Obasanjo Should Not Allow Himself to Become Nigeria’s Public Enemy No.1
By
Yakub Abdalla   

For the past 2 years people have been screaming, shouting and crying on the manner that Obasanjo has been trying desperately to change (review/Amend) the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. Until now Obasanjo has chickened out of saying categorically whether he sanctioned the 419 manner in which this constitutional amendment has been going on nor whether he intends to benefit from it. However recently, the whole saga has become a PDP agenda, officially. Ali/Ojo have made it clear that PDP lawmakers would face the wrath of the party (Obj) if any one of them decided to vote against the 3rd term extension. Gradually they are explaining to us how credible Obasanjo has been, having laid the foundation of proper polity in Nigeria, and so he should be allowed to continue until God knows when (Obasanjo will have to consult God on when he would leave). This was what OJO MADUEKE advocated for on the 10th December 2006 (day of the PDP Convention) when he hosted Foreign Chapter officials. Yet he ashamedly denied these facts at an orchestrated press conference recently in Abuja, in which he even claimed he never met me. My reply to his press conference is, “it takes a man to tell the truth”.

Obasanjo is being re-packaged to Nigerians as angelica rather than the crooked old man who has presided over the most horrible non-accountable government since Nigeria was formed. On the domestic front nothing works, no not one. What works, I ask. Is it security, energy, transport, education, employment, value of our economy? What works, GSM?  Well, we pay the most expensive phone tariff in the world.
 
What makes me sad about the whole situation is that the very people who misled Abacha and almost got Obasanjo killed on the alter of term extension are the same people reading the same script they wrote to Abacha, in order to mislead Obasanjo. I am annoyed because Obasanjo has fallen for the political deception of Anenih, Ojo and Jerry. To me, these people are Nigeria’s public enemy No.1, and what a sad old man Obasanjo will end to be, if he continues down this path.

 
Why are Nigerians vehement in this opposition?
 
Some Nigerians are yet to understand the reasons for our vehemence on this constitutional fraud. I am making an attempt here to provide a short review of the constitutional journey from 1999 to date and I hope this might help, if such people are seeking the truth. For the avoidance of doubt, I believe Nigerians are excellent judges of excellence, and those on the fence will now join the opposition to this charade, called third term extension.
 
Shortly after the inauguration of this administration in 1999, indeed there was a clamour for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution. Obasanjo, in response to these clamours set up the Clement Ebri committee to consult and harmonize the views of Nigerians on the sections of the constitution that needed amendments. After the exercise, Mr. Ebri submitted his report and at no point in the committee's report was any person or community or group of persons was quoted as requesting for a three four-year terms or single term of six years for either for the President and/or Governors.
It is now a known fact that during the last year's National Political Reforms Conference set up by Obasanjo, a committee under Prof. Jerry Gana and Kanu Agabi attempted to smuggle in a 419 draft constitution, in which a section recommended three terms of four years for the President and Governors. This fraud was quickly sensed by patriotic Nigerians and was not even admitted into the Conference's plenary for debate, and not to talk of making its final report.
 
We also need to take cognizance of the fact that the different sub-committees on constitutional amendments conducted individual public hearings, and at no time was the issue of three terms of four years raised for public debate.
 
The question that every intelligent Nigerian should ask is, if the three terms of four years (third term) did not feature in the report of the Ebri committee, neither did it feature in National Political Reforms Conference, or even that of the sub-committees, how did it suddenly appear as an amendment of section 103 of the constitution? How was it smuggled in and who smuggled it into the proposals recommended for amendment?
 
And even if there was an oversight on the part of the Conference and the President wanted Nigerians to consider this matter of three terms, is it not an abuse of Nigeria’s legal intelligence to adopt a beer salesman to marshal the amendment of our constitution?  Since when did a salesman become a constitutional lawyer?
I make bold to say that I am sure that Obasanjo has been part of this ojoro plot to perpetuate himself in office since the word go, and so he should stop pretending to be innocent. If this is to be considered an unkind accusation, could someone please tell me who created the Ebri Committee? What has happened to the Ebri report? Who created the National Political Reforms Conference? Were the deliberations of the sub-committees the raw materials for the report of the confab? If the basis of the constitutional amendment is the Confab, then how did we arrive at third term while it was not in the report?
 
Now that every sensible Nigerian is refusing to be associated with this political fraud, we have started seeing the desperate steps of the Obasanjo government. Repression, intimidation and oppression have returned to our menu, ala Abatcha. We should however know that one fraud leads to another. Political fraud leads to financial fraud, financial fraud leads to economic fraud and economic fraud leads to political fraud. It’s a vicious cycle. We can now see how government money is being used to buy peoples conscience (lobbying?) and this in turn will perpetuate economic corruption.
 
What moral right has Obasanjo to accuse others of corruption while he is presiding over the most corrupt political party ever created in Nigeria? What moral right has Obasanjo to accuse others of waste and mismanagement while he is squandering trillions of Naira because he has adopted the Abatcha legacy?
 
Conclusion
 
Nigeria’s democracy is indeed being threatened by undemocratic and dictatorial forces. We recognize that this is a disease that needs serious attention. Some diseases are however so serious that the only way to deal with it is surgery. I hope Nigerians would go for surgery than allow our democratic process to be derailed. The men and women in the National Assembly should do what is right, even if it will cost them their party membership. The problem is that if they fail to do the right thing, Nigerians will vote them off the scene and they would have wished they have done the right thing, REFUSE TO BE CORRUPTED BY OBASANJO’S SQUANDERING TENDENCIES. Nigerians will forever regret a missed opportunity if they allow this grand political fraud to succeed. This is a classic example of political ‘419’ fraud.