Did Mandela support Obasanjo’s third-term agenda?

The 10^th commemoration of the death of Africa’s legend Nelson Mandela held in Abuja Thursday, and the keynote speaker spilled his gut on how former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Madibba had a near brush.

According to Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu, Mandela had to put pressure on former Obasanjo to drop his third-term presidential agenda in 2007, after the first eight years of then ruling PDP.

Obasanjo was already forging ahead in his push to bend the constitution to accommodate his third term. It was an unpopular move, though, Obasanjo did all he could seeking support, including fawning on Libya’s autocrat the late Mamman Gaddafi who was chairman of the African Union then.

Former governor and godson of Obasanjo, Ayo Fayose, revealed how he witnessed Obasanjo prostrating for Gaddafi in respect of the agenda.

Kalu, also a former governor,  recalled his interactions with Mandela during the national struggle to force Obasanjo to drop his plan to amend the Constitution and secure an extension of his tenure.

“Disturbed by the details, Mandela placed a call to President Olusegun Obasanjo and told him in clear terms that whatever his plans were, it was neither desirable for Africa,’ he told his audience in Abuja.

It was Mandela that encouraged Obasanjo, just released from prison under the  late President Sani Abacha,  to contest in 1999.

“That intervention, proved strategic to the leadership question in Nigeria at the time, leading to elections in 2007,” Kalu said.

Obasanjo, as always, is a trending name in the media currently, following his recent open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari whom he has always criticised since the APC leader decided to run for re-election—against Obasanjo’s advice.

Many, especially in the opposition, get into swoon each time the former president go public after failing to move Buhari around like a prawn.

Kalu, an APC bigwig, might not have revealed the Mandela’s rebuke of Obasanjo’s over-ambition by happenstance.

Advertisement

The event was organised by the South African High Commission in Nigeria, and held at the University of Abuja.