A former federal lawmaker, Dr. Usman Bugaje, has dismissed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s denial of seeking a third term in office, insisting that the former leader deployed both intimidation and financial inducements in his bid to extend his stay in power.
Obasanjo, while speaking at a democracy dialogue hosted by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in Ghana last week, denied ever nursing a third-term ambition.
He said, “I’m not a fool. If I wanted a third term, I know how to go about it. And there is no Nigerian dead or alive that would say I called him and told him I wanted a third term.”
But reacting during an interview on Arise Television on Monday, Bugaje said the denial was far from the truth, stressing that members of the National Assembly at the time had firsthand knowledge of the failed agenda.
“I can confirm to you that Obasanjo looked for a third term. He did everything that he could within his power to get a third term, but he failed to do so,” Bugaje said.
He alleged that many lawmakers were either threatened or lured with cash to support the constitutional amendment that would have paved the way for a third consecutive term for Obasanjo.
“The fact that he did not take a telephone to call anybody is not sufficient evidence that he did not seek a third term. All of us in the National Assembly then knew beyond doubt that he worked day and night. Many of us were threatened by his agents,” he alleged.
Bugaje recalled that Senator Victor Lar, who was then leader of the Northern caucus in the House of Representatives, had to go into hiding on several occasions before a critical meeting to block the third-term bid.
“Those who distributed the money are alive, those who received it are alive, and those who rejected it are alive. There is overwhelming evidence; this is not a matter Obasanjo can deny,” he stressed.
The “third-term agenda” dominated national discourse in 2006 when a proposal to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow presidents to serve three terms was debated in the National Assembly.
“The bill was eventually thrown out following stiff opposition from civil society groups, opposition leaders, and even some members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The collapse of the plan cleared the path for the 2007 general election, which produced the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as Obasanjo’s successor.
Bugaje’s latest comments add to previous claims by political figures, including former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, who said he rejected a ₦250 million bribe linked to the agenda, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who credited his alliance with lawmakers as key to frustrating the plan.
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