Former Special Duties Minister, Alhaji Wada Nas, has alleged that President Olusegun Obasanjo has set up a secret committee to covertly work for the realisation of his self succession bid in 2007.
Relying on an “insider” information, the former minister, who is also the president general of the Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), alleged that the president had set up a very powerful committee composed of top notchers of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ostensibly to reform the party but with a subteranial plot to execute his third term bid.
He said in a signed press statement made available to Daily Trust yesterday, that he has had it on good authority that the committee, which has among its members, five former ministers and presidential advisers, a former civilian governor from the North, a senior party chieftain from the South, two repre-sentatives of PDP Speakers and a wife of a former minister among others, was set up to pursue president Obasanjo’s often denied third term bid.
“According to an insider, the setting up of the committee is the beginning of a gradual process for the legalisation of an eventual assault on the constitution of the party (PDP), and that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the purpose of ensuring for him a third term,” said the statement.
Alhaji Nas added that on the two previous occasions he had cause to alert the Nigerian people “of a grand conspiracy against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by a cabal who wants the status quo to remain after 2007,” both the president and his political adviser, Professor Jerry Gana, had denied such a design by Obasanjo.
But, according to him, “latest information however, has it that they are hiding the truth from the Nigerian people. Accor-ding to the information, there is indeed a committee being set up on the directive of the general, purportedly to reform the PDP but whose composition was being done without going through the appropriate organs of the party.
“In the formation of the so-called reform committee, the General has completely discarded the relevant structures of the party such as the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC).”
The former minister claimed that “a top party man in the PDP” had told him that for any reform to be initiated in respect of the party, the two organs, NCW and NEC “must seek the permission of the party first and after getting the necessary terms, they will then constitute members of the committee to be ratified by the party before they could start work but not for Obasanjo to decide on his own both the terms of the reform and membership of the committee.”
Supporting his allegation further, he claimed that “of recent, there have been kite flying on behalf of Obasanjo by some religious leaders with one of them claiming that God has destined that Obasanjo’s term will not end in 2007 while the other said that although free and fair elections would be conduc-ted and won in 2007, Obasanjo will still continue beyond his constitutional two terms.”
Sounding a note of warming against changing the constitution simply to facilitate a self succe-ssion bid, he said that Nigerians will resist attempts by the National Assembly to change the 1999 constitution in such a way that Obasanjo is allowed to contest again in 2007.
“Should the National Assembly effect changes in the 1999 constitution without a provision barring those who have enjoyed a second term under the current constitution, then it knows, for sure, that it is going to create a very serious problem for the polity, the dimension of which nobody can easily predict,” he further cautioned.
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