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AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. | |
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Nigeria: Atiku: Nigerians Must Resist Obasanjo's Life Presidency Bid
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This Day (Lagos)
April 14, 2006
Posted to the web April 14, 2006
Collins Edomaruse, Donald Andoor And Abel Orih
Abuja Yola
Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday in Yola, Adamawa State, said Nigerians should rise against the third term agenda, explaining that allowing President Olusegun Obasanjo to secure an extra tenure was tantamount to endorsing life presidency.
His declaration came on the day the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formally adopted the draft recommendations of the National Assembly Joint Committee for the Review of the 1999 Constitution (JCRC) which recommended a maximum tenure of three terms of four years each for the offices of President and state governor.
Atiku who was speaking to his supporters at Yola international airport, said no civilised society would condone a selfish manipulation of the constitution to pave the way for despotism.
"When the constitution is amended, it means Nigeria will have a life president. I detest it and I urge all Nigerians to strongly and vehemently resist any move that would actualise it", he said.
Atiku maintained that "if performance was the yardstick for the alteration of the constitution to elongate the tenure of the incumbent, United States of America would have changed its constitution ten times in favour of people like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton."
He added that democracy was a system that had tenets that must be respected, noting that in this period of globalization there was nowhere in the world that a president can succeed in retaining his office by manipulation.
He warned Adamawa indigenes in the National Assembly to steer clear of consenting to the idea as failure to heed his admonition would cost them their political future in the state.
"I want to warn here that Adamawa indigenes at the National Assembly should not consent to the passage of any third term agenda, anyone who does that will have his future political career in this state brought to an end", he declared.
Said Atiku: "If you don't want a life-time president, then you should talk to your representatives at the National Assembly who are now on recess with you, never to succumb to any attempt to legalize the third term agenda just for the interest of one person.
"Any representative of Adamawa State at the National Assembly who consents to the third term agenda would surely have his future political career in this state terminated forever and ever.
"Those from Adamawa state who are supporting the third term agenda are representatives from Mubi South and Mubi North as well as those from Numan and Maiha Local Government Areas of the state.
"I am hereby strongly advising all the respective local government councils chairmen and people of these areas to call their representatives to order, otherwise their political career would be ruined as far as this state is concerned."
Meanwhile, there was a mild drama at the Yola International Airport when the Vice President arrived. As thousands of his supporters thronged the airport to welcome him back home, several placards-carrying protesters laid siege to the airport gate and the adjoining roads to protest against his presidential ambition.
The protesters with placard of different inscriptions such as "Atiku we are tired of you"; "Atiku Azzalumi ne"; "Atiku Bama sonka"; "Atiku you did nothing to improve our lives"; "We are for Obasanjo", were prevented from gaining access to the airport by the security operatives.
At a point the protesters retreated, hid their placards only to ambush the Vice President and his entourage on their way out. Addressing journalists later, their spokesman, Alhaji Musa Kamale, said that the protesting groups came from different organizations to express their displeasure with the Vice President.
He said everyone in Adamawa was aware that the state was worse than what it was before 1999, adding that the public officials that were given the opportunity to deliver the people turned out to be slave drivers
"Atiku is the enemy of himself, he had the opportunity to print his name in gold but he wasted it. What we have from him is neglect, poverty, and decayed infrastructure. With this decay, you still want us to support him? If we do that posterity will not forgive us," he said.
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He stated that the protesters were "peace-loving people, civilized individuals, so our protest was peaceful. Atiku should show us his score cards and we will support him".
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of PDP in the state, Mr. Musa Kamale, said they were not staging the peaceful protest in favour of any third term agenda, but to drive home the failure of Atiku Abubakar to carry the people of the state along.
He said, "If the Vice President had carried his people along, there is no how Adamawa indigenes at the National Assembly would have supported the third term agenda. That is another sign of failure on his part and that is one of the reasons we are not happy with him".
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