RASHEED BISIRIYU

He warned the President against such an ambition and urged him to bow out of office honourably at the expiration of the current tenure on May 29, 2007.

Gani gave the warning in a New Year message to the president, dated December 27, 2005.

Titled: Open New Year Message to General Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Fawehinmi declared in a five-page document that "it is incontrovertible that any third term bid by you is psychologically, spiritually, emotionally and, in every respect, a suicide mission driven by perverted ambition even when it is so glaring that it is unattainable in Nigeria of today."

To him, the third term agenda if allowed to sail through, will not only rock the polity but lay a dangerous precedent, tempt God and amount to ignoring the feelings of the real people.

Already, he stated that "since the third term bid controversy erupted, the Nigerian society has been divided and highly polarised, particularly along dangerous ethnic and tribal cleavages."

Chief Fawehinmi also recalled that in 1979, Obasanjo "proved that a military dictator could hand over power to a democratically elected leader", and wondered why it should be difficult in 2007 for him (now as an elected president) to hand over power to another democratically elected president.

He warned the president not to toe the line of Omar Bongo who had remained in power in Gabon since 1967 or Yoweri Museveni of Uganda since 1986 and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak since 1981. Rather, Gani urged him to take advice offered by Nelson Mandela, former South African President against the third term, which he said was echoed by President George Bush of the United States.

Chief Fawehinmi who noted that 2006 would be crucial in shaping events of 2007 and determining the nation’s future, pleaded with President Obasanjo to seize the opportunity of his next January 1 national broadcast to douse the raging controversy and tension, by reassuring Nigerians that he would quit in 2007.

Said he: "It is not too late for you to change your perilous course. A national broadcast on the 1st of January 2006 that you will hand over government as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 29th of May, 2007 will bring down the negative temperature of the country and bring the country back from the brink of looming catastrophe or calamity. However, Mr. President, if you fail to hearken unto this seasonal message, you have yourself or your soul to blame," he said.