Posted by By Yusuph Olaniyonu on
Governors Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Sani Yerima of Borno and Zamfara states respectively have now joined the secret campaign of some governors to extend the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Governors Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Sani Yerima of Borno and Zamfara states respectively have now joined the secret campaign of some governors to extend the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
THISDAY checks confirmed last night that Sheriff and Yerima, though elected on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), are co-ordinating the covert campaign in the North-east and North-west zones respectively.
Sheriff, the source said, is not even discreet about his support for the agenda. On a recent visit to Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, the governor was quoted to have said to the hearing of not a few people that there is no vacancy in the Presidential Villa till 2013.
The calculation of the governor, the source said, is that the campaign to extend Obasanjo's term should not be to secure only two years for the president. Obasanjo is expected to begin the implementation of an amended constitution in 2007 which will provide for a six-year single tenure.
The six-year single tenure, though was defeated at its plenary, will be incorporated in the report of the National Political Reforms Conference along with the four-year tenure of two terms.
If things work according to plan, the President is expected to take the six-year recommendation for tenure of president and governors and send a bill to the effect to the National Assembly.
Sheriff's statement in Aso Rock, sources says, is actually another strand of the third term campaign. This group wants Obasanjo to continue in office after 2007 by beginning the implementation of an amended constitution which will change the four-year tenure of two terms in operation at the moment to a six-year single term for president and governors. That six-year term beginning from 2007 will terminate in 2013 and that is what Sheriff meant by no vacancy till 2013.
It is also believed that the campaign is being anchored by three governors from the South-west, South-south and North-central zones.
According to the plan, the governors are interested in the third term plan for Obasanjo because it will automatically translate to extension of tenure for them.
THISDAY had exclusively reported yesterday how some governors have been mobilising their colleagues to get them to endorse the third term plan for Obasanjo.
A governor who is one of the anchormen of the campaign was reported to have told his colleagues that "if the plan is properly handled it may be a win-win situation for everybody."
"It will enable all of us to finish our good works without being distracted by the rigours of re-election campaigns," a South-west state governor who is part of the campaign reportedly told one of his colleagues.