Since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagged off its Presidential Campaign on Saturday, January 27, 2007, General Olusegun Obasanjo has turned the entire Presidential Campaign to Obasanjo Presidential Campaign.

He has failed dismally to draw the line between official presidential duties and the electoral campaign for a presidential candidate of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He has virtually put Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua in his pouch like an Australian Kangaroo, using presidential jets, presidential security, presidential financial vote and all other paraphernalia of presidential authority, just as he did in 2003, when he was the official presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

However in 2007, the president is more desperate and more daring. He talks, acts and struts as if he is the presidential candidate, spewing out threats, blackmail and defamation against opponents.

Two days ago, he went to the bizarre extent of telling his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) men and women that the forthcoming election will be a do or die affair. He vowed that he would not hand over the reins of power to anyone who he believed would not continue his so-called economic reform agenda even if the person wins the election. I consider this a treasonable statement because it is a direct violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

It is sad that General Olusegun Obasanjo could not understand that his so-called reform agenda which has brought hardship and had spread poverty across the length and breadth of Nigeria has not been constitutionally ordained and therefore such a programme cannot bind his successor. How can Obasanjo’s economic agenda which has failed to meet the energy needs of the Nigerian people be tied like an albatross on his successor.

In all, the strange actions and reckless utterances of the president during this period of campaign when he is not a presidential candidate, amounts to a gross abuse of his presidential power and against the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and the Electoral Act 2006.

Since the President appears to be going for broke, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whose duty it is must call him to order as the President’s misbehaviour is tasking the patience of men and women of integrity and moral values across the land.

Furthermore, are the expenses so far incurred by General Olusegun Obasanjo by the use of the paraphernalia of the President for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign which must have overrun the limit allowed for a presidential candidate in Section 93(2) of the Electoral Act 2006 which is N500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira) be ascribed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua? If so, Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua would have overshot the limit allowed in Section 93(2) of the Electoral Act 2006 which is N500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira).

Finally, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be courageous enough and be independent to call the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to order, that his campaign tactics and provocative utterances when he is not a candidate are capable of undermining the fairness of the election and the constitutional stability of the polity.

CHIEF GANI FAWEHINMI LLD, SAN

Monday, February 12, 2007