Nigeria gave a template to Africa to curb sit tight syndrome – Afenifere

IBRAHIM QUADRI

The pan-Yoruba social and political organization, Afenifere has condemned the sit-tight-syndrome prevalent in some African countries, noting Nigeria, had at a time given a template to  address such conundrum.

The Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Comrade Jare Ajayi stated this in an interview with our correspondent.

According to him, the attempt by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to have a third term embedded into the Nigerian constitution could be seen as a way to perpetuate himself in office which was rejected amicably by the citizens

In his worlds: “Just like a Yoruba adage, Anyone staying long defecating, various types of flies will pay one a visit. From observation and empirical evidences, most of the leaders in Africa who stay long,  have not made major differences in their countries. One clear exception was late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya who was able to transform his country before he was killed but many others like Paul Biya, Robert Mugabe, Mobutu Sese Seko, Gnassimgbe Eyadema  and others, the more they stay, the more they subject their people to untold hardship.

“You see, absolute power corrupts absolutely. The office gets to their heads, they tend to misbehave and even lose focus because when they get there initially, they usually have promises, as they stay long, they lose focus and the countries degenerate, getting worse.

“Democracy entails power must be vested with the people. Power must rotate in a periodic manner. The wisdom is that, it gives people the opportunity to assess their leaders and they can determine if their tenure should be renewed or not.

“Our own experience is that  some African leaders tend to sit tight in office, some of them crack down on opponents. They believe they should hold on to the offices for the rest of their lives but if you check very well, they themselves have become imprisoned in that cycle and unfortunately their people do not enjoy good governance.

“Our appeal is that anyone who has that kind of tendency should take a look at his predecessors in office who served four or eight years and left and is still being respected. A good example is former President Goodluck Jonathan, he came, he served and he left.

“Anybody who tries to elongate his tenure beyond what the constitution of his country stipulates is doing a disservice not to himself but also to his people. Some tried to change the constitution, trying to perpetuate themselves in office.

“We are of the strong opinion, that the people should rise, you know there was a rumour during the tail end of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he made an attempt to secure a third term and majority of Nigerians especially the National Assembly opposed it and it failed.

“We enjoin other African countries to rise peacefully against it as we did in our own case- no single gun was fired. Those who rule legally earn respect, if they try to do the other way, certainly it won’t augur well for them and their own countries.”