THIRD TERM: How Obasanjo’ plan failed

Eyewitness Account
By Ismail Omipidan

Some Nigerians have a poor sense of history and an even shorter memory. This is why some of those who shamelessly took the centre stage during the move to secure a third term for former President Olusegun Obasanjo will keep quiet today in the face of denial by the former President that he never wanted a third term. Haba!

As a Senate Correspondent at the time, who covered the Senate proceedings of that era and interacted with actors on both sides, I can say without fear of contradiction that it is a distortion of history for Baba Obasanjo to claim he never wanted a third term. If he didn’t, why did the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formally endorse tenure elongation? And who was the leader of that party at the time? None other than Obasanjo himself.

Former Deputy Senate President, the late Ibrahim Mantu, who was the arrowhead of the project in the senate is no longer alive. However, three former senate presidents who were major players in the whole game, either for or against, are still alive. They are Adolphus Wabara, Ken Nnamani, and David Mark. If they speak honestly and true to their conscience, Nigerians would know without doubt that Obasanjo indeed wanted a third term. It simply failed. Senators Ben Obi, Lawali Shuaibu, Musiliu Obanikoro and former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara are all alive. Hon. Opara presided at the House on the day, the Senators struck.

Apart from perhaps Senator David Mark, who openly declared that he owes no one an apology for supporting the infamous tenure elongation agenda, many others who were neck-deep in the project now conveniently and shamelessly deny their involvement in it.

But I was at Savannah Suites, Area 3, Abuja, on the night before the debate began on the floor of the House. Lawmakers gathered there to put finishing touches to their plans, and raw cash was openly delivered to them ahead of the debate.

Even Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, who served as Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters to both former Presidents Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, cannot come out in the open to say she knew nothing about Third Term.

In fact, on May 16, when the bill was killed, she wept. Once the bill was shut down, some of the reporters, including myself had rushed to the National Assembly lobby to observe what was happening outside the hallowed chamber.
There, Mama Bakassi stood, unable to comprehend what has just happened, telling one of the senators who stood with her that “you guys have done your worst.” And as she was saying that, her eyes were red, filled with tears.

Before Mantu died, he told some of us how the presidency mobilised against him, ensuring he lost his bid to return to the Senate in 2007, because it believed the then flamboyant Plateau-born federal lawmaker bungled the third term project.

In fact, in the Villa, the then Chief of Staff to the President, Major General Abdullahi Mohammed (rtd), who had watched what transpired on the floor of the senate from the TV, was said to have called the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Uffot Ekaette, saying “I hope you are watching AIT, dem don dabaru am o! (They’ve scuttled everything),” and went further to ask the SGF “how are we going to tell the man now?” The man being referred to here was Baba Obasanjo, who was on a one-day visit to France at the time.

Although those Senators who held meetings behind closed doors cannot come out today to say ‘so and so were there.’ But the truth remains: they know themselves, and some of us also know them. That is why, instead of insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians, Baba Obasanjo should either keep quiet or apologise for putting the country through that avoidable and harrowing experience. He unleashed the late President Yar’Adua on us because we denied him a third term. The late Audu Ogbeh told me in 2010, shortly before Yar’Adua’s death that if they had known, they probably would have allowed Obasanjo do the third term. He acknowledged the fact that Baba Obasanjo’s capacity for work is unequalled.

I know that the political arena is not a mosque or church, but a place where intrigues and half-truths prevail, a place where things are neither black or white, but all in shape of grey. But Baba Obasanjo can and should do better on this issue of third term. I rest my case for now.