From KENNY ASHAKA, KADUNA
Friday, April 28, 2006

Also, the scenario outside the Hassan Usman Katsina House, venue of the meeting, was charged as anti-third term protesters with posters spelling out their opposition to the plot to elongate the president’s tenure, lined the major routes chanting anti-third term slogans.

The atmosphere became more charged as the anti third term legislators, led by Senator Uche Chukwumerije, stormed the meeting of the NGF with the message that the proposal for tenure elongation is evil and satanic.

The split became manifest when four governors, apparently dissatisfied with the communiqué rolled out by the chairman of the NGF and governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, dissociated themselves from the forum’s position.

In the communiqué, the NGF said that after exhaustively deliberating on the ongoing constitution amendment, it has resolved that members should go ahead to consult with their respective constituencies.
However, the governors of Zamfara, Adamawa, Benue and Niger states disowned the communiqué , stating, at a news conference after the Kwara State governor read the NGF resolution, that they were opposed to tenure elongation.

Flanked by Governors Abdulkadir Kure (Niger), Boni Haruna (Adamawa) and Dr. Ogri Agene (Deputy Governor of Benue State), Ahmed Sani, who said he was speaking on behalf of other governors, stated that the elongation of tenure “was a road map to national instability, confusion and total distortion of our constitutional order.”

In the statement, entitled “Our Stand on the ongoing 1999 Constitutional Amendment," the four governors condemned "in the strongest possible terms, the whole idea of the ongoing constitutional amendment which primary objective is to achieve the third term agenda.”

The governors also kicked against the aspects of the amendment which seek to bring about unitarism as against federalism, saying all the provisions in the constitution amendment bill that seek to erode the country's federal structure in terms of powers and responsibilities of the constituent units should not be considered.

"From the so-called public hearings to the shameless attempt in the Senate recently to smuggle an ammendment to the 'original' bill that would provide for tenure elongation or third term for governors (who were inadvertently omitted from the original bill even after it went through the first reading) it is evident that the whole idea of the entire constitutional amendment was not meant to bring about national stability, unity and sustenance of our democratic rebirth.

"Rather, it was a road map to national instability, confusion and total distortion of our constitutional order," the governors posited.

Although the governors admitted that the 1999 constitution was not a perfect document, they said its fallibility must not be an excuse for tinkering to accommodate a personal agenda.
They asked Nigerians to rise up to the occassion and resist what they described as unpardonable attempt to foist on Nigerians, the third term project "which is not only selfish, but the path to dictatorship, anarchy and a total reversal of our democratic rebirth."

The governors commended members of the National Assembly and the press for remaining resolute against the third term agenda.

Addressing the NGF earlier, Senator Uche Chukwumerije said that the plot to extend the tenure of President Obasanjo would precipitate crisis in the country and urged them to join the historic struggle in order not to be “victims of a calamity and culprit of history if the tension precipitated by the third term agenda deteric orates to an unmanageable scale and our dear country comes to grief.

“Your excellencies, you know better than many of us that Nigeria is once again at the crossroads: Do we turn to the left or to the right? A turn to the left will lead us to political instability and economic retardation. A turn to the right will lead us to the consolidation of our democracy and pace of economic development.

“Executive tenure extension will freeze this process, slow down the pace, bottle up alienations and precipitate sooner or later a major political and social explosion.”

Accompanied by Senators Saidu Dansadau, Ben Obi, Nuhu Aliyu, Tokunbo Afikuyomi and Idris Kuta, Chukwumerije told the governors that if they allowed the rule of law to be changed to anchor an incumbent president’s achievement, “we will have created a dangerous precedent which successive regimes will exploit,” thus causing the country to slide into the abyss of a banana republic.

He told newsmen later that the third term agenda was evil and satanic and urged Nigerians to resist it.
Thousands of youths with PDP caps had blocked the road to the venue of the meeting carrying anti-third term placards which reads: “No third term,” “No to elongation of tenure,” “Tenure elongation will breed tyranny” and “3rd term, Bamuso (we don’t want).”