How OBJ arranged, funded Third Term project —Edwin Clark

ELDER statesman and leader of the Ijaw nation, Chief Edwin Clark, has revealed how former President Olusegun Obasanjo, allegedly funded and organised the aborted third term bid which collapsed in the Senate in 2006.

Clark, in an interview with Sunday Tribune, said Obasanjo’s denial of the project after it was aborted by the National Assembly ruffled feathers among hos loyalists whom he said were used for the project.

He also said Obasanjo handed over power to civilians in 1979 because he was afraid of being there.

“He mysteriously and accidentally became Head of State by February, 1976. Now, he was afraid of being in that place. So, he managed and handed over to Shehu Shagari,” Clark said.

He gave a narrative of the third term debacle thus: “In 2003, Atiku Abubakar challenged him because the arrangement was that Obasanjo would run for one term, 1999 to 2003. When that did not happen, the party met. When the party met at a larger caucus with him, they signed a zoning agreement that the zoning should be between the North and the South and he was a party to it.

“But before he finished his second term, he wanted third term. He wanted to be president for life and he used people like el-Rufai, Ribadu, Tony Anenih, Ibrahim Mantu who was then the deputy President of the Senate; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and so on and he also wanted to use the House. He called for the President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani; , he sent for the Speaker of the House Aminu Masari and they told him that he could not do it. “They even said Ahmadu Ali told them to go and do it,‘you don’t use machine’ and they will know how to manage it. The people said no, they won’t do it. They said use your voice vote. The people said no, in matters like this they will sit side by side, to the extent that Tony Anenih said if the people were given money, they will change.

“El-Rufai later told him that the members of the House of Representatives, about 300 of them, had signed a paper that if this matter is going to be discussed, they will leave the House and nobody is going to form a majority there again.

“He said no, if they were given money, they will be alright. So, N50 million was for each member of the House, N75 million for each member of Senate. Some took, some refused to take. Some took and refused to vote for him,’’ Clark alleged.

“So, when the matter was taken at the Senate and they arranged with Prof, Osunbor, former Governor of Edo State to move a special motion, when that day came, Osunbor was ill. He did not attend. So, the motion was then taken and he lost.

“And the House knew very well that taking it would be fruitless because the Senate had disagreed. So, the House did not go further.

That’s how he lost. He travelled abroad, thinking that by the time he came back, he would make a triumphant entry. When they told him that the motion failed, he said is that so, of course I did not want a third term. If I wanted third term, God will give it to me and from that day, members of his kitchen cabinet lost confidence in him.

“For a man who sent them to go and spend money, to go and lobby, for you to say you did not ask for it, in fact one of the Governors, made a statement that out of the money for which he was being accused by EFCC, he gave part of the money to Obasanjo for third term. It’s there. So, how can you have such a man parading himself in the country that he is so and so? He is man that should hide himself in shame. The library he built, he was making statements in his under My Watch, how he raised money from America and so on and it was now discovered that he forced people to contribute money. Each Governor was forced to contribute money.

“The Governor of Bayelsa State, the same Goodluck Jonathan almost emptied our treasury in Bayelsa State to contribute to this Library.

He made him the Chief of Owu, the man he is now abusing. Is that how you abuse your own Chief? The man he is carpeting and flogging, he made him a Chief of Owu. The banks were forced to contribute money.

The Governors contributed money, some N100 million, some N10 million.

Every presidential library is built on your goodwill. When they asked him to wait for the time he leaves office, he said nobody will contribute because he knew he was unpopular.”