Spread the love
Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali said that he supported the presidential tenure elongation bid of ex- President Obasanjo because Nigeria as a country was in dire need of good leadership as it was suffering from what he termed, bad leadership.
Though, Ali who was chairman of the party at the time said that the issue of third term bid for the President was never debated in the party, even as he said that the issue never came up at any level of the party.
According to him, the third term bid for Obasanjo was not tabled at either the National Executive Committee or at the party’s convention, adding, “there was no such phrase as ‘third term’ in the documents of the party.”
Senator Ahmadu Ali, a retired Army Colonel, three-time Senator, medical doctor, former Federal Commissioner of Education and PDP National Chairman between 2005 and 2007, also made revelations on several issues on how he presented the name of his wife, Marian Ali four times for the position of Chairman, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA because her father had been a very senior officer of the NPA and he thought that it would be good for the family history, but the name was dropped.
He also spoke on how he rejected his ambassadorial postings to South Africa and Britain because he never wanted to be a stranger in foreign countries.
Ahmadu also said in the book that his worst fears was when the second term ambition of former President Goodluck Jonathan fragmented the PDP almost along the North / South divide, even as he stressed take northern politicians grudgingly allowed Jonathan to run in 2011.
He said that by 2015, the Northern politicians has made up their minds not to support Jonathan.
According to Ali, in his authorised biography which was launched yesterday at Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja to mark his 82nd birthday, he gave his personal support to the bid and not as a party. The 423, page and nine chapter book, entitled, “The many colours of a rainbow: A biography of Senator Amadu Adah Ali” was written by Gideon S. Tseja.
According to the book which was obtained yesterday by Vanguard, “A lot has been said and written about Obasanjo’s bid for a third term, and Senator Amadu Ali had often been accused of using his position as Chairman to support it. At worst, the party could only be accused of passivity. The idea of a third term for the President was never debated in the party. It was never discussed at any level in the party – either in the National Executive Committee or in the Convention. There was no such phrase as “third term” in the documents of the party.
“What happened was that in the previous PDP administration, 1999 to 2003, a number of constitutional amendments – 106 of them – was proposed. The new House took up this unfinished business which had been publicised and gazetted and began to debate it. One of the proposed amendments was on the extension of the term of the President. The press focused on this one proposal and spawned new emotive descriptions to characterize the proposal, such as president for life, sit-tight president, tenure elongation campaign, and so on. As could be expected, it was greeted with frenzied public outcry.
“Senator Amadu Ali had his personal views about it and, in fact, supported Obasanjo’s “tenure elongation” whole heartedly because he genuinely believed that Obasanjo was an extraordinarily good leader in spite of his perceived failings.
He made statements to this effect: “We were suffering from bad leadership, This man, we identified … for good leadership. He has come back and we have seen evidence of good leadership. Do you just change a gown when it is not dirty?
“But this was his personal views; he never used the party machine to manipulate the constitution nor was it tabled formally for discussion at any of the party’s meeting. The PDP never took an official position on the issue of tenure elongation.
“The chairman recognised that it was the constitutional right of any citizen, including members of his own party, to propose any constitutional amendment they wanted. But for the proposal to become law, it must be passed by two-thirds of the members of the State Houses of Assembly – i.e. by 24 out of 36 State Assemblies and must also be passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in the same words before the President can sign it into law.
“If the proposal for the amendment to the term of the President had been allowed to run its course, Senator Ahmadu felt that it was unlikely that it would have passed, anyway. But as it turned out, not only was the bill scuttled prematurely, the other 105 useful proposals were thrown out along with it. It was a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water. For example, the amendment which would have given the south-east zone an additional state never materialised.
“Senator Amadu Ali spent about three years as Chairman instead of the two years that was required to complete the term of Chief Audu Ogbeh. This was because the convention which would have formally brought his tenure to an end and ushered in a new one was continually being postponed against the wishes of the Chairman.
“Each time he wanted to call for the Convention to be held, some legal problems which needed resolution cropped up; or the Moslems would come out and say that it was inappropriate to hold a Convention during the time of Hajj; in December, the Christians would complain that it was Christmas season and the Convention should be postponed. Eventually the Chairman got fed up with the delays and was tired of the job. So he called the Convention in March 2008 and did not care whether some people attended or not. His term as the national Chairman of PDP, Nigeria’s biggest party, came to an end gracefully.”
On the Jonathan’s ambition dividing the party, the book said, “That future came sooner than expected in the 2015 presidential elections. Amadu Ali’s worst fears were realised when the second-term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan fragmented the party almost along the North/South divide. The North felt short-changed that it did not complete its tenure under the late President Musa Yar’Adua. The Northern politicians only grudgingly allowed Jonathan to run in 2011. But by 2015, they had made up their mind not to support him. The situation led to a major implosion within the PDP, with five of its elected governors decamping with their supporters to join the opposition.
“Meanwhile, the opposition had learnt their lesson and decided to merge to form one formidable party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). With the PDP in tatters, President Jonathan appointed Amadu Ali as the Director General of his presidential campaign team dubbed “Jonathan/Sambo 2015 Presidential Campaign Organisation” (PCO), about three months to the election. In spite of Ali’s best effort, the PDP lost the presidential election on 28 March 2015 to General Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the APC.
“But in a historic feat, President Jonathan turned the defeat of his party to global acclaim by conceding defeat even before the final results were tabulated. This was unprecedented in African political history. That was how the sixteen years reign of the PDP came to an end in 2015. Even in defeat, the PDP has looked back with pride in the role it played in nurturing and consolidating democracy in Africa’s most populous country.”
Credit: Vanguard
Spread the love
