By Luminous Jannamike
ABUJA — The Deputy National Youth Leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Timothy Osadolor, has said Nigeria made a costly mistake by not allowing former President Olusegun Obasanjo to have a third term in office, arguing that the country’s institutions and governance might have been stronger under his continued leadership.
Speaking in Abuja on Monday, Osadolor contrasted Obasanjo’s record in office with what he described as the shortcomings of successive governments.
“With the benefit of hindsight, and given the performance of governments that followed, I think Nigeria should apologise to President Obasanjo for denying him a third term. Perhaps a third term under him would have stabilised and strengthened our national institutions. We would have had fewer strongmen and stronger institutions,” he said.
Reflecting on the controversy that surrounded the failed third-term bid, Osadolor said the debate exposed Nigerians to the realities of money politics at the time.
He argued that Nigeria’s present challenges made Obasanjo’s years in power look like “the glory days,” adding that state governments could also have benefitted from his extended presidency.
“Sub-national leaders would have governed more smoothly for the betterment of the Nigerian people. Now, we cannot help but look back on those days as the glory years. When a nation begins to view its past as its best days, it signals that the present is heartbreaking and the future bleak,” he stated.
On Obasanjo’s role in the third-term controversy, Osadolor stressed that the former president should accept responsibility for his decisions.
“If he made a request that he now feels sorry or embarrassed about, he should live with it and deal with it. Every action has consequences. At that time, he should have told himself he would either succeed or fail,” he said.
Osadolor maintained that despite criticisms of the third-term saga, many Nigerians still believed Obasanjo’s leadership would have been more beneficial than what followed.
“For me, I would tell President Obasanjo that even if he thinks he made a mistake, there are Nigerians who believe his third term would have been in the best interests of the country. I share that view and sentiment, given what he achieved in eight years compared with what later administrations managed to undo in the years that followed,” he said.
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