Posted by By James Ojo, Abuja on
House of Representatives member, Professor Sola Adeyeye Wednesday confirmed that the agenda to extend the tenure of the present administration was real, and described it as a major threat to democracy in Nigeria.
House of Representatives member, Professor Sola Adeyeye Wednesday confirmed that the agenda to extend the tenure of the present administration was real, and described it as a major threat to democracy in Nigeria.
Professor Adeyeye told journalists in Abuja that no member of the House would say that he had not been approached by agents working for the third term agenda.
"Any member in the National Assembly who says he is not aware of it is a liar. Of course, I am aware of it, but I thank God nobody would be foolish enough to come and ask me because they know my stand," he said.
Hon Adeyeye from Bolorunduro/Ifedayo Federal Constituency in Osun State admitted there is a plot to extend the tenure of political office holders by two years.
Worried by the development, the lawmaker said he had to seek the opinion of his colleagues in the House on the matter but was shocked to hear that some were ready to support the extension.
"This morning, I went to many of my colleagues, a few of them said that they would remain irrevocably opposed to such an idea, and I applauded them. But they told me some of them said they would support it because it is better to go for two more years without having to go through the primaries and all the cost of campaigns than to go through the whole process again," he declared.
Professor Adeyeye described the plot as selfish and unpatriotic, illegal and immoral, saying that he would do everything possible under the law to checkmate any move to extend the tenure of the present government by one day.
"I will work hard against it. I am also trusting that the Nigerian people would not keep quiet until the whole thing has become fait accompli," he hoped.
However, he challenged the press, the clergy, students union, and market groups to drum it into the hearings of politicians not to succumb to the plot.
On what he considered as major threat to democracy, the only Alliance for Democracy (AD) member from Osun State said it was the perfection of the art of election rigging by politicians.
"I believe that the greatest threat we have is election rigging. Unless we are able to address it, we would be making a mockery of ourselves. A free and fair election is indispensable to the practice of democracy. Unfortunately, what we had in 2003 was neither free nor fair. What we later had in the local government election was a huge tragedy," he lamented.