Posted by By STEVE NWOSU on
The campaign thrust of the Marwa- for-president organizations may have suffered a major setback as President Olusegun Obasanjo literally threw spanner into the works a few days back.
The campaign thrust of the Marwa- for-president organizations may have suffered a major setback as President Olusegun Obasanjo literally threw spanner into the works a few days back.
Obasanjo has ordered the Adamawa State-born former Military Administrator of Lagos State who is aspiring for the presidency come 2007 to desist from dropping the president's name and portraying himself as the favoured candidate of the president.
A seemingly angry president, Saturday Sun, gathered, gave this order at an informal meeting with Marwa and some governors, alleging that the Marwa campaign organ was 'lying in my name".
But in a swift reaction, Marwa told Saturday Sun over the telephone that he has no reason to drop the president's name in his campaign, saying that there is even no truth to the story.
In addition to reassuring the governors that Marwa was not his candidate, Obasanjo was said to have further reminded the meeting that his request that aspirants put campaigns on hold for now to enable him work and deliver on his existing mandate was still in place and that he would not turn round to violate his own order to support anybody .
We don't drop any names
Speaking to Saturday Sun Thursday night, Mary said of the alleged order and the purported meeting: 'That can't be true because I have never for once dropped the president's name for any reason. Neither did I have any discussion with President Obasanjo on that at any time".
Marwa said that it is not unlikely that his opponents were behind 'the falsehood". 'I think they are just being mischievous. I don't have to bother myself about such fiction", he said, asking: ' Why would I need to drop President Obasanjo's name? That is quite incorrect and misleading", he said.
He further said: 'Let them look for something serious to engage themselves if they can't really say something factual about Marwa".
Ironically a Marwa aide who also served as commissioner in the Marwa regime in Lagos told Saturday Sun on the telephone, 'we do not consider Obasanjo's support as a plus for our campaign". Asked to elaborate further, he said it would 'amount to political suicide to say more than that".
He said opponents of Marwa are the ones behind the impression and want to ruin the cordial relationship the Adamawa-born politician has with the President. According to him, nobody can come out to say that Marwa has told him that Obasanjo was behind his campaign. The masses of the country are those pushing the man on. That was why people still turned out enmasse for his formal declaration, despite all the efforts by the authorities to frustrate it".
Playing the Babangida game
But Marwa might not be the first victim of this order. In a sharp throw-back to the Babangida years and the pranks the gap-toothed General played with presidential aspirants in the build up to the 1993 presidential election, making virtually each of them believe that Babangida was backing his ambition, Obasanjo is believed to have assured quite a few presidential hopefuls that he would back them for the presidency in 2007.
While allegedly reassuring his Vice President, Atiku Abubakar that he would not stand in his way, Saturday Sun gathered, the president may have separately assured no fewer than four serving governors that each of them would succeed him as president.
As for Marwa, Obasanjo is said to have taken more than a passing interest in his aspiration - not only as a man that could be trusted, but also as a formidable check to Atiku when the chips are eventually down.
A top notcher at the national office of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had confided in Saturday Sun a few weeks ago, that Marwa was able to subdue Governor Boni Haruna, during his declaration ceremony in Yola, because even the top hierarchy of the party did not want anybody to stop the retired General.
'In fact, some members of even the BOT (Board of Trustees) have quietly aligned with him because they felt that was where the president's heart was," he said, adding: 'As a matter of fact, I know one South-South governor who is presently being prepared to serve as likely running mate to Marwa".
In the shadows of third-term
What is not, however, clear is whether the latest directive to Marwa is as a result of Obasanjo's resolve to create a level playing field for all the aspirants or it is as a result of the president's perceived interest in doing a third term in office. Could it be that Marwa's rising profile was putting the alleged third term plot in jeopardy?
Incidentally, the order is coming at a time when there appears to be a backlash from both the United States and Europe over their suspicion that a third term plan might actually be on the card.
Only recently, a national newspaper reported of how an emissary of the president was snubbed in the UK, as a result of the now concrete fears of a third term agenda. A former ambassador told Saturday Sun that 'this fear has been heightened by the seeming desperation to amend the constitution in this regard by the confab (National Political Reform Conference) delegates."
Asked if he did not feel that the positive projection that has come the way of the president as a result of the current war on corruption would not make the US and others consider backing him for a third term, the retired envoy said: 'whatever little impact that the anti-corruption war made, is now being washed away by the third term and constitution amendment".
Ironically, it is not only the US and Britain who are against an Obasanjo third term agenda. The continued refusal of the Swiss authorities to release the Abacha loot holed up in that country has remotely been linked to it as well.
This is in addition to the fact that countries which are in position to push the case of debt forgiveness for Nigeria are suddenly backsliding. The Swiss, in particular, has set huge hurdles, one of which is a condition that they be allowed to monitor how and where the repatriated funds would be put to use. It appears like a vote of no confidence on the ability of the Nigerian regime to trnsparently utilize the about $500million at stake.