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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said some state governors were involved in his infamous third term bid.
After months of political brinkmanship in 2006, a bill to amend the 1999 Constitution and extend term limit of the president by another four years failed to scale through at the national assembly.
Several years after leaving office, Obasanjo has consistently denied seeking to extend his stay in office beyond 2007, saying some governors were behind it all.
Speaking during a chat with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, Obasanjo opened up on his time in office and his administration’s stance on anti-corruption.
In 2014, former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba criticised Obasanjo for perceived inaccuracies recorded in his book ‘My Watch,’ adding that the former president almost “went on his knees” to beg for support for a third term.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was a governor at the time, also confirmed that Obasanjo really wanted a third term, noting that the bid failed due to resistance from the national assembly.
In the sane vein, former Senate President, Kan Nnamani, msaid lawmakers in the fifth national assembly sacrificed their legislative careers after seeing to the truncation of the controversial third term bid.
But speaking on the botched third term bid, the former president told Jideonwo that, “the governors, some of them, were doing it for themselves.”
“Because if the president did a third term, they too would have had a chance for a third term,” he added.
Addressing perennial allegations of embezzlement against him, the former president said his forte is raising money and not embezzlement, stressing that people who can’t match his acumen should stop castigating him.
Like former President Muhammadu Buhari, Obasanjo also ruled Nigeria as military head of state before returning as civilian president in 1999.