Former Vice-president
Atiku Abubakar has insisted that ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to pave
the way for a lifetime presidency and not just a third term in office.
Atiku said this in an interview with a
quarterly magazine published by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Zero
Tolerance.
The former vice-president said, initially, it
was assumed that the plan was to modify the constitution so that Obasanjo could
serve a third, four-year term as President.
He, however, said the
aspect of tenure limitation was carefully removed so that Obasanjo could be
President for life.
When asked why he and Obasanjo were at
loggerheads towards the end of their tenure, he said, “My offence was that I
disagreed with him on the amendment of the constitution to remove tenure/term
limits or what was popularly called the ‘third term agenda’.
“In fact, he sent the then Attorney-General and
Prof. Jerry Gana to my office to bring the draft amendments to the
constitution. After going through (them), I found out that tenure limits had
been removed. In other words, he could be President for life.
-Punch
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