Two fighting....Obj and Atiku at loggerheads

omonaija · Post by **omonaija** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 10:10 am

PDP Govs to Wade Into Obasanjo, Atiku Rift

Vanguard (Lagos)

January 2, 2004
Posted to the web January 2, 2004

Jide Ajani
LAGOS

STATE governors of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) are to wade into the much speculated rift between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Although information available to Vanguard suggests that the governors themselves are at the receiving end of the frosty relationship between the president and his deputy, one of the governors said they (governors) were not comfortable with the negative effect of the rift on the polity.

The governor, speaking in strict confidentiality, told Vanguard that "the present state of affairs in the presidency would not yield any good result."

According to the governor, who administers one of the states in the North Central Zone (Middle Belt), "the fact that a president and his deputy are at loggerheads does not in any way forbear any good tidings for any nation. From the look of things, I think there is no way the president would still not end up behaving like a statesman that he really is. If you look at the genesis of the problem, would any reasonable person blame the president for reacting the way he has been reacting in the last two to three months?"

Asked to contextualise the real nature of the problem between President Obasanjo and Vice President Abubakar, the governor lamented that "whereas Nigerians saw what happened just before the PDP convention of January last year, especially the last minute indecision declared by the vice president, and again the way the president was made to look incapable of winning the PDP presidential ticket on his own, the present state of affairs, is just a culmination of the perceived ambition of the vice president."

But he was quick to add that "that does not now mean that the entire system should crumble because the way things are going, it might be difficult for a reasonable resolution of the problem between both leaders and that would not be in the interest of Nigerians and the Nigerian state."

Vanguard learnt that the seeming duplicity of the Economic Management Team (EMT), put in place by President Obasanjo, may be a major source of irritation for some governors as their role in the constitutionally instituted National Economic Council (NEC) appears to be on the decline.

Section 153 of the Constitution, the Third Schedule in Part 1 of the Constitution (18) which creates it says: "The National Economic Council shall comprise the following members -

(a) the Vice President who shall be the chairman;

(b)the Governor of each State of the Federation; and

(c) the Governor of Central Bank

Its functions are: "The National Economic Council shall have power to advise the President concerning the economic affairs of the Federation, and in particular on measures necessary for the co-ordination of the economic planning efforts or economic programmes of the various Governments of the Federation".

As things stand today, the NEC's relevance to "advise the President concerning the economic affairs of the Federation, and in particular on measures necessary for the co-ordination of the economic planning efforts or economic programmes of the various Governments of the Federation", is affecting some policy propositions of some state governors, he said.

cic old boy · Post by **cic old boy** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:44 am

Crooks will always fight over the loot.

Thought · Post by **Thought** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:57 am

Nothing about this concerns the interests of the people. Today we call it democracy, a couple of years ago we called it military dictatorship, and some years before that it was known as a variant of the two.

Nigeria is still practicing the same governance it has been for the past 25-30 years or so, albeit with some modifications.

Naija fan · Post by **Naija fan** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:20 pm

Atiku has right to be angry if the President set up the Economic Management Team which will be doing pretty much the same thing as the National Economic Council. The whole thing makes no sense since nothing can get done by either without consent of the President.

Post by **SylverEagles** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:42 pm

What a useless country.... :x :x :x

scholl · Post by **scholl** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 8:08 pm

Well they would both be getting out soon so let them nack head well, well.

RudeBoy · Post by **RudeBoy** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 8:24 pm

cic old boy wrote:Crooks will always fight over the loot.

furiously frank · Post by **furiously frank** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:30 pm

SylverEagles wrote:What a useless country.... :x :x :x

No you got it all wrong, I bet you meant

What a Useless CABAL ruling our country

Post by **SylverEagles** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:36 pm

furiously frank wrote:
SylverEagles wrote:What a useless country.... :x :x :x

No you got it all wrong, I bet you meant
What a Useless CABAL ruling our country

FF, yea i guess u're right!!! When i think of Nigeria and its government. two things happen to me:
I laff so hard and then i cry!!!!
Laff at the comedic way things are done as if ........( i can't find the right words)
and cry at the irony of it all...