Apprently under pressure to retract his position on tenure elongation, River State Governor Peter Odili yesterday denied THISDAY story on Monday in which he described the push for an extension of tenure for political office holders as a crazy proposition.
Odili who spoke through his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Magnus Abe, at a press conference in Port Harcourt, said although the governor responded to questions from four newspaper editors during a visit to him by the Minister of Works, Dr. Femi Anibaba, there was no time he spoke on tenure extension.
But a playback of the recording of the governor’s interactions with reporters after receiving the minister showed he actually made the statements attributed to him in the story.
THISDAY, therefore, stands by its story which represents what the governor said on the issue of post-2007 ambition for which it stated that “he was not elaborate on which office holder he was specifically addressing.”
Below is the transcript of the question and answer at the post-ministerial press briefing:
Your Excellency, you have done so much for your people. Based on this if they urge you to continue in office after 2007, will you heed their call and continue?
“Have you seen a situation where a man is running one race, he hasn’t finished that race, he starts running another one, it is crazy, isn’t it?
“Let us face what we have first and pray that God will help us to finish what we are doing to His pleasure, satisfaction, His glory and to the up-liftment of our people, that is our focus.”
But Abe, who said he was present during the said briefing told newsmen that the governor did not even talk on his own political intentions in 2007.
According to him, the governor only told the editors that he preferred to leave the future in the hands of God and was at the moment interested in his on-going assignment of delivering the dividends of democracy to Rivers people.
“Those who know the governor will testify to the fact that this answer is not new. It has and remains his classic response to issues about his political future since 1999, he has always insisted that he will concentrate on the task at hand,” he said.
Odili, until last weekend�s statement, had been an unrepentant canvasser for the elongation of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure, once telling the American Cable Network News (CNN) that he would be willing to lead such a campaign if the constitution was amended to add more terms to the presidential tenure.
Meanwhile, federal legislators agitating against a third term of office for President Olusegun Obasanjo and state governors yesterday scored a prelimanry victory as they got the House of Representatives to resolve to drop the controversial “voice vote” and adopt headcount to determine the recommendations of National Assembly Joint Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (JCRC).
The House took the decision just as the report of the Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu-led review committee was being laid on the table at the Senate, which was scheduled to open debate on the contentious document after its Easter break.
The report, which is accompanied by a bill for an act to amend the 1999 Constitution is also expected to be tabled at the House today by Deputy Speaker Austin Opara.
But the third term proposition suffered a set-back in the House during an executive session yesterday as legislators refering to the growing misuse of voice vote by presiding officers of the legislature decided to cast it aside and use headcount for deciding the fate of the review committee report, and the accompanying amendment bill.
Speaker Aminu Bello Masari had a few weeks ago incurred the wrath of his colleagues opposed to the extra term agenda when he resorted to a voice vote to pass a controversial motion “to commend President Olusegun Obasanjo for a quick passage of the 2006 Appropriation Bill.”
Following the move, the anti-third term members had even threatened to impeach the speaker.
However, addressing journalists at the end of the House’s executive session yesterday, the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Abike Dabiri, said it was heartwarming that the House resolved to shelve the idea of voice vote when debate begins on the JCRC report.
She said all members would then be required to vote on the matter on an individual basis. “The House will not do anything that is against its rules and the Constitution of Nigeria. There have been worries (amongst members) about how the issue (of JCRC report) will be conducted; will it be voice vote or will it be voting by names.
“He (Speaker) told the whole House today that the issue is very clear. Constitution amendment requires two-thirds majority of members and there is no way you can determine two-thirds of members by a voice vote but by counting their numbers,” said Dabiri.
On when the JCRC report would be tabled before the House, Dabiri said it would be “anytime from tomorrow (today),” adding that it was after the presentation and distribution to members that debate would begin.
The House would begin the Easter break today, she added.
In the Senate, which had earlier adopted headcount for the determination of the recommendations of the committe, the JCRC Chairman, Mantu, tabled its report and the amendment bill embodying the committee’s recommendations on areas of the constitution to be amended.
After the submission of the documents, the committee met to approve the minutes of its last Thursday’s meeting and adjourned sine die.
Mantu, entertained his colleagues with several bows, raising the voluminous report up and taking another bow before the mace and the President of the Senate, Senator Ken Nnamani, and subsequently laid the report on the table.
But before this, the Leader of the Senate, Senator Dalhatu Tafida, had in announcing that Mantu would seek the leave of the Senate to submit the report, noted that the Senate constituted a committee called the JCCR, adding that the committee had concluded its work and its chairman, Mantu, would with the leave of the Senate lay the report on the table.
Nnamani then invited Mantu to seek the leave of the Senate to lay the report of JCCR on the table. The motion was seconded by Senator Patrick Osakwe (PDP, Delta) and put to a vote that was carried by a large affirmation. Mantu then laid the report and the oil on the table.
After this, Nnamani said: “By laying the report and the bill on the table, it goes without saying that the JCCR has completed its assignment. The report is now before the Committee of the Whole. We thank the chairman (Mantu) and members of the committee for putting the report together.”
When THISDAY sought the views of one of the anti-third term senators, Sule Yari Gandi (ANPP, Sokoto), on why the group spoke in a muffled voice when Mantu sought the leave of the Senate to lay the report, he said: “We allowed that (submission of report and bill) to close shop so that people will no longer be making money in the name of the Senate.
“Now, we will look at the report, panel-beat it thoroughly, and without mercy. It was a unanimous decision to allow the report so that we can close their shop. If we did not do that, it (the report) will still have been with the committee and the commercialisation would have been ranging.”
Gandi, however, assured Nigerians that “whenever the leadership list them (report and bill) for discussion, we will take them. It is the prerogative of the leadership but what I can assure you is that I will not miss sitting till kingdom come on this matter.”
Also speaking on the issue, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi (AD, Lagos) said the anti-third term senators consented to the submission of the report and bill because “we need to reduce tension and stabilise the polity. The submission of its report marks the dissolution of the committee although they have not adopted their minutes. That, again, is another violation of the rules.”
Apr122006