Reuben Abati & Segun Adeniyi: Men After My Own Heart
Aderemi Ojikutu
Reuben Abati and my esteemed friend olusegun Adeniyi. I serve you
pungent quotes from their column this morning from The Guardian and
ThisDay newspapers respectively.
"If in eight years, President Obasanjo has not been able to groom a
successor or possible successors, the joke is on him, not Nigerians."
-Reuben Abati
"In the face of "third term politics", the Obasanjo persona has been
reduced to the level of some of the odious figures in African political
history: Abacha, Mobutu etc. ... Shorn of the baggage of Third Term,
the President will have to befriend the Nigerian people anew." -Reuben
Abati
"He may have been wounded but the opposition should be smart enough to
realise that "a wounded lion is a carnivorous animal still. Thus, the
exit strategy that we propose must begin with Obasanjo himself."
-Reuben Abati
"The people of Nigeria are not the owners of the third term agenda but
they do not necessarily hate Obasanjo. On the contrary, they are fond
of him. They remain so in spite of the exposure of the President's flaw
of character. The people cannot understand why a man who has been so
blessed, who is obviously a product of luck and destiny, would tempt
fate so brazenly." -Reuben Abati
"There are two basic laws of power at play. One, a leader must never
isolate himself. An isolated man is fatally vulnerable. He is without
any walls of defence. On the third term question, the President has
definitely made the mistake of isolating himself. For more than a year,
he made ambivalent statements about his intentions only for him to
emerge at the last minute, to be the main architect of the third term
agenda." -Reuben Abati
"The second law of power at play is: a leader must know when to quit.
He must know when to give up. Power is about being a good student of
human psychology. Before now, the President had been told that the
third term agenda was being opposed by only a handful of journalists.
But the opposition to third term now goes beyond the media. Even the
President's supporters are afraid to speak up for him in public."
-Reuben Abati
"Let the President organise a public debate on the Third Term agenda
among his own Ministers and Special Advisers, in the full view of
television cameras, with every sound and word recorded. He would be
surprised that there are not too many of those men and women who would
be willing to queue up behind him." -Reuben Abati
"In eight years, the President has acquired lorry-loads of enemies who
would like to ridicule him when he is no longer in office. The third
term agenda is driven mostly by fear. There is a lesson in this respect
for all men of power. Not too many Nigerians in positions of authority
remember tomorrow. This is why they end up turning their position into
shields of protection." -Reuben Abati
"They are also afraid that those who can possibly succeed Baba, and are
parading themselves as loyalists, may actually be double agents who may
become treacherous tomorrow. They are also driven by a deep-seated fear
of Atiku. They don't want him anywhere near Aso Villa in 2007." -Reuben
Abati
"The only man who cannot afford to laugh at his own parody is President
Obasanjo. The only way the third agenda can be forced through is for
the President to sack the National Assembly and that he cannot do.
Every option therefore leads to a moral and political cul de sac"
-Reuben Abati
"...if one were to examine our political situation today, the third
term misadventure has become a gamble." -Olusegun Adeniyi
"In my piece earlier in February titled, The Third Term Flu, I had
said I fail to understand why Obasanjo, with the values he expouses,
would pursue the third term route, arguing that "given the current
state of the nation, to secure the constitutional amendment that would
give him an extension of tenure under any guise, he would have to bribe
members of the National Assembly very heavily." -Oluegun Adeniyi
"I believe it is not too late for the president to pull the chestnut
out of the fire. It would take just a national broadcast, with soothing
words to heal a divided nation. Notwithstanding what has happened thus
far, Obasanjo has the courage and the strength of character to do it.
Either today or on May 29. But it must be clear by now that this third
term is a bus ride to nowhere. What's more, it is already breeding
irresponsible fanatics on both sides of the argument who are not
prepared to listen to any contrary view. This is a dangerous
development that has to be arrested and it is incumbent on the
President to do so." -Olusegun Adeniyi