By Ike Abonyi with agency report, 11.28.2005

Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Bukar Ibrahim, also yesterday became the first among his colleagues to openly throw his weight behind the campaign for President Obasanjo to seek a third term in office, saying Nigerians want him to stay beyond 2007.
A National Assembly sub-committee that has been working on possible constitutional changes since 2003 recently made recommendations on presidential tenure, an amendment that also favours state governors, outlining three options: retaining the status quo, two terms of five years, or three terms of four years.
The meeting between Buhari and Atiku which held November 17, according to an aide who attended, agreed on a number of issues including forming a common political platform to push through their interests.
Aside from strategising on how to halt the third term agenda, the duo also explored ways of forging together politically with a view to harmonising not just their interest but also that of their supporters across the two parties.
Explaining the reason for the duo not meeting earlier, the aide said that it was not auspicious before now because the ANPP presidential flag bearer, Buhari, was in court challenging the government which the VP remains the number two man.
Just last week, both Atiku and Buhari graced the inauguration of the forum of Northern members of the House of Representatives in Abuja and spoke vehemently against any undemocratic act by the lawmakers in amending the constitution.
But Bukar Ibrahim, a member of the main opposition, All Nigeria People's Party, (ANPP) spoke in Kano where he visited his counterpart, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau.
Ibrahim's intervention, acco-rding to analysts, is significant given the clamour by many Northern politicians for power shift and for which the governors last week took a common position.
According to him, "it is Nigerians who think he should stay a bit longer and complete certain things they believe he has started.
"If Nigerians believe the president should have a little more time, so be it. It doesn't matter if he stays a bit longer provided he is doing good things," Ibrahim told reporters in Kano.
Amending the constitution requires the approval of the two-chamber National Assembly and two-thirds of the 36 regional Assemblies, a process that could take months.
Meanwhile, the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), the umbrella for local government council chairmen in the country has distanced itself from the clamour for Obasanjo to stay in office for a third term.
The association's national publicity secretary, Prince Yemi Aderibigbe, who condemned the planned elongation of the tenure beyond 2007 described the move as unconstitutional and capable of truncating the nation's nascent democracy.
Aderibigbe, who is also the chairman of Akinyele Local Government Council in Oyo State therefore called on Obasanjo to discountenance the calls that he should hold on to power beyond two terms and "go honourably come May 29, 2007."
The council boss who featured on the Guest Forum of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State in Ibadan maintained that Nigeria's constitution must be followed to the letter as regards the issue of transition from one administration to another or else the nation will be degenerating.
According to him, "May 29, 2007 is the terminal date for the present dispensation, not even for President Obasanjo alone but for the governors, the local governments, etc."
"Whatever President Obasanjo has left in the office that would necessitate his coming back to do after the 2007 deadline, he should re-double efforts in doing between now and May 29, 2007," he declared.