tinker with that country's constitution to pave the way for them to perpetuate themselves in office.
Nigeria abounds in talents. It once transpired that some constitutional lawyers were assigned the task of studying the constitutional models of some countries, in and outside Africa. It is to be hoped that such effort is not geared towards bringing about a Constitution, that would fly at a tangent from the existing law on the subject, and enable a president, vice-president governor or deputy governor to re-contest for the same position to which he has been twice elected.
That would be subversive of the people's sovereignty as enshrined in the Constitution. Indeed, any move by any person or group of persons to impose on the people any person, who has served a second term in office, to do a third term or a single five-year term, would be tantamount to a crime against the collective will of the Nigerian citizenry. President Obasanjo would do well to always remember the oath of office, contained in the 1999 Constitution, which he swore to uphold. He did well in re-affirming his commitment to that oath, by declaring that he is not involved in any third term agenda.
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