NIGERIA: Opponents of President Obasanjo say revising the constitution to allow him serve again would harm democracy, writes Craig Timberg in Ota, Nigeria
Nigeria's president Olusegun Obasanjo says he remains undecided about whether to seek a third term but that additional time in office - if approved by MPs and voters - could allow the reforms he has initiated in the past seven years to become "anchored".
In his clearest comments yet on what has become a heated national debate, Mr Obasanjo said in an interview at the weekend that he was committed to the democratic process and would decide whether to run again after the national assembly voted on a proposal to revise the constitution to allow the president to seek an additional four-year term.
Mr Obasanjo, who was elected in 1999, has spent much of his presidency focusing on debt relief, fighting corruption, and reforming Nigeria's large but uneven economy. He said many of his initiatives remain unfinished. His second term is due to end next year.
"The reforms that we are putting in place have to be anchored, anchored in legislation, anchored in institutions," he said at his farm here, outside Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.
The question of whether he will seek a third term has come to dominate politics in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and the most influential in troubled west Africa.
The country is a major oil exporter and the fifth-largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States.
Opponents of the move, including prominent political leaders and journalists, have grown increasingly vocal about the proposal, saying that rewriting the constitution to accommodate Mr Obasanjo would undermine Nigeria's fragile democracy, and possibly lead to the dissolution of a country that is already fractured along regional, ethnic and religious lines.
Critics also alleged that forces aligned with the president have resorted to bribery - offering thousands of dollars in coveted US currency rather than Nigeria's own, more volatile naira - to win over legislators.
"Democracy is in peril," said senator Uche Chukwumerije, a member of the president's People's Democratic Party, speaking in his office in Abuja, the capital.
"When people feel that they do not have legal ways to address their concerns, they will find other ways."
Mr Chukwumerije and other opponents of a third term have formed "2007 Movement", a multi-party coalition.
President Obasanjo dismissed allegations of improper influence and bribery, saying in the interview: "Those who know me know I will not put a penny of government money into bribing people."
Nigerians interviewed at a market in Abuja expressed little enthusiasm for a third Obasanjo term, saying that the human rights situation and the economy had failed to improve under
him.
"The economy of the country is so bad. It's not improving," said Marian Echenbu (30), an artist. "We need a change from somebody else, not from him."
However, Festus Odimegwu, chief executive officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc, the largest company on the Nigerian stock exchange, called Mr Obasanjo "a businessman's dream".
"His politics are good for my country, are good for my shareholders, are good for my customers," said Mr Odimegwu. "He needs to be given a chance to complete the good work he is doing."
Under Mr Obasanjo, Nigeria has won major international debt relief and mounted a bid - unsuccessful so far - to join the UN Security Council. He has become a regular fixture in meetings with western leaders and met President Bush in Washington last week.
"Today we have some respect," said Senator Kola Ogunwale, a member of the president's party.
However, the US national intelligence director John Negroponte, speaking to a Senate hearing in February, warned that any effort to change the constitution in Nigeria could result in "major turmoil and conflict".
Fuelling the support for a third Obasanjo term is discomfort with his most likely successors. Former military leader Ibrahim Babingida, who cancelled the results of the 1993 presidential election, has expressed interest in running for president in 2007, as has vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who is estranged from Mr Obasanjo.
A vote on whether to amend the constitution is expected within the next few months. Two-thirds approval in both chambers of the national assembly need to vote to approve constitutional changes. Both sides claim they have enough votes to prevail.
Mr Obasanjo, a born-again Christian in a country split between Christians and Muslims, said that God would decide whether to extend his time as president.
"I also believe that God is not a God of abandoned projects," he said.
"If God has a project, he will not abandon it." - (LA Times- Washington Post service)