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Obasanjo, Gana And The Third Term Agenda By Jide Ayobolu
The third agenda which sought to illegally elongate the tenure of office of president Olusegun Obasanjo has continue to throw up some fundamental national issues even after the worrisome and anti-democratic bill has been killed in the National Assembly. The issue is that the people of Nigeria are totally disenchanted with the Obasanjo administration because of the introduction and implementation of misanthropic economic policies as well as the fact that the developmental dividends of democracy have not percolated to the people that truly need them, yet Obasanjo wants to remain in power at all cost against the collective will and wish of the Nigerian people. However, one of the fall-outs of the failure of the third term agenda is the way and manner some of the dramatis personae are now spilling the beans over what they did or what they fail to do. It is in this direction that professor Jerry Gana, the former special adviser to the president on political affairs has come out to say in very clear terms that, “president Obasanjo himself insisted on going for a third term and that he failed to heed advice that it was a dangerous gambit that could split the country. If Obasanjo had embraced the single six-year tenure canvassed at the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) there could not have been a tenure extension agenda, which amounts to changing the rules midway, and is anti-people. It was because the president wanted it his own way; the people rose up to oppose the plot, leading to failure”. Professor Gana went on to explain in great details that, “I talked severally and very, very loudly to my boss but my words could not make the expected impact. May be you did not hear about it because I was not doing so on the pages of newspapers or in the media. Many a time I made it clear to him that the third term thing was not right because we had advised on a single term of six years. I and my good brothers, Ojo Maduekwe and Kanu Agabi, had taken that position at the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) and many people who should have backed it agitated that the document be thrown out. I view that to be a terrible mistake the conference had made”. He went ahead to counsel that, “I also hope that our brothers from the South West will understand this argument by accepting not to seek that their brother remain in office, so that peace and stability could reign in the country. We have done well enough, let us move on”. And this the point we had made all the time that the government of the day must learn to respect the constitution of the land which the occupiers swore on oath to uphold. Democracy is predicated on the rule of law, constitutionalism, a free and independent judiciary and democratically established institutions and structures. Without these democracy will be meaningless. However, it is very important to pose these very crucial questions, why is Obasanjo desperate to hold on to power at all cost? What does he want to do now that he has not had the opportunity to do in the last seven years or so? Why would a single person wants to hold the whole country to ransom not minding the deleterious consequences of his action? Again the point should be made that if indeed the government of the day is truly elected by the people, it stands to reason that ultimate power lies with the people, but the truth is that the reverse is the case, they were elected by the means political manipulation and massive electoral fraud that is why there is a disconnect between the needs and aspirations of the people and the goals of those in government. That is why the government has the effrontery to treat the citizens with contempt and disdain, always behaving as if they are infinitesimal. It is very instructive to note that all those that have attempted to prolong their stay in government have used the same style, which bothers on deceit, relentless selfish scheming, manipulation of the due process and absolute disregard for the wish of the people and the laws of the land. In spite of the defeat the third term agenda suffered, the president and his co-travelers are bent on holding on to power tenaciously beyond May 2007. It will be recalled that it was Obasanjo that sold the idea of Interim National Government to the former military president Olusegun Obasanjo as both of them were opposed to the verdict of the people on the June 12, 1993 presidential elections in which Chief MKO Abiola won fair and square. It is the same naughty idea of an interim national government that those that want to hold on to power are now considering as a way to illegitimately foist their selfish and inordinate agenda on the Nigerian people. It is in this regard that the Pan Yoruba organization Afenifere, has kicked against plans to foist an interim national government on the country, saying what Nigerians want was total transition. Hence, Nigerians should not be unmindful of a recent call for an interim government in 2007 by the president of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) General Adeyinka Adebayo, the call is now acquiring the garb of a plan D in the scheming of the promoters of the odious agenda, who are yet to accept that the cookies of third term could crumble so quickly. In the last few weeks, all kinds of permutations and consultations have been going on in a bid to ensure that the third term agenda is enforced at all cost by other means. The plot has become more attractive to the PDP leaders because of the collapse of its so-called reconciliation project and the factionalization in the ruling party. The people, civil society organizations, human rights organizations, non-governmental organizations as well as labour and student unions, so the struggle for the enthronement of a people’s government that will carry out policies that will bring joy and happiness to the people, that will obey the constitution, respect court rulings, respect the rule of law, follow the due process, be transparent and respect the people that voted them into office is just starting, to resign to fate is to be crippled fast, people must be resolute and determined to take away the destiny of the country away from scavengers and give them to selfless individuals who can truly steer the ship of the Nigerian state to a glorious dawn. That is why since 1999 the Nigerian people have been shortchanged, the fruits of democracy have not been enjoyed by all and sundry, in fact, we have never had real democracy in the true sense of the word, not with the garrison politics practiced by the presidency and the Ahmadu Ali led PDP. The point should also be made that why there is nothing bad in former military officers participating in politics, the massive influx of ex-military jackboots into the political terrain, who are not willing to play the game according to the rules must be challenged, this is because they have enormous monies at their disposal, and since there is pervasive poverty in the land they can easily manipulate the political cum electoral process to favour their self-seeking ends. Added to this is the subtle attempt to also introduce the command structure of the military into Nigerian politics, the implication of this is that, what will be operational in Nigeria will be autocracy and not democracy, again this must be disallowed. These so-called emergency democrats or new day converts must not be allowed to unduly monetize and commercialize politics in Nigeria, as this will alienate the common people from the mainstream of Nigerian politics. The civil societies must reorganize and restrategize, to sensitize the public to their numerous responsibilities and get them educated politically. The public must be very vigilant so that the third agenda will not be smuggled in through the back door, the wish and the will of the Nigerian people must always prevail at all times.
Jide Ayobolu, Abuja, Nigeria.
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