After the third term attempt made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006 failed, Nigerians had believed that such an unconstitutional move would never repeat itself.
But it was a surprise when some days ago, a group allegedly kick started a campaign tagged “Movement for the Approval of Buhari Third Term”. The group is demanding a constitutional amendment to enable President Muhammadu Buhari continue in office beyond 2023.
This has continued to generate reactions from individuals, groups, especially the main opposition in the country, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which on Wednesday, cautioned the “cabal” in the presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to desist from any plot to push a third term agenda for President Buhari.
The Presidency has debunked the claim, which it described as canard. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who made the clarification in a statement in Abuja, said, “President Buhari is a democrat. He respects the constitution. Any activity aimed at altering the two-term limit will not succeed and shall never have his time nor support.”
The statement further reads: “The Presidency wishes to correct internet-based gossip and un-informed media commentary regarding presidential term limits, given credence by so-called support groups, staging street demonstrations asking President Muhammadu Buhari to do a third term.
“There are no circumstances – nor set of circumstances – under which President Buhari may seek to amend the Constitution regarding the two-term limit on holding office as President.
“President Buhari intends to serve his full second elected term in office, ending 2023 – and then there shall be a general election in which he will not be a candidate.
“There is not even the faintest possibility that this will change. It is important to note that there was a past attempt to change the constitution to allow for the-then incumbent president to stand for a third term.
“That attempt was wrong, unconstitutional – and rightly rebuffed. No such attempt will happen under this President.”
In a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, its national publicity secretary, the PDP described the alleged move as a dangerous underhand politics capable of “derailing our democracy and destabilising our nation.”
According to Ologbondiyan in the statement, “The PDP says it is preposterous for the Presidency cabal and the APC to think that Nigerians cannot see through their shenanigan to import and elevate what they labeled as rumour and internet-based gossip, into the official national discourse.
“Our party notes that Nigerians will not be surprised when, after the statements by the Presidency and APC, new groups surface to orchestrate more forceful agitations in the public space for the alteration of the 1999 Constitution to achieve an ignoble aim.
“The PDP, however, cautions the Presidency and the APC to note that Nigerians are already aware of individuals and political interests in the Presidency cabal in addition to known APC agents who are behind the street demonstrations for the third term for President Buhari.
“The party invites Nigerians to note how, having been busted, the presidency cabal and the APC are now groping for ways to cover their trails by making frivolous allegations, which directly point back to them.
“The party, therefore, urges President Muhammadu Buhari to personally speak out and immediately call his supporters to order as Nigerians will never allow anybody, no matter how highly placed, to alter any part of our constitution to serve a selfish interest.
“The PDP insists that this has become imperative in view of the series of constitutional violations and provocative undermining of our laws by the APC and power mongers in the Buhari Presidency.”
Also reacting, a Civil Rights Advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), in a statement called for the arrest and prosecution of campaigners and sponsors of the campaign for self-perpetuation in office by President Buhari.
The Rights group said the arrest of the proponents of the third term bid became necessary because what they are advocating for is treasonable and amounts to a constitutional coup plot.
HURIWA said any subterranean or open campaign apparently sponsored by forces within the current government for the constitutional term limits for political office of president of Nigeria to be extended extra-legally or even through the national parliament, is an offence against the Nigerian people and against the 1999 constitution capable of truncating constitutional democracy and must not be swept under the carpets or explained away through a presidential media propaganda.
The Rights group said the Nigerian constitution in chapter 6, part 1 and specifically section 137(1)(b), provides that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of president if he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections.
It therefore posited that any contemplation to violate this sacred code of the grand norm through orchestrated and sponsored activities of thugs must not be dismissed with a mere wave of hand but must be penalised because if the weight of the law is not applied to sanction these violators, the illegality will evolve into a life of its own.
Also citing section 1(1) of the constitution, HURIWA further stated that: “This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria” even as section 1(2) states thus: “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed, nor shall any persons or group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”.
The Rights group affirmed that going by the plethora of provisions in the extant constitution under which the current administration is serving out its last tenure of office cited above, all those sponsoring groups and members of such amorphous groups campaigning for tenure limitation to be disrupted, should be arrested and charged to court for treasonable felony because what they are advocating for is for a change of government through an illegal overthrow of the Nigerian constitution.
The statement reads in part, “Why will President Buhari arrest a 21-year-old boy and the activist Omoyele Sowore for planning to organise mass protests against the government, but the same government has looked the other way when street urchins hired by hawks in the presidency are protesting publicly urging for the breach of constitutional provisions so as to achieve tenure elongation for President Buhari?” the group queried.
HURIWA asserted that the selective enforcement of arrests of protesters based on the side, texture and colour of the message they are transmitting to the public, amounts to a double standard and is discriminatory.
“The statement denying any plot by President Buhari to self-perpetuate is just tissues of soft propaganda and is treated as such unless this government will arrest and prosecute for treason all those going about campaigning for the third term because these characters are attempting to foist a government through a process other than what the unambiguous provisions of the constitution have stated.
“We in HURIWA wishes to tell President Muhammadu Buhari that his statement that he will not seek tenure extension at the end of his second term in office as rumours of a possible spread in the gossip mill, is deceitful and manifestly unacceptable as long as his government fails to arrest and charge for treason all those going about campaigning for tenure elongation to favour him.
“Can we hereby tell President Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu that his statement on Nigeria’s Independence Day in which he said that the President will not seek tenure extension under any circumstances and will not support an amendment of the constitution to make that happen, has not totally and conclusively addressed this matter and can we tell him and his boss, our President, that discerning Nigerians are not convinced that the well-funded campaign for the third term against the constitution can be dismissed as an internet-based gossip and uninformed media commentary regarding presidential term limits, given credence by so-called support groups, staging street demonstrations asking President Muhammadu Buhari to do a third term,” the statement added.
On its part, a group known as the Zikist-Buharist Movement (ZBM), South-East zone, commended Buhari for rejecting the third term plot being proposed by what it referred to as “anti-democrats and unpatriotic elements”.
In a statement by the South East Chairman of ZBM, Stanley Ohajuruka and Secretary, Godwin Onwusi, the group commended President Buhari for rejecting third term plot, describing it as “infamous banana peel being proposed by anti-democrats and unpatriotic elements, whose sole objective was to truncate our fledgling democracy and tarnish the image of Mr. President.
“When the internet gossips hauled by faceless groups went viral in the social media, the ZBM waited anxiously with bated breath, for rejection or confirmation from the Presidency; hence we are happy when the strong rebuttal statement was released yesterday, stating inter alia that President Buhari intends to serve his full second elected term in office, ending in 2023, and then there shall be a general the election in which he will not be a candidate.
“We, of the ZBM, have always maintained that President Buhari is a convert democrat and like most converts are fanatical and cannot support any move aimed at altering the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to stretch his two-term limit”, the statement said.
The President in his opening speech during the inaugural June 12 Democracy Day celebration in Abuja, had said: “In face of these challenges, our government, elected by the people in 2015 and re-elected in March, has been mapping out policies, measures, and laws to maintain our unity and at the same time lift the bulk of our people out of poverty and onto the road to prosperity.
“With leadership and a sense of purpose, we can lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.”
However, on Wednesday, a pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, in its reaction, described the statement by the president promising to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years as a slip of tongue.
The organisation, while reacting to the suspicion among Nigerians that the president may be planning to elongate his tenure in office and the denial by the presidency, said it was a contradiction for Buhari to be talking about a 10-year programme when he has a four-year mandate.
While calling on those nursing the idea of a third term for the president to perish the thought, Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, said the error in the speech made by the president on Democracy Day, is already generating suspicion in the country.
“It’s a contradiction in terms to have a four-year mandate and be talking of a 10-year programme. It was a Freudian slip, which has now generated so much suspicion in the land. The idea should be perished if it was ever contemplated,” he said.
Also sharing Afenifere’s point of view, Chief Mike Ozekhome, human rights lawyer, said the president could not be talking about himself taking the country out of poverty in the next 10 years when his constitutionally allowed term expires in 2023.
According to Ozekhome, the president could only speak on what he could do for Nigerians in three and half years’ time as there was no guarantee that even his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), could remain in power in the next 10 years.
“The president’s case is still being challenged at the court. Even if he is not removed by the Supreme Court, he can only do four years out of which he has already spent six months. So, constitutionally, President Buhari has just three and half years to go.
“So, if he is talking about taking Nigeria out of poverty in the next 10 years, from being the poverty capital of the world, having overtaken India, he may only be thinking in terms of statistics, maybe this is the time Nigeria will get out of poverty, but certainly not himself doing that as a person.
“He may also be referring to his political party, the APC, being in power in the next 10 years. But don’t forget that PDP had boasted that they will be in power for 60 years but it was terminated after 16 years in power. So, nobody knows tomorrow.
“President Buhari should be talking about what he can do for Nigerians in the next three and half years and what he has done for Nigeria in the last four and half years.
“He cannot be talking about what he will do for Nigerians in the future when he himself will not be there as president. So, I think it is just sheer daydreaming.”
Defending the president, Prof. Itse Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said it was worrisome that some Nigerians could accuse the president of plotting to stay in office beyond 2023 when all he was doing was planning a long-term vision for the country as obtained in developed countries of the world.
Sagay, who said government was a continuum, said many of the projects initiated by the PDP, such as railway projects, the second Niger Bridge and others were being completed by President Buhari in the interest of the nation.
“Nigerians are an impossible race. You can’t do anything for them. If you don’t do anything for them, they say you are useless. If you want to do something for them, they say he wants to impose his will on us and exercise powers that he doesn’t have.
“Let me tell you, no sane government in any progressive country that hopes to develop will fail to plan for years ahead of its own existence.
“You can even have a 50-year plan. Is Buhari not completing all the railways that Goodluck Jonathan started? So many things he is doing now, such as the second Niger Bridge, was he the one who started it?
“Nigerians should not be so narrow-minded. This hatred is making people look at negative things where so many good things are involved.
“If Buhari is planning for the next 15 years, we should hail him because one of our problems is short-sightedness, short plans which can’t take us anywhere. If we have a long term plan, it means we have a vision. Remember Vision 2020?”
“It doesn’t mean that the person who is at the helm of affairs is going to be in office for eternity. We should be a bit more broad-minded and more positive in our attitude to governance.
“So, I think those who are accusing the president of planning a third term are ignorant and irresponsible. In fact, I will say they are stupid.
“By promising to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years, Buhari was only speaking about his vision for the country even after he might have left office,” he said.
It would also be recalled that in February this year, presumably in a veiled attack on former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, President Buhari while speaking with Ondo State Council of Obas in Akure, said that he is only seeking a second term in office and not a third term as did by “some people.”
The president said, “We have just finished one term and are seeking a second one. After that, the constitution doesn’t permit any more.
“There are some who tried looking for more but they did not succeed. We should learn from their mistake.”
Some political observers are of the opinion that certain elements in the presidency are indeed attempting to push for tenure elongation for the president.
Ozekhome also insisted that anyone nursing the dream of securing tenure elongation for President Buhari should perish the thought as it cannot succeed in Nigeria.
He said those nursing the idea of a third term should learn from the experience of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who tried it but was met with stiff resistance from Nigerians.
“Let me tell you, even Obasanjo tried it and failed. Third term will not happen in this country, no matter how oppressed we have become,” he said. (Daily independent)
