Obasanjo, Governors And Third TermBy Zayyad I. Muhammad Recently, some Governors in Nigeria treated their citizens to a bazaar of self-serving, unpatriotic and complete betrayal of electorates’ trust, rule of law and principles of democracy; stuffs that took them to the exalted positions. Some did their own in Abuja, while Governors from the south west, less Lagos state performed theirs in Ogun state, these Governors hurriedly have squandered a rare opportunity to play statesmen and write their names in good chapter of the books of Nigerian history; with Obasanjo desperate in his undemocratic and evil desire to unlawfully stick to power, by employing inducement, political vendetta, blackmail and hide and seek to bring people on board the third term ship. Some National Assembly members apropos their greediness fall into the first category-inducement, political leaders that have proven to be not an easy political prey -political vendetta is used against them; Awoniyi, Lar, Ogbe Nwodo to mention but few, the alleged disloyalty labeled against Atiku is because of the Vice-President’s insistence on respecting the constitution, thus the beginning of his persecution. The preference for Obasanjo in 1999 as president of Nigeria was necessitated by the need to have some one as a symbol of unity to thwarts the heat on the polity ignited by careless Abacha self- succession bid; and IBB’s reckless annulment of the 1993 elections; but today, Obasanjo has proven to Nigerian that their thought on his democratic posture was a myth and their conscience mislaid by his past deceptive utterances and antecedence on democracy, his, is also a replica of dictatorship, tyranny and abuse of rule of law, the third term adventure is not well thought action, it is attempt that would set precedent for future leadership to tinker with the constitution at will to accomplish any personal wish, IBB’s ABN and Abacha’s YEAA are child play compared to the third termers approach, either you are with us or we crushed you. Obasanjo is doing a great disservice not only to the Nigerian state, but also painfully to the Yoruba race that always sees themselves as vanguards for democracy in the Nigerian state. Governors in their attempt to save their necks from the tightening noose of EFCC coupled with the excitement of being beneficiaries of extension of tenure, is the driven force behind their colossal disregard to the long suffering of the Nigerian masses and their irresponsible, reprehensive, revolting endorsement of the attempt to burgled and adulterate the Nigerian constitution, action that is in conflict and insconsistent with with norms and values of a democratically cultured nation, acts that amount to nothing but official rebellion to rule of law, due process, human right and public choice, it is regrettable to say our nation is considerably degenerating to society that anything goes; have the leadership in our country plunged the nation into a the status of banana republic? We are in a era where our president promote himself as a problem solver elsewhere in Africa while in his own country, his style of leadership only complicates matters; Nigeria have become the greatest threat to reliability of the much celebrated Africa’s Pair Review Mechanism, as Nigeria is preparing to conduct the self assessment review of the pair review, Africa is anxiously waiting to see our self assessment report, especially patterning political development, Worldwide, Nigeria is slowly being seen as a mix-up, in January 23, 2006, Lydia Polgreen, foreign Desk reporter of the New York Times, said “while Nigeria assumes the contradictory role of being an "enforcer” and “guarantor” of democracy in Africa, the virus of dictatorship did not die automatically with the election of President Obasanjo to office in 1999”. According to Lydia Polgreen, Nigeria’s present political crisis, which is shaking the delicate balance of the nation’s unity, is not unconnected with the widespread speculation that Mr. Obasanjo will seek to alter the constitution in order to run for a third term in office” today government business have completely derailed from public governance to naked ‘motor park’ politics; as John Konaige of the CNN summed it up, on 11th February 2006(CNN’s Inside Africa) “ Nigerian politics in gradually assuming a dangerous dimension” Suppose, our democracy is allowed to flourish liberally, Governors couldn’t in any way have any influence on the amendment of the constitution, but we are in situation where the states assemblies that are stakeholders in amendment of the constitution are entirely pocketed by the Governors, though there are instances where some state assemblies are only loyal to Governors because of the cordial relationship between them, or in response to party loyalty, but this couldn’t in any way be a justification to partake in an unpatriotic and undemocratic self-succession agenda. It is disheartening to see Governors that got into the exalted position through the ambit of the 1999 constitution are tirelessly working to subvert the ‘liberty spirit’ in the constitution, the Governors have failed to realize the long-term implications of their villainous decisions to support the alleged self-succession bid; have our Governors not realized the larger wisdom behind the total condemnations and rejection of the project by well meaning eminent Nigerians, the clergy, political leaders and the ordinary people on the street, though it is true that some Governors are not really excited about this totally disgusting self-succession project, but allowing themselves to be conscripted into it and becoming a major accomplices is a transgression against the Nigerian people, happily Orji Kalu of Abia, Boni Haruna of Adamawa, Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano, Bola Tinubu of Lagos, Abdullahi Kure of Niger and Joshua Dariye of Plateau states are providing hope and democratic ladder for ordinary Nigerians to climb. While the some of their colleagues have hanged their persona on a pendulum that swings from dignity to dishonor Though Obasanjo and his think tank have successfully confiscated the PDP, pocketed some members of national assembly and lured ‘the big fishes’ Governors into self-succession project, but the advocates of third term cannot sit with their legs –up; because no man had ever succeeded to imposed himself on Nigerians.
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta, Nigeria |