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By Abdul Jelil

In Senator Ken Nnamani’s book, Standing Strong, Legislative Reforms, the former President of the 5th Senate attempted to explain his role in the aborted Third Term Agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006.

In the book, Nnamani attempted to give his own synopsis. He gave himself the credit as the man who nailed the coffin of the tenure elongation. What is not in the public domain is that such a position is far from the truth.

Nnamani was no doubt an accidental President of the Senate, who also benefited from the third term saga. He was a beneficiary of a political circumstance after Senator Adolphus Wabara was forced out of office by the political manoeuvring of President Obasanjo-led executive.

For sure, Nnamani was not the choice of the Presidency, his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and even the PDP Governors’ Forum. In fact, his state Governor then, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, sponsored his former Chief of Staff, Sen Ike Ekweremadu, for the position but time and season did not favour that choice.

The Senators Forum, largely influenced by Northern Senators’ Forum, led by Senator Idris Kuta from Niger State, had taken an irreversible position to oppose any person the Obasanjo executive brought to the table. In that circumstance, they found Nnamani, who was then Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character, useful against Ekweremadu who they saw as the candidate of Obasanjo and governors.

So by a twist of history; from the precedence, Nnamani became the President of the Senate. Perhaps, he had soft spot for the antagonists of the Third Term Agenda but not overtly, because he was never part of the group or was he known to have contributed to the battle against Third Term.

Those in the forefront were Senators Saidu Dansadau( Zamfara) Badamasi Maccido( Sokoto), Sule Yari Gandi ( Sokoto), Ben Obi ( Anambra), Comrade Uche Chukwumerije ( Abia), Tokunbo Afikuyomi ( Lagos), Adeleke Mamora ( Lagos) and Jonathan Zwingina (Adamawa) among others.

Apart from the fact that Nnamani was the presiding officer in the Senate, there was no interest shown towards scuttling the Third Term project. Though he was the presiding officer who determined members of the Constitution Review Committee and its Subcommittees, the late Senator Ibrahim Mantu, from Plateau, was the Chairman of the main committee while Senator Abubakar Hambagda, from Borno, was the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Tenure which recommended elongation for Obasanjo.

In fact, it was the media that interpreted the item on tenure to mean Third Term for Obasanjo, who was already completing his second term of office. But for the searchlight and interpretation by Senate correspondents, the public may not have known of what became known as the Third Term Project.

If not for anything, it is the media that should take the credit for the abortion of the Third Term project. Perhaps, for the first time since the struggle for independence from the colonial masters in 1960, the Nigerian press was unanimous and indeed stood firm in one accord against the tenure extension.

Yes, the Third Term bid was a bad market, but it is unfair for Nnamani to claim credit for the victory of a war he never fought. Without fear of contradictions, the Nigerian press is the unsung hero in the fight against Third Term.

Senator Ben Obi, a foremost anti-Third Term Senator, captured it when he clarified that it is absurd and a twist of fact for Nnamani to claim credit for the collapse of the Third Term Project.

Obi, an ally of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (a major supporter of the anti-Third Term Group) said Nnamani was never part of the pressure group or movement against the Third Term. At best he was the presiding officer in the Senate who must as a matter of necessity rule according to the wishes of the majority.