For antagonists of a third term of office for Pres-ident Olusegun Obasanjo and state governors, a strong voice was added to their advocacy at the weekend as Rivers State Governor Peter Odilli described as crazy the clamour for an extension of tenure for some political office holders.
Said Odili: �Seeing 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?
The governor, an unrepentant supporter of the President, spoke in Port Harcourt during a visit by the Minister of Works, Mr. Femi Anibaba, and explained that what political office holders should strive towards should be efficient service delivery rather than seek endless opportunities to rule.
�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,� he told newsmen who asked for his opinion on the push for an amendment to the constitution that would extend the tenure of the executive arm of government.
However, Odili was not elaborate on which office holder he was specifically addressing.
The oil-rich state governor’s comments coincided with rising support for Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s stance against the presidential quest for an extra term even as his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) holds its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday to determine his membership of the party.
Although the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. John Odey, who confirmed the meeting did not disclose its agenda, THISDAY information had it that the fate of the Vice President would be top on the discussion list.
On the card, said a reliable source, is a request that the Vice President should resign his position for externalising an essentially intra-party issue and hobnobbing with opposition elements. If the Vice President rejects this request, added the source, he would be suspended from the party.
But the Media Consultant to the Vice President, Mallam Shehu Garba, said the proposition that his boss should quit would be rejected withou any consideration whatsoever.
“That is not a suggestion that Vice President Atiku Abubakar will consider at all. It is far-fetched; an affirmative response to that proposition is too ridiculous to be contemplated by the Vice President,” he told THISDAY yesterday.
Garba said if the constitution of the party would be applied, it would be impossible for any disciplinary action to be taken against his boss on Thursday, adding, however, that it was fast becoming the norm for the party leadership to sidestep the party’s constitution in order to achieve a predetermined course of action.
He said: “We will wait for them. But we know that the party’s constitution prescribes that recommendations for a disciplinary action against a member should start from the ward. No ward trial has taken place, talk less of local government or state. So what will be the basis of their decision?”
As the Vice President’s camp prepares for Thur-sday’s battle, its armoury received a boost on Monday as more opposition parties and groups expressed support for his anti-third term stance.
The Chairman of Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Senator Saidu Dansadau (ANPP, Zamfara), who described the silence of President Obasanjo over the alleged plan to elongate his tenure and that of the governors as cowardly, said his colleagues in the anti-third term group in the National Assembly would frustrate any attempt by the President to chase Vice President Atiku Abubakar out of office for criticising the presidential bid for extra tenure.
The senator told newsmen in his National Assembly Complex office that, “Each and every serious Nigerian must take a position on the issue of third term. A group of Nigerians are pro-third term while majority of Nigerians are against third term. Some of the serious political elites -unless they are cowards – must take a position.
“In fact, it is my opinion that President Olusegun Obasanjo should take a position because this (third term) is a purely national issue; for him to remain quiet and say he has no position I think is cowardice.”
Dansadau, who also described presidential aspirants that are scared to speak either in favour of third term or against it as cowards, said Atiku had summoned the courage to state where he belonged in the divide.
Condemning the call on the Vice President to resign his office on account of his critique of the third term agenda, the senator said it smacked of double standard, wondering what had happened to the governors and party officials who had hitherto expressed support for third term.
He said: “Before Atiku took that position, quite a number of state governors, particularly Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, had come out openly to say they are for third term. I don’t blame them because they are exercising their rights as guaranteed by Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution.
“So if pro-third term governors decide to belong to a group of Nigerians who are promoting third term, so be it; they are exercising their rights as enshrined in Section 39. If the national chairman of PDP (Dr. Ahmadu Ali) can come out to say he is for third term and even went to the extent of saying that every National Assembly member must support third term, why can’t the Vice President express his own views?
Dismissing reports that the PDP will met out punishment on Atiku, Dansadau argued that “if PDP is contemplating punishing Atiku for taking a position on this matter, it must punish Ahmadu Ali, its national chairman; it must punish Tony Anenih; it must as well punish pro-third term governors.”
He said that had to be so because “the constitution of the PDP is not meant for only Atiku to obey nor is the constitution of Nigeria meant only for Atiku to obey. The outburst by the PDP is typical of its process of selectivity in the administration of justice. So therefore, I think what the PDP is attempting to do is illegal and is unconstitutional.”
Adducing reasons for speaking in favour of Atiku on the controversial issue, Dansadau explained that the meeting where the Vice President derided the third term agenda was convened by lawmakers opposed to third term.
“If your guest is molested you have a duty to protect him. If we did not invite Atiku he would not have come, therefore, he would not have been molested. We invited people across political parties. We know those who are against third term and those who are pro-third term.
“What he (Atiku) said other people had said earlier than him. If Atiku is in disagreement with the President in the performance of their official functions, then he can resign. But if Atiku is against third term he cannot be in disagreement with Obasanjo because Obasanjo has not told anybody whether he is for or against third term. But I think it is pertinent that Nigerians know where he stands, whether he is for or against.”
Continuing, Dansadau said the nation was aware of the call for Atiku’s resignation but assured Nigerians that he (Atiku) would not resign. “The only thing they can do will be to call for his impeachment. And we will rally round to ensure he is not impeached. You cannot impeach somebody for complying with the provisions of the constitution,” he said.
The Vice President’s network of support also spread to the South-west where the Pan Yoruba social-political group, Afenifere, condemned the attack on him in Lagos at the weekend, describing it as barbaric.
The group, which said it was not taken aback by the attack, said the PDP had opted to embark on physical combat with the Vice President because the party had realized that it lacked the ability to confront him in the realm of ideas against the third term agenda.
In a statement in Lagos yesterday by the National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, it said the attack on Atiku revealed the crude nature of third term advocates which it said could by no means withstand his moral stance against the third term agenda that he openly opposed last week.
Recalling how the men of the State Security Services (SSS) stormed the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja last week and aborted an anti-third term meeting on the ground that the organizers did not obtain police permit, Afenifere asked: “Did the hooligans who staged the Lagos show of shame have a permit? This is a clear sign of double standard by a president who said in America recently that he was not a manipulator. Or what else is manipulation if molesters are given free rein and protesters are repressed by security agents? It follows the pattern of Obasanjo Solidarity Forum having an office behind Aso Rock while Turaki Vanguard members are being tried for managing an unlawful society.”
Also commenting on the political developments, the President of the West Afri-can Bar Association, Mr. Femi Falana, and the Pub-licity Secretary of the All-iance for Democracy, Lagos State Chapter, Mr. Toyin Caxton-Martins, said the fight at the Presidency was a diversion from the failure of the PDP-led Federal Gover-nment to deliver on its electoral promise of making life more meaningful to Nige-rians, seven years after gaining power.
Falana, in a telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday evening, said Atiku’s declaration for the presidency and his fight against his boss’ struggle for a third term of office had little or nothing to do with the yearnings of Nigerians for the development of a true democratic culture that would build and strengthen the institutions of democracy in the country.
He said the disagreement at the Presidency signified the collapse of its so-called reforms and that Nigerians deserved better governance.
In its reaction, the AD in Lagos said: “Ordinarily, it would not have been the business of our party, the Alliance for Democracy and our members what members of the Peoples Democratic Party choose to do with each other. However, when their actions are bound to have direct impact on the stability and well-being of our country, then our own stake becomes immeasurable”.
“First, for most of our members who spearheaded the anti-military struggle and fought for the emergence of civil-democratic rule in 1999, the organised assault on the person of the Vice President of Nigeria by members of the Peoples Democratic Party both at his private residence in Ikoyi and at the Ikeja Airport tarmac on Saturday could only have been one of the many steps being taken by that party and its leadership to cause anarchy in the land and return the country to full blown civil dictatorship”.
The party berated the police for its inability to stop the molestation of the Vice President, saying it had become a political institution that was incapable of doing its work without bias.
Apr112006