On the second of this month, 20 state governors, including three from the opposition APP, ministers, other appointees and some politicians belonging to the ruling People’s Democratic Party, gathered in Otta, president Obasanjo’s country home, to plead and beg him to contest for a second term when the next presidential election comes on stream.

Ordinarily, there is nothing democratically wrong with the action of the pleading governors as it is Obasanjo’s constitutional right to re-present himself to Nigerians for a second term. He is legitimately entitled to it, as those begging him are also right in their action.

What worries most Nigerians is that those who in 1998 condemned the late Sani Abacha for allegedly organizing groups in support of his equally alleged ambition to continue as a civilian president, for which he is still being insulted to this day in his grave, and also for which his family are still being harassed, were part of the crowd that trooped to Otta farm to plead with Obasanjo to adopt the so-called Abacha style. How so dishonest could some Nigerians be?

Let me correct the impression that what happened in Otta and what has been going on was copied from Abacha. The late head of state never for once organized his ministers, advisers and other political appointees to plead with him to contest. This never happened. Furthermore, no pro-Abacha group of whatever distraction ever trooped to Aso Rock to plead with him to shed off his military fatigue to contest, at least in the way it is happening now.

But the issue, however, is not that Abacha attempted it. The central issue is that this orchestration of what I may call, electoral intimidation is being done in a democracy. We never witnessed such orchestration by senior government officials during the time of Shagari, which is the equivalent of the Obasanjo era.

If after having ruled this country for the past three years, Obasanjo still needs to be pleaded with before he could make up his mind, then what this amounts to is that he would be worse after 2003 than he was before it. It tells us a lot about what some officials think of the good people of Nigeria. Rather than coming to plead with them to elect Obasanjo, they are pleading with Obasanjo to present himself to them, as if the people ever said that only Obasanjo can salvage them from the maladies of three years of poor performance.

The Obasanjo crusaders’ task is to tell Nigerians what his administration has done for the people since 1999. It is not enough to sell a sitting president for re-election without telling the people what he has done to improve their welfare. This is what sells a sitting president and not orchestrated jamboree, by those who are part and parcel of the failure of his administration to deliver.

I have never failed to make the point that in the past three years, Obasanjo has scared many Nigerians, behaving without the least regard for their feelings, behaving towards them as if he were still the head of state of the military era, destroying virtually all democratic structures, violating the constitution, as testified to by the recent judgement of the Supreme Court and doing such other things as to make Nigerians begin to worry where he could lead them to when he gets the final vote. If we have noticed these of him now when he is still asking for our votes, what then would happen when he gets a second term?

No sooner did Obasanjo came to power than he told us that by voting for him, we have lost our investment in democracy. And true to type, we have indeed lost. Here was an elected president thanking people in this manner when he knew that after four years he would still come back to them for another round of mandate! Yet all he could tell Nigerians was that all those who invested in his victory should consider their investment lost. What reasons have we to assume that he would not repeat this statement again after getting the final mandate? Was this the right way for an elected president to thank those who voted for him and assisted in his victory? By this statement, we should have known early in the day what type of person he was. The issue about Obasanjo’s re-election is that it is not that people no longer love him but rather they are afraid of what would become of them and the nation when he is returned to power and would not need their votes any longer. This is the fear, and it is genuine, based on his conduct towards them in the last three years. As the saying goes, if you were once bitten by a snake, if you see a rope, you would run away.

We are today in this kind of situation. The cake of democracy dividends apart, the greatest worry to my mind is his lack of commitment to the democratic ideal and we do not have to go into details to show this, except to say that but for members of the House of Representatives today, much of democracy would not have been in place by now. The recent verdict of the Supreme Court, detailing constitutional violation, arising from one subject alone, is a cause for us to worry. And this, as we all know, is just the tip of the iceberg. He has been spending billions of our money without appropriation and has been doing such other things in complete disregard for the constitution. Nigerians should sincerely ask themselves, and answer without emotion, if this man can again be trusted to manage the democracy project which, to me, is more important than its dividend. Can he again be trusted as a good manager of democracy?

In the case of fighting corruption, both American and British governments respectively have told us that 56% of corruption in the country is located in the presidency. If anyone disputes this, we may refer him to the findings of Transparency International in 2000 and 2001 where we topped the list of the most corrupt countries in the world. Knowing the fact that Obasanjo was one of the founders of Transparency International and the other added fact that British and American governments are among some of his good friends, could we reasonably disregard what they said of his administration in terms of corruption? If we have been insulting and harassing the Abachas on grounds of corrupt practices, what reasons have we to re-elect, a person whose administration has been rated the most corrupt? Let us not forget that the News Agency of Nigeria, a government-owned department, broke the news that the Americans once handed to Obasanjo the list of the most corrupt ministers in his cabinet. In one of his usual radio and TV chats, he dismissed the US’s report as lacking enough evidence and this was how the matter ended till today.

What reasons have some of us got to be happy that the Abachas are being harassed for reasons of corruption when we are being told to vote for a man whose administration has been rated as operating corruption at the highest level of government? In other climes, he would have resigned a long time ago, but now he is being begged to re-present himself!

Nobody dislikes Obasanjo but many dislike some of the wrong things he has been doing and so his greatest problem is none other than himself. Nigerians are not criticizing Obasanjo as a person but as their president because of his failure to deliver anti-democracy stance and failure to fight corruption. These are performance sins, which they fear, would remain in place once returned to power again. They may, of course, be wrong but when account is taken of the past three years, they have good reasons to worry.

If Mr President is finally re-elected and he continues in his past habits, there would be more problems of unemployment, bad economy, violence arising from so many factors, and national insecurity.

For this reason, I want Obasanjo to thank Nigerians by bowing out in grace and if he chooses, he could fight for his deputy to succeed him through the democratic process, or anyone of his choice. He should do this in the greater interest of Nigeria, Nigerians and his own future glory. By 2003, he would have been in power for seven years, including his past service. This is enough for him to thank his countrymen for having trusted him for that long. He should ignore those who are telling him to create the record as the longest serving Nigerian leader in the position of president. He has done enough for Nigerians.

Senator Arthur Nzeribe, according to media reports, has finally crossed over from the APP to the PDP contrary to some provisions of the constitution, which says, in effect that an elected officer could duly change his party on a number of conditions, one of which is if there is a split within the party which originally sponsored him.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no split in the APP, the party that sponsored him to warrant his action. In this regard, it is in the interest of the rule of law for the senator to resign his position or failure of which the APP should seek legal interpretation of the relevant provision in a court of competent jurisdiction. It is important for the good of the democratic codes for us to subject certain portions of the constitution to the interpretation of the courts.

I now turn to the issue of General Bamaiyi and others and in particular the case of Yakassai. As you know, he has been detained on account of his alleged involvement in the murder of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. May Allah grant him eternal pardon. As grievous as this allegation is, it is important to note that to date, the colonel has never been taken to court over the issue in the last three years, which to me is a violation of his rights. While we feel the pains of the death of General Yar’Adua, we must also worry that the person accused of causing his death has not been taken to court in the last three years to enable Nigerians know what actually happened. Yakassai is central to finding out the killers of the late Yar’Adua, and so the right thing to do is to take him to court. If we must find out the killers of this great son of Nigeria, it is necessary to take the only suspect to court so that he could tell us the others behind the action. We can never know his killers until we take Yakassai to court.