Tenure elongation for Yar’Adua?

FORMER Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, has a terribble way of re-affirming to Ni- gerians that he is always on the opposite side of reality. The last of such confirmation was a statement credited to him in which he called for tenure elongation for President Umaru Yar’Adua. Left to his whims, Yar’Adua should rule for seven years when, in actual fact, he was elected for a term of four years.

While in office as governor, he pursued an overambitious internet technology project that would have dwarfed whatever we had in any part of Africa. With meagre monthly allocation, he pursued his pet dream, a dream only himself shared as a state priority, to the detriment of other sectors; he did not consider the fact that his people were predominantly farmers, and not IT gurus. Health was secondary to IT, and so, at a point, he had to use a hospital premises to store internet equipment even when his subjects were dying of common preventable diseases. Again, he went ahead to share commissionership slot among the emirates in the state and ordered commissioners to operate from the emirates as if they were reporting to the Emirs. When his people asked him for fertilisers, he offered them computers.

As if those were not enough, he told the court that he used Jigawa State money to finance former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term bid. He did not bother about what negative consequences such a confession would bring upon him given the fact that third term was an illegal underground project and that as an All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) governor, he was not supposed to fund a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) project, assuming third term was legal.

Ordinarily, Turaki is not supposed to be among decent democrats, but in a banana republic like Nigeria, you can find misfits even in the National Assembly which is the seat and symbol of democracy. Turaki is a member of the Constitution Review Committee of the Senate. How he became a governor, ruled Jigawa State for eight years, won election into the Senate and how he became one of those to review our constitution are certainly true features of a banana republic. Turaki should be cautioned if not punished for launching another illegal and unrealistic campaign. If he is realistic, he would have known that the fears of the nation today is not tenure elongation, but anxiety over a possible tenure disruption. Luckily, Yar’Adua has assured Nigerians that he is fit to govern.

This is the time to remind Alhaji Turaki that it was the attempt by anti-democratic forces to use the oppurtunity of constitution review to smuggle in third term for Obasanjo that scuttled the previous efforts to ammend the constitution.

Nigerians do not want another failed constitution review move because our constitution is defective in a number of ways. The second term crisis, the strangulation of local governments by state governors and election problems are critical matters that need to be addressed in the proposed amendment. These defects are contributing significantly to instability in our democracy.

We take solace in the fact that President Yar’Adua is not power drunk and that he would not begin to secretly move funds to Turaki to prosecute tenure elongation. The president should also look out for the other Turakis in and round his government who are bent on implementing anti-democratic agenda that could set Nigeria back. These are enemies of democracy. The seven-point agenda of this administration does not include tenure elongation.

Readers reactions

Re: How Vision 2020 will work
To achieve Vision 2020, Nigerian government should adopt the Japanese educational policy. Anything short of emphasis on education is zero.
Umeche M., 08073515484

Re: How we shall celebrate May 29
Your piece on the above topic was fantastic. Please keep it up.
Alhaji Sani Gombe, 08039270374.