Nigeria VP says Obasanjo should resign over 3rd term

[Richard Akindele]

ABUJA - Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar said on Thursday President Olusegun Obasanjo should resign for seeking a third term in office as the men‘s rivalry ahead of elections next year degenerated into open hostility.

Abubakar has been Obasanjo‘s deputy at the helm of Africa‘s most populous nation since 1999 and wants to succeed his boss in 2007, making him one of the main obstacles to a powerful campaign for the president to stay on.

The constitution bars a third term but Obasanjo‘s allies are pushing for an amendment that would make it legal. Obasanjo has done nothing to stop them and he has repeatedly refused to give a clear answer on whether he intends to stay or go.

The statement from Abubakar‘s office followed an earlier call by an Obasanjo spokesman for the vice president to resign after he gave a speech against the idea of a third term to a meeting of opposition leaders.

"The call for resignation should be directed at the president ... for pursuing an agenda that is subversive of the constitution, and the will of the majority of Nigerians," said the statement signed by Abubakar‘s spokesman.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the vice president believes tenure elongation is morally wrong and a breach of the constitution, which he took the oath to defend," it said.

In response, the presidential spokesman who had earlier called for Abubakar‘s resignation said Obasanjo had not said he wanted a third term and therefore could not be accused of trying to subvert the constitution.

Authorities have become increasingly repressive toward opponents of the third term plan in recent weeks. Opposition politicians have been teargassed, labeled a threat to national security and investigated for corruption.

Nigeria‘s unity is under constant strain from a complex set of religious, ethnic and regional rivalries, and the third term plan infuriates a wide variety of interest groups who want their own candidates to get the top job in 2007.

In the Muslim-dominated north, many feel the presidency should go to one of them after eight years of Obasanjo, a Christian from the southwest. The vice president is one of several prominent would-be candidates from the north.

On Tuesday, eight members of Turaki Vanguard, a group that campaigns for an Abubakar presidency, were charged with belonging to an unlawful society.

A long-running feud between Obasanjo and Abubakar, going back to power struggles during their first term, came out into the open last August when Obasanjo accused his deputy of disloyalty on live national television.

The attack came just after Abubakar said in a newspaper interview that Obasanjo had pledged to leave office in 2007.

The president has systematically purged Abubakar‘s loyalists from key positions in the ruling People‘s Democratic Party.

Obasanjo, a former army ruler who gained democratic credentials in 1979 when he handed over to a civilian government, returned to power as a civilian in 1999 elections that ended 15 continuous years of military dictatorship.

His supporters argue that a third term would enable the president to pursue his economic reforms. But civil society groups accuse him of pushing Nigeria back toward dictatorship.

Tensions over the third term issue were one of the drivers of a spate of religious and ethnic violence that killed at least 150 people in February, and of a series of attacks against the oil industry that have cut output by a quarter.
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