January 25, 2006
The PUNCH, Thursday, January 19, 2006 Drama, as anti-third term poster scares Masari A mild drama ensued in the House of Representatives on Wednesday as its Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, fled as a member handed him a glossy anti-third term poster of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Masari received the folded poster, which was also distributed to other members, from Mr. Uche Onyeaguocha, an All Progressive Grand Alliance member from Imo State, unaware of its content. But when he opened it about 45 seconds later and discovered the content, he hurriedly dropped it and sped off. But when Masari ran away to take a seat among ordinary members of the House, another lawmaker, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, a member of Alliance for Democracy from Osun State, chased him with the poster and spread it at the speaker's back. The controversial poster, which has a photograph of Obasanjo, with a big X mark, carries the inscription: "No to third term agenda. Election must hold (in) 2007." However, Masari jocularly warned Adeyeye and Onyeaguocha on their antics, while the entire House roared with laughter. ---- VANGUARD The truth Nigerians must know about third term, by Sola Adeyeye ...but insists it will fail Posted to the Web: Friday, January 20, 2006 He is fiery. He is reputed to be the one who blew the whistle on the move to give millions of naira to legislators to facilitate an amendment that would accommodate the alleged third term move. For a member of Nigeria?s House of Representatives, Professor Sola Adeyeye, a member of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, from Osun State, and a man who was part of the success that was Radio Kudirat in the days of General Sani Abacha, his views are true to type. From the alleged third term agenda, to the serial impeachment of Bayelsa State governor, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha and Governor Rashidi Ladoja, as well as the proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution, Adeyeye lived up to the billing of a radical-minded legislator. He observes that there are so many maladies within the Nigerian polity and is at a loss as to why Nigerians continue to suffer the follies of their leaders. He said a lesson was learnt during the heady days of Abacha from an octogenarian South African woman on why Nigerians are so docile. According to Adeyeye, who was a guest of Vanguard editors on Monday, "This is what a woman taught me during the Abacha regime, I went to South Africa because I normally broadcast on radio Kudirat and this old woman in her 80?s was telling me that she really couldn?t understand why the Nigerian women were so quiet. I asked her what she did during the struggle, she said everyday I come, I gather stones and in front of my house and all the young people in my area know where to gather stones when they are going to stone the apartheid leaders and I said I won?t stone anybody but when Nigerians get angry enough, I will put enough stones outside the Nigerian parliament so that they can stone us." People thought this issue of third term was a rumour but events in the country suggest that something else is abroad? There are some serious issues confronting the nation and I have come to the conclusion that the press will be our last hope. And way back, before independence the press fought in the interest of the nation. At the beginning, I did not believe that the third term issue was a serious matter because I thought that the very process of changing the constitution to make it possible would be so daunting that no one would embark on such a project. I was further encouraged in this notion by the fact that the President himself has over and over again said he was not interested in the third term. But then we began to see tell tale signs and rumours began to filter to the corridors of parliament. The first time I heard the rumour, I heard it first from the press and immediately began to go around and ask members if they had heard about the notion and to my surprise, the vast majority said they had heard about it and I said we can?t afford to keep silent about it, let?s make as much noise as possible so as to make it impossible, that was why I began the process of sticking my neck out so as to make it possible. Even if the President did not want it, there are enough people around him who want it for whatever reasons. And I also believe that regardless of what the President has said, the body language and the way the affairs of state has been conducted in recent times have given credence to the notion that perhaps, despite what he might have said that he has begun to believe the myth of people surrounding him that without him, Nigeria will collapse. Due to the scenario we have on ground now, do you think the constitution is that cumbersome if the executive finally makes up its mind to go for an amendment? Let us even believe that at this point in time, you can count 24 governors to band with their Houses of Assembly in 24 states, that you can for example use the EFCC to frighten some governors that you either let your House of Assemblies play ball or you end up in dungeon very soon, and only those governors could tell us whether they have skeleton in their cupboards or may be in their wives? cupboard, to warrant such a threat. Even if you get through those 24 Houses of Assembly, even if you get through the spillage I want to guarantee this nation that too many members of the House of Representatives will be killed before the constitution can be passed to that effect, it will not fly in the House of Representatives as much as I can vouch for, and that is my confidence. Going by the way you spoke, one would be tempted to say that this third term thing is a mere conjecture. Have you been directly approached about it? First and foremost, I think where we are now as a nation, for any of us to say it is just a mere conjecture, we would be naive. For many years, some of us called for a Sovereign National Conference, where every nationality will bring its sovereignty to the table and we shall talk about the terms and references for the Nigeria multinational enterprise. We know for a fact that the President and those who think like him never wanted a Sovereign National Conference. We also know that out of the blues, the idea of a National Conference now came, some documents surfaced and regardless what may be the voice or the hand of Esau, the voice we had remained that of the unscrupulous Jacob because the truth of course is that those who are nearest to the President were responsible for smuggling some documents into that Confab and thank God there was sufficient will in the leadership and membership of that Confab to completely jettison that document, and I am talking about documents that came from the likes of Jerry Gana. I would believe Gana is smart enough because he had enough experience in government and will dare not bring such documents to the Confab without the blessing of the constituency of the president. Thereafter, we also know that a panel was set up to review the recommendations of the confab and while all these denials were going on, the truth is among the recommendations of the National Assembly. They can?t deny that. Nobody can deny that fact that there is perhaps no one at the National Assembly that the President trusts more than Senator Ibrahim Nasir Mantu and I concede to him, it is his right to prostrate, and I concede to him it is his right to want to change some parts of the constitution. The constitution was not written by God, even where God wrote the Old testament, 2000 years later, we had the New Testament. My question is not that these things are being brought, my question is that these things are being brought in a subterranean fashion. When you say no publicly, and when you get under the carpet, you say yes. And what I find most worrisome, even in the composition of the panel to review the constitution, I would say that the man chosen from the South West in one of the earlier committees, was not the man who could do justice to the South/West. Well, today in the South West, hardly would you find any nuclear family that you will not find a university graduate, but in this country, where we have lawyers in that house, where we have retired civil servants, they just put a person they thought they could manipulate. That is the kind of game going on. Of course you can call it circumstantial evidence but when it becomes weighty enough, reasonable men and women can say that we are having some fire behind the smoke. Then you look at what happened to Masari, Masari is one of the greatest friends Obasanjo can have in that parliament. I know that because as a member of the parliament, I can tell the whole nation that on one occasion we came extremely close to impeaching the President and the votes were there, also the sentiments were there, the allegations brought forward to the minds of many of us were serious enough. And I know, I can say this that it was because Masari did not want the president impeached that the whole thing died. I know what Masari told me in confidence about how we can not afford to be sacrificing another Westerner again, but in the end, just because Masari had the courage to bid the President farewell come 2007, all of a sudden, somebody now remembered that something was wrong with Masari?s papers with INEC but for the fact that some of us stood solidly with Masari,today Masari would have been history. In any case, whether some people have approached me, only few people in the House would have been bold enough to do that. I have always loved those who come out openly and say for this and this reason we would like to amend the constitution to allow the president have a third term. Except of course that they forget constitution says right now you cannot make any law retroactive. So even if they are going to allow a third term, I don?t see how it can begin with the current President because when he assumed office, it was with the notion that he will have a limit of two terms in the office. Have you been approached directly? Secondly, what is the National Assembly doing about other more important areas of constitution amendment? Nobody would dare approach me directly because they know my stand. One member of the House has spoken to me to try to convince me to switch to pro-third term. Another Hon. Independence Ogunewe has told me from Imo State that whether or not I support it that third term will happen. Other areas - that?s in fact what gets us worried - is that you are at this conference that the National Assembly did not appropriate money for and you discuss various issues now you are going to bring your report out, those issues which never surfaced have suddenly found their way in. It is now the issues that are germane to the man of the hour that surfaced. I like to disagree with you whether or not this issue of one person extending his tenure is more important than others, the truth is if you allow it this time what stops the same cast of characters from coming for four years from now, and now say they want a 4th term; what stops them after that one that they want a 6th term. The question of orientation only exists where you can terminate the current occupancy of the office. So to my mind you are trying to put the cart before the horse. The first thing is that we must agree to abide by the rule of law of the constitution that got the current occupant of that office into the position that you will be there for two terms of four years each. Then when we agree about that and we settle that, we can say okay, what?s next on the table because the heart of nation building is continuous. You can never solve all the problems in one day but when problems arise, you must face the one that is most imposing, that could destabilise all other issues and I believe that nothing will destabilise Nigeria more than to violate the constitution by allowing such forces to enthrone the will of one person. I don?t care what PDP does in their party, because I don?t belong to PDP. If the party says there is going to be rotation between the South and the North, that is fair to them, they have the right to do that. As long as they don?t impose that agreement within the PDP on all other parties and as long as they don?t use the apparatus of office to make the legitimate aspirations and mandate of other parties to become null and void as we are seeing right now. When the matter of Plateau state occurred, I stood in the House because I couldn?t stand up for 30 minutes and was just weeping because I felt if we do it in Plateau State, it can be done elsewhere. We in AD were advised by Chief Rotimi Williams that the President has the right to declare state of emergency but state of emergency does not mean sacking the government of the state. We have seen state of emergency declared in United State of America during the civil rights, they did not sack the cabinet of the state, they did not even sack the governors of those states. My fear is if we do it in Plateau state, they get away with it, you do it in Anambra and get away it, in Bayelsa, we get away with it, we do it in Oyo and get away with it. Of course, you put your vice in the coca-cola bottle cock it and throw it into the sea, when they come for the Vanguard Editor, there?ll be nothing anybody can do. So all of us must some how find a means of ensuring that we don?t allow this rule of lawlessness to continue. I believe this matter of third term is more important. ...On Derivation Now let?s talk about derivation, I?m more radical than you are on derivation. I believe in 100 per cent control. Now talking of a man whose state produces oil, the richest states in the USA do not produce oil. Go to California, states like Lousiana are rich in oil but it?s not as rich as California and the richest nations in the world are not oil producing states. I would rather live in tiny Denmark, than Saudi-Arabia. Look at the quality of life in Denmark. And so the thing is that oil has pushed us to a point where we no longer use our brains and where people no longer cut their coat according to their cloth. I was chairman of a local government for a year, 99% of my resources came from federal subventions. I tried to take us back to the 50?s when Yoruba land and community contributed money to build secondary schools and when Awolowo made roads, he made sure that the districts they became responsible for the keeping and maintenance of the schools but today we have become so lazy, we have turned the federal government to the golden goose that must lay golden eggs. Look at this year?s budget, 1.8 trillion naira, divide that by 129, the official exchange rate, that is only 14billion dollars, divide it by 135million people you get about 107 dollars per Nigerian per year that is less than 9dollars per month, that is less than 30 cents for each of us per day, that is if there is no corruption. By the time we compound it with corruption and everything we are talking of 12 cents per Nigerian per day, we are in what Americans call deep shit. The truth of the matter is that, this matter of revenue, let the state control whatever is underneath them. When you buy petrol in advanced countries, 70% of what you are paying for is tax so the country still get lots of money from taxation. So, as long as you say that no state in this Republic shall make a law that would debar inter state commerce. If you don?t have oil in Osun, as a Yoruba man, Delta may need my talent and employ me at Delta State University as a Professor. Now the truth is, when you have all of us living on oil and those who have the oil themselves, the environment is polluted and their fishes are being killed they cannot farm, their land has been taken, what we are doing is that we are perpetrating injustice and sooner than later, injustice always breed instability. Let there be full control at state level. What is the current status of the Constitution review efforts? First in the House of Representatives, we took a decision , we would not debate for one day anything that came from the confab because we said to M r President we didn?t want it and without our blessing he found a way to fund it, if he used public funds for it, that would have been an impeachable offence, because you don?t spend money that has not been appropriated. Now if he used money from foreign donors then it means our national sovereignty has been subjected to undue external influences. But okay for the sake of peace, the confab held, but we in the house of representatives took a decision that we will not look at it, the house met to bring about its own recommendations of what it considered failings that is why some things they talked about never occurred, but politics in crude form is a game of numbers. If it becomes the North versus South issue the North will always win as its numerical strength today, that is why personally I don?t think it is smart to reduce the current struggle into the North versus South idea. Now the truth of the matter is that neither the North nor the South has the numerical strength to change the constitution because we need two third, so it is either we are going to seat around the table and say that we are prepared to accommodate each other as a means of moving Nigeria forward or we continue in this game of paralysis. So as it were, forget the idea anybody will remove Obasanjo, the move to remove Obasanjo is not there because of how we brought ourselves into this North/South thing now. Also forget that anybody will remove Atiku, so let us manage both of them so that we can bring 2007 and hopefully by the twist or intervention of providence something will happen. Do you have confidence in the judiciary to play its neutral role in saving the system? I have great faith in the Nigeria Judiciary because despite the odds of the system, we have seen flashes of inspiration of courage of the rule of law emanating from the Judiciary. But the truth of the matter is that we have seen troubling signals from the Judiciary. The last was what we have just witnessed from Oyo State and Bayelsa State. But my fears is that even here in Lagos State, where the highest courts of the land have made rulings, if it is true that the rule of the highest court is ambivalent, then something is wrong with that highest court. If its not ambivalent and if the decision is not obeyed, I would have prayed for the day when we will have activist members in the highest court of the land who will perhaps resign in protest. During the Somolu tribunal in the 1960?s, there was a particular case that was taken to the Supreme Court after, to reverse the tribunal and the then government made a decree and back dated it to say the decision of the tribunal was no longer challengeable in any court of the land. One man, the then young Bola Ige the commissioner for agriculture in the then Western Region wrote an article asking the members of the Supreme Court to resign in protest and that was what led to him and Chief Kola Balogun being removed from the cabinet. I think quite frankly, the day must come in this country when activism must not belong to politicians alone, when the rule of the courts of the land should be obeyed, I think the judges of the land should be angry. Now you should ask me, why we don?t therefore sanction the executive for not obeying court orders or judgements? So, what is the point if I start impeachment when I know at the end I will not succeed. I?m a person who does not fear death, but if you die, you die knowing that you have not died in vain. If I bring it and I know it will fail knowing the temperament of where we are then what is the point trying? Don?t you think that the real problem is that Nigerians are very docile? Completely correct. This is what a woman taught me during the Abacha regime, I went to South Africa because I normally broadcast on Radio Kudirat and this old woman in her 80?s was telling me that she really couldn?t understand why the Nigerian women where so quiet. I asked her what she did during the struggle, she said everyday I come, I gather stones and in front of my house and all the young people in my area know where to gather stones when they are going to stone the apartheid leaders and I said I won?t stone anybody but when the Nigerians get angry enough, I will put enough stones outside the Nigerian parliament so that they can stone us. Occasionally, we see NANS carry placards, this is beyond what students can do.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });