Quit, IBB tells Obasanjo

[Richard Akindele]

Former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, says he has no regret for supporting President Olusegun Obasanjo’s emergence as winner of the 1999 electon, but now he believes the president should vacate office next year at the expiration of his two terms.

Gen. Babangida who spoke on the Hausa Service of the BBC yesterday said the government and people of Niger State had already taken a position on the third term issue and he has no reason to go against it. He said he would never support any constitution amendment that would elongate the tenure of the President or any other person be yond the existing two terms of four years each. His position, he explained, was the same as that of the people of Niger State as expressed by Gov. Abdulkadir Kure.The Niger State governor and three other governors from the North had distanced themselves fromthe third term debate, saying it was evil and would lead the country to chaos.Kure and the governors of Benue, Zamfara and Adamawa who said they were speaking for other governorsopposed to the third term made their observation known after a meeting of the Northern Governors’ Forum which took place at the General Hassan Usman Katsina House, Kaduna. The people of Niger State, Gen. Babangida said, had taken a firm position on the third term issue and tenure elongation long before Port Harcourt meeting of the National Assembly Committee on the review of the1999 constitution led by the Deputy Senate president, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu. �We in Niger State met and deliberated extensively on the matter. We the elders looked into the mattercritically even before people went to Port Harcourt. I am with the people of Niger State, with the governorof Niger State on this matter.�What the governor of Niger State said is the view of the entire people of Niger State. Therefore, I supportwhat he has said. The people of Niger State told the governor point blank their position on the matter. Iam an indigene of Niger State, hence I am with them on this matter,� he said. He urged members of the National Assembly to abide by the wishes of the people who elected them and what they have told them to do and not to succumb to intimidation and fears since history and posteritywould judge them. "I’ll give them this piece of advice. They should think that whatever they do in the coming days willdefinitely affect them in their lifetime. They should think that they have children. They should think ofwhere they come from. They should think of the home they come from. Therefore, what I hope to see is that everyone of them should come out plainly and state his position,what his people want. If that is done, then, we are on the right path of truth. But if something is donesecretly or with fear, this will not help us,� Babangida said He said his decision along with some northern elite to convince Obasanjo to contest the nation’s highest office in 1999 was done out of patriotism and not any personal interest.

Source: Vanguard,Nigeria