Bury tenure extension idea, lawmakers warn Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan

Members of the National Assembly have vowed to resist any ploy by President Goodluck Jonathan to extend his tenure by six months on the pretext of insecurity.

There has been speculation since the February elections were shifted that the President is on the verge of sending a tenure extension proposal to the National Assembly, using the insecurity in the North-East as an excuse.

However, senators and members of the House of Representatives, in separate interviews with SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, said the President should bury the rumoured plan.

On Tuesday, the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress in the Senate, Senator Femi Ojudu, had alleged at a forum that Jonathan had tried to get some members of the National Assembly to elongate his tenure, but that he had so far met a brick wall.

He reportedly spoke in Ibadan, Oyo State at a social discourse organised by the Afenifere Renewal Group, held in honour of a former Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi.

He had said, “President Jonathan has been begging us to allow him do two more years but the Yoruba must cry out and also be strategic in their call for change.

“We are resuming in the next one week and the President might likely bring the proposal for the election to be postponed for the next six months or one year.”

But in separate interviews with SUNDAY PUNCH, lawmakers across political parties called on President Jonathan to jettison the idea, if indeed there was such.

APC caucus leader and minority leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, dismissed the thought of tenure extension as “baseless and impossible.”

He told one of our correspondents that the idea of tenure extension was strange to him since there were no grounds for it.

“It will not pass; there will be no support for it. There is no point wasting time and energy on that issue,” he said.

The Deputy House Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, also argued that, tenure extension would not get popular support, and that Jonathan did not have such a plan.

The lawmaker from Delta State added, “Mr. President is running a campaign for his election. What does he need tenure extension for? Is he afraid of elections like the APC, who know they will lose?”

Another lawmaker from Plateau State, Mr. Bitrus Kaze, said members would oppose a tenure extension proposal because the mood of the nation was not prepared for it.

Kaze said, “The mood in the House of Representatives and even the nation right now will not support tenure extension; it will not fly.”

Similarly, a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance from Imo State, Mr. Eddie Mbadiwe, said any plan to extend the elections by six months would be dead on arrival.

“Nobody will table such a proposal and even if it comes, it will not pass. There is no way anybody will contemplate tenure extension,” he added.

On his part, the Chairman, Senate Committee on National Planning, Senator Barnabas Gemade (APC, Benue North East ), said, “As a democrat who has been the National Chairman of two major political parties in this country in the past, I can never support such an undemocratic arrangement few weeks to a general election that we have been preparing for as a nation for about four years.”

Also, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, (PDP Ondo Central) described the alleged tenure elongation plot as “a fallacy, cheap blackmail and an unwarranted allegation to heat up the polity”

Akinyelure said, “Nobody would bring such bill to the National Assembly except if the person is an enemy of democracy.”

A senator from the South West geo-political zone told one of our correspondents in confidence that the plot was real because there were moves by some members of the red chamber to sell the idea to their colleagues before the current break.

He said, “I can confirm to you that the idea of tenure elongation was sold to some of us before we went on break.”

Other senators who corroborated this view, also on conditions of anonymity, noted the idea might come up when the chambers resume on Tuesday.

One of them said, “The real reasons why the election was shifted by six weeks was probably to perfect the tenure elongation saga by using the National Assembly members who would resume next week Tuesday, to execute the plot.”

The senators, however, vowed to resist any attempt to extend the tenure of the current administration beyond the May 29 handover date.

When contacted, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, said it was not true that the President planned to use the Senate to extend his tenure.

Efforts made to get the reaction of the Peoples Democratic Party were not successful. Calls made to its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, indicated that his telephone line was switched off.

Also, the call made to the party’s Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Olisa Metuh did not connect.

Obasanjo’s support for Buhari, kiss of death —Ezeife

Chukwuemeka Ezeife

Third Republic Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, tells TOBI AWORINDE that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s endorsement of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), may not be worth its salt

What do you think of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who helped found the Peoples Democratic Party, endorsing the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)?

Unusual and unconventional things keep happening in Nigeria. I don’t know whether the solidarity of the military is so strong that it compels people to do such things. Is there a military caucus made up of a different breed of Nigerians such that an officer must support another officer? I hear that Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.) is also supporting Buhari, to my greatest surprise. The military caucus, perhaps, is the strongest one in the (political) system. An endorsement by Gen. Obasanjo can be a kiss of death for any political figure. I don’t know how much is left of Obasanjo’s credibility to endorse somebody and if it can have a positive effect.

 

But Obasanjo also endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Are you saying the President didn’t profit from that vote of confidence?

You are right, Obasanjo brought out Jonathan and endorsed him in 2011, even when he (Jonathan) was contesting against Buhari. So, what has changed? Or is there another caucus of the North and northern supporters? What happened to (Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru) Jega is also happening to other northerners. But some Hausa/Fulani Muslims have taken a decision to return power to themselves—the ‘born-to-rule people’—and everyone seems to be endorsing Buhari for that reason. The ways of Obasanjo are sometimes inscrutable, but I pray that, for him and for all of us, the will of God will happen. Jonathan is a tool in the hands of God, chosen to do God’s purpose for Nigeria. If he has finished that purpose, he will leave. But if he has not finished God’s purpose, he will be there and no man born by a woman can remove him.

Is it normal for an elder statesman of such prominence to go against his party’s mandate and endorse a member of the opposition?

A former head of state is a human being and has human rights. I don’t think anything is wrong with that. But if you are in a party and you endorse another party’s candidate, it means you are indulging in anti-party activities. In honour, he should therefore resign from the PDP.

Are you, therefore, in support of the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose’s proposition that the party suspend the ex-President over ‘inter-party activities’?

Let me tell you something: we don’t have parties. After the presidential elections, we will work to build two parties in Nigeria. The two-party system has been demonstrated to be what Nigeria needs; what works for and integrates Nigeria, crushing religiosity and tribalism. We have one of the parties already surfacing—the Social Democratic Party. We will define the ideology of the SDP properly and the people who want to be on the other side will define their ideology. That way, we would give Nigeria a two-party system. After the presidential elections, even with Jonathan as president, the PDP may have to go. Look at how they cause all kinds of problems for themselves. One is not sure where a member of the PDP is heading. You can see that the President is a member of the PDP. But some people say even the PDP chairman is not with the party. The PDP may eventually leave the scene, even with the President in office.

Obasanjo, in endorsing Buhari, claimed Jonathan had allowed corruption to creep into the military and undermine its operations. Do you agree with this point of view?

No, he was just looking for something to say. Obasanjo was far more corrupt than Jonathan and he never fought corruption. Instead, he fought his enemies who were corrupt. His friends who were corrupt were never fought. That is not how to fight corruption. While I cannot say that President Jonathan has fought corruption seriously, I know that corruption is just an issue that Obasanjo can use against anybody except himself. A worse form of corruption is to prosecute people you don’t like. Imagine two people commit the same offence; one is your friend and the other your enemy. You take state power to crush your enemy and you think you are fighting corruption. That alone is corrupt. Impunity is part of corruption. The effect of an endorsement is uncertain; whether a blessing or a curse, nobody knows.

Obasanjo warned that any manipulation of electoral process by the Presidency could lead to a military coup. Do you suppose the presidency might have had a hand in the postponement of elections?

After Jega was advised by the National Security Adviser and all the security chiefs, there was a National Council of State meeting that raised doubts about readiness for elections. At the state council meeting, Jega was advised to make wider consultations and he did immediately. He then found out clearly that, in addition to the allegations made against him by some southern leaders, in the face of insecurity and other challenges, he could not go on with the elections without people crying foul. People say Obasanjo and others don’t want Jonathan at all because he is from the minority or he is too gentle; because he’s not behaving like Obasanjo, persecuting everybody. It may be true that the military has been planning a coup. But those who are targeting Jonathan can only succeed if God allows it. Whoever is coming to rule us, even if, against my expectations, it turns out to be Buhari, God must approve it.

Soyinka flays Mbu over comment

Prof. Wole Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has criticised the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Joseph Mbu, for urging the police to kill 20 civilians for a policeman that is killed before, during and after the general elections.

Mbu, on Thursday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, had also ordered his men during his official visit to the Eleweran Command headquarters, to arrest even the governor of the state if they find him to be violating the law on election day.

“If one of my men is killed, I shall kill twenty of them but don’t shoot first. If they shoot you, shoot back in self-defence. Anybody who fires you, fire him back in self-defence. Our actions and activities will go a long way to decide this election, so, I have come to tell you that we must remain impartial in ensuring free, fair, peaceful and violent-free polls.

“As far as the law is concerned, we are not going to respect anybody and whoever is coming to the booth should vote and leave peacefully. Anyone who comes there to campaign, even if it is the chief executive of the state, a constable at that polling booth would stop him,” Mbu said.

In a letter made available to our correspondent on Saturday, Soyinka described Mbu as a “political jobber” ready to be used by the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government.

“Goliath Mbu is the latest kid in town, fresh from his triumph in ‘taming’ governors all over the nation, and reveling in his new elevation for jobs well done. A political jobber by instinct though a clamberer through the police profession, he has wasted no time instructing his men to return violence for violence, fire for fire.

“He has been displaying his new attire and pips all over the place, demanding to be noticed – as if his facial snarl is not already plastered over the pages of media annals of police infamy, reminiscent of the good old days of one Inspector-General (Sunday) Adewusi, who would appear on television dripping with gas-canisters and grenades, with a detachment of Kill-and-Go,” the Nobel laureate stated.

According to Soyinka, Mbu’s actions and words are similar to that of Adewusi.

He said, “Is history about to repeat itself in microcosm? Adewusi was sacked by the Buhari coup and vanished from the police political rostrum.”

Soyinka also expressed his regrets and anger over the failure of governments to punish persons like Adewusi for his impunity rather he said, those who have acted with impunity were usually accorded state recognition.

“This warped apportionment of deserving it must be that drives such officials to treasonable conduct under democracies. If the trend changes and even the police are made to account for abuses of office, abuses of the collective rights of citizens, then perhaps we might see the end of arrogant partisanship in the performance of police duties,” he added.

In a related development, the All Progressives Congress in a statement issued on Saturday, described Mbu as a “lawless and barbaric” policeman who should urgently be called to order by the police authorities.

“Since his posting to the Zone 2 Command, this contumacious policeman has exhibited an egregious act of lawlessness by barging through the Lekki Toll Plaza without paying toll and then ordering the arrest of policemen and workers at the Plaza. Is it not an irony that a man who is trained to enforce the law is the same who is breaking the law?” Said the APC publicity secretary, Mr. Lai Mohammed.

IG counters Mbu: Police will use arms with caution

 Joseph Mbu

The Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has cautioned police personnel against misuse of firearms during the forthcoming elections in the country.

Abba stated that arms would be used only in extreme circumstances, stressing that all police officers must protect the rights of citizens at all times.

Apparently refuting a statement credited to AIG Joseph Mbu, who said “If one of my men is killed, I shall kill 20 of them but don’t shoot first,” the police boss reassured the public that “the Nigeria Police has a mandate to save and protect lives, and not to kill, contrary to recent statements in the media.”

The IG said this during a meeting with senior policemen at the Force headquarters, Abuja, according to a statement by Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, on Saturday.

“IG Suleiman Abba, advised all officers of the imperative necessity to apply caution in the use of firearms, warning that except in extreme circumstances, arms shall not be used during the forthcoming elections,” the statement read.

While admitting that there were circumstances under which an officer might be provoked in the course of duty, the IG stressed that the attributes of a police officer as contained in the Police Regulations, required him to exercise “tact, patience and tolerance and the control of his temper in trying situations.”

He observed that the rule of law is the underpinning tenet of democracy, which he noted would guide police officers in the discharge of their roles during the polls.

Abba restated his commitment to observance of the rule of law and the respect of the fundamental rights of citizens and residents alike by all police officers.

He cautioned officers to avoid excesses, pointing out the dire consequences of abuse of human rights as contained in the recently released Human Rights Practice Manual.

He also restated the preparedness of the Force to provide the requisite security before, during and after the elections.