Posted by By Kenny Ashaka, Kaduna on
These are definitely hard times for supporters of President Olusegun Obasanjo's perceived third term bid. After the controversy sparked off by the draft constitution which recommended a six year single term for a Nigerian president, a group which insists the incumbent must go in 2007 has sprung up.
These are definitely hard times for supporters of President Olusegun Obasanjo's perceived third term bid. After the controversy sparked off by the draft constitution which recommended a six year single term for a Nigerian president, a group which insists the incumbent must go in 2007 has sprung up.
Alhaji Hassan Jallo, a lawyer and chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of the National Democratic Party (NDP), is now the arrowhead of the anti - Obasanjo third term "Jihad."
He told Daily Sun in an exclusive interview in Kaduna that his group is set to work against "the hidden agenda of Mr. President."
"We shall organise a prayer session. That is the one aspect of our opposition towards this third term bid of Obasanjo because. God said whatever is disturbing you, tell it to Him. We shall take this to God first, then political solution will follow.
"What I want to tell you is that if the whole Muslims in the north should organise a prayer session against Obasanjo, he will not last one week. This I am confirming to you. Things have happened in the past due to prayers. Our God is not asleep. When the right time comes, Obasanjo will know that he is playing with fire."
But Jallo appears to have ruffled political feathers when he said only the north can decide who becomes the president of Nigeria.
'Politically, in Nigeria, the north determines who becomes president, whether anybody likes it or not. If the North did not agree that power should go to the South, there is no way a southerner will become Nigeria's president."
Despite the coalition worked out by the Middle-Belt and South-South zones towards actualising their presidential dream, the Kaduna State NDP Chairman says "there is nowhere in the world where minority will determine who wins an election. That is why they are called minority, a people with few population."
Our prayer session will remove Obasanjo
Speculations that the president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is working towards achieving a third term tenure has been making the rounds. Despite denials from the presidency and the president himself, some political pundits and civil society groups say there are evidences to prove that President Olusegun Obasanjo is actually not in a hurry to vacate Aso Rock.
The draft constitution from the presidency to delegates at the National Political Reforms Conference seems to have fueled the rife speculation that the president may remain in Aso rock for another six years after 2007. The document which stipulates a single six-year term for any Nigerian president and which has been adopted by a committee of the political reforms conference has unwittingly sparked off a wave of controversy.
Like many politicians and political watchers, Hassan Jallo believes the real intention of the president is not the one now being made a refrain by presidential aides but that the president's self-succession agenda has just blown open. Hitherto, he says, people were sceptical about the speculation.
"We have come to know about this hidden agenda of President Obasanjo for the past six months. When I said we, I mean, we in the National Democratic Party, NDP. Obasanjo has been scheming to make sure that he extends his own tenure. And this draft constitution palaver at the National Political Reforms Conference is one of the agenda. Obasanjo does not want to leave office.
"Democratically, if there is any lucky man in Nigeria today, that person is president Obasanjo. He has been president of Nigeria three times. Once he was Head of State under a military regime; from 1999 to 2003 and from 2003 up to 2007 when his mandate is expected to expire. Haba! What does he want? Obasanjo should be grateful to God, for making him President of a nation, with over 120 million people, three times.
"Whatever Obasanjo thinks he wants to do in Nigeria, there are people who have done more and he can never do enough. At the end of the day, it is the man that refuses to listen, and who believes he knows everything that fails. It is time for him to quit and retire to his farm at Otta.
"We will resist the attempt to impose himself on Nigeria. We will not resort to violence but dialogue and real politicking. I know in the north generally, nobody will vote for Obasanjo and you know, politically in Nigeria, the North determines who becomes president whether anybody likes it or not.
'If the north did not agree that power should go to the south, there is no way a southerner will become Nigeria's president. This is so because more than two-third of the votes in general elections in Nigeria are always from the north. We have the population, the political sagacity and the unity to turn things around, politically. Even from the INEC registration of voters, we are still the highest. And the north will continue to determine who becomes Nigeria's president. In 2007, we will demonstrate this."
Even then, Hassan Jallo's postulation is premised on the popular saying of "one north, one destiny". Today, however, the unity of the north has been toyed with. What with the Middle Belt alignment with the South-South to produce the president in 2007.
Despite this, Jallo says political graphs are not plotted along that line. "Even if there is division, the time will come when there will be unity. There is no way the Middle Belt will go with the South-South in politics. There will come a time when there will be mutual suspicion among them.
"It will be a disaster if Obasanjo comes in as president again. Today, a bag of rice is selling for more than N6,000. To eat has become a problem. A bag of cement costs nearly N2000. We cannot have shelter over our heads. Second hand clothings have been banned and the cost of new ones have skyrocketed. Even the textile companies have gone under. Food, shelter and clothing which are essential for good living have been priced beyond the reach of the ordinary man in Nigeria. Only a few cabals close to Obasanjo are living comfortable lives. Why would Nigerians agree to allow him continue. To do that is to send us to early graves.
"We shall organise a prayer session. That is one aspect of our opposition towards this third term bid of Obasanjo because God said whatever is disturbing you, tell it to him. We shall take this to God first, then political solution will follow.
"What I want to tell you is that if the whole Muslims in the north should organise a prayer session against Obasanjo, he will not last a week. This I am confirming to you. Things have happened in the past due to prayers. Our God is not asleep. When the right time comes, Obasanjo will know that he is playing with fire."
Middle-Belt-South-South coalition is a ruse
Reminded of the Middle-Belt, South-South arrangement to wrest the presidency in 2007, Jallo says, "there is nowhere in the world where minority will determine who wins an election." That is why they are called minority, a people with few population.
Middle Belt and South-South have always been in the minority and they will remain minority.
"Middle Belt is a minority group of people in the north. And they have not been recognised as Middle-Belt. They remain part of the northern region but are still minority. It is the politicians who have this minority complex that are stirring up problems for their selfish interest.
"If you go to Plateau State, is it everybody that will follow Chief Solomon Lar? No."
Southern Kaduna governorship aspirants are unpopular
Back in Kaduna State, the NDP Chairman in the State seems hell bent that the same fate that will befall the minority in Nigeria will be repeated in most states of the federation, including Kaduna. His indices when it comes to the minority question and gubernational election in the state are quite stunning. They, at best, leave you with the impression that the votes from the southern part of Kaduna State will never make any difference in an election. The Northern part of Kaduna State, he says, is the power broker and kingmaker. Pumpous words you will say. But Jallo says he can justify it.
In reaction to clamours by the people of Southern Kaduna that it is their turn to produce the next governor of Kaduna State, the NDP chairman, says rotation should be ruled out of politics.
"You see, I have always maintained that rotation in politics is for the weak minds. It is for the minority and unpopular candidates. I do not subscribe to this idea of north and south of Kaduna. No. Let us go to the polls and let majority decide the winner. Afterall, is it not said that majority carries the vote?
"If the people of southern Kaduna believe that they have the majority to win an election, let us go to the polls. The election will then decide who should be the governor of Kaduna State. Just because they know that they are weak and in the minority, coupled with the fact that their candidates are always unpopular, they are clamouring for a shift of the governorship of Kaduna State to the southern part. I say capital no to that. And we are not going to allow it.
"Let us play democracy in the way it should be played. What is democracy? It is government of the people for the people and of the people. Let the people decide who should govern them. Let me say categorically that there is no way a southern Kaduna man will be governor of Kaduna State because they are still in the minority and they remain minority."
But is it likely that they could sign a "memorandum of understanding in Kaduna State before 2007? "That was the arrangement of the PDP," he says. "Even the constitution of the PDP has no provision for rotation. It was just on the basis of understanding. And that will no longer happen in Nigeria. Not anymore. Let people go for convention and bring out the candidate that will fly the flag of their political parties.
"The people of southern Kaduna know that they cannot win any election. So they want power to be shifted to them. A minority is a minority and will remain a minority. So, the southern Kaduna, Middle-Belt, South-South, they are all in the minority. I repeat there is nowhere in Nigeria and the whole world where minority decides who should be the leader. The majority always decides.
"You talk about the Middle-Belt and South-South coalition. What kind of coalition. Eventually there will be no trust among them. Wait till 2007 and see if this coalition will endure."