POLITICS-NIGERIA: President Obasanjo under Pressure to Run in 2003

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Apr 11 2002 (IPS) - Ota Farm, located some 70 kilometres Northwest of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, is where President Olusegun Obasanjo announced his decision to run in 1999.

This month supporters, including 19 of Nigeria’s 36 state governors, converged on the farm to persuade Obasanjo to run again in 2003.

What raised eyebrows was the presence of two state governors from the opposition All Peoples Party (APP) among Obasanjo’s supporters.

“By attending the meeting in Ota, the governors have sold themselves out to their rival party, PDP. The governors have succumbed to bread and butter politics and winner takes all. The political tragedy of our situation is that we have not imbibed the basic tenets of democracy,” says Victor Lar of the APP National Convention committee.

The PDP is the People’s Democratic Party, which is led by Obasanjo.

In a letter, made available to IPS this week, APP leader, Yusuf Ali warned that any governor or party member who attended the meeting organised by the ruling party would be sanctioned in accordance with the party’s constitution.

APP leaders, who met in the capital Abuja last week, sent letters to the two governors — Malla Kachallah of Borno State and Abubakar Audu of Kogi State — threatening to expel them if they fail to come up with good reasons for attending the meeting.

The two were given two weeks within which to respond or risk being expelled from the party.

Their colleagues, like Abubakar Kure, governor of the Middle Belt State of Niger, have dissociated themselves from the decision to support Obasanjo’s re-election.

Kure told journalists in Minna, capital of Niger State last week: “I was not there and there is no way I would have reduced myself to the level of sycophancy. What took place in Ota was purely an ‘arrangement’ perfected to misinform the people of this country”.

He said he received a letter requesting him to meet President Obasanjo at Ota for a courtesy call. He failed to make the trip as, he said, he had other urgent State matters to attend to. He did not send a representative either.

Kure said he was surprised that the courtesy call was turned into a political campaign.

That was not the first time Nigerian politicians have urged their leaders to run. In 1998, Daniel Kanu organised similar event for the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.

“All of us condemned Kanu for organising the two-million-man match to perpetrate the late Gen. Sani Abacha in office. It is very disgraceful to find people, who were part of the group advising Abacha not to perpetrate himself in office, doing exactly what they were advising against,” said Kure.

“It is unfortunate that Nigerians are good in such moves. We have many people who are keen in lobbying and prostrating for someone in power just because he has something to offer them. They will keep on doing so because they are looking out for something to benefit from the person,” says Abraham Adesanya, outspoken leader of the militant Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere.

But Governor Ahmed Makarfi of the northern State of Kaduna State said the visit to Ota Farm, which is owned by Obasanjo, was not meant to persuade the Nigerian leader to seek re-election.

“We went there to confer with the President and to make it clear to him that we believe that he can still do quite a lot in the country. He can still do things to further cement the unity and uplift this country,” he said.

Media reports said political stalwarts had presented the president with a letter persuading him to run. But, Makarfi said: “It is not a letter which seeks to persuade the President. You make persuasions where somebody has clearly stated that he is not interested in a given issue.”

Despite the hue and cry over his re-election, there is a consensus in Nigeria that Obasanjo should seek a second term to stabilise the economy and ensure political stability.

“A lot of us believe he has laid a good political foundation for the country and as such, he should be given the opportunity to finish the programme and set a standard for a good political leadership in Nigeria,” Paul Okolo, a political analyst, told IPS this week.

Obasanjo — former military leader between 1976 and 1979 — has not indicated whether he will run in 2003. Last week he told a gathering of local leaders in Ota that he would make intensive consultation within the next two weeks. The decision to run, or not to run, required monumental preparation, he said.

“If the consultation is not properly done, it will create some problems where none need to arise. We want all hands to be on deck and I can assure you that the next two weeks will be intensive in terms of consultation. I am fasting and praying over the issue and whatever pronouncement made at the end of it would be in the best interest of the country,” Obasanjo told the ‘Yoruba Council of Elders’.