Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of
power, used ambulances to complement bullion vans when moving cash around
during the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The practice was said to have
reached its peak in the heat of Obasanjo’s quest for a third term, according to
a new book titled ‘Too Good to Die: Third Term and the Myth of the Indispensable
Man in Africa’.
The book was written by Chidi
Odinkalu, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and
Ayisha Osori, executive director of Open Society Initiative for West Africa
(OSIWA).
It talks about events during the
Obasanjo administration and the happenings surrounding his third term ambition.
Obasanjo was president between
1999 and 2007, after leading the country as military head of state between 1976
and 1979.
His bid for a third term in
office through a constitutional amendment failed after it faced rejection from
various quarters.
In the book, the authors narrated how an armed guard within the
presidential villa lost control of his rifle, inflicting serious injury on a
female catering staff of the presidency.
“Around the premises, one
ambulance within view of the injured victim was reportedly for the exclusive
use of the president; another was for the vice-president. Neither was available
to save this woman,” the book read.
“Two other ambulances within view
had no gasoline. One of the ambulance drivers, who reluctantly agreed to help,
wanted money to put gasoline in his car first before making the journey to the
nearest clinic.
“All this while, the victim was
losing blood. Another member of staff was forced to take the victim to the
hospital in a private vehicle. One of the staff in the presidency was later to
explain that they were not in the habit of using ambulances to evacuate human
beings. According to this staff, it was the practice since the time of
President Obasanjo to use ambulances to complement bullion vans in moving cash
in different currencies to different locations.
“The practice reached its peak
during the ultimately futile process of amending the constitution to extend the
tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo a little over one decade earlier. Just as
an ambulance is not designed to transport cash, the presidency is an unlikely
parking lot for a bullion van. It is not a bank or financial service institution.”
The co-authors said the claim
that ambulances in the presidency “were used to transport cash during the
tenure elongation process was not surprising”.
“It underscores the nature and
role of money in President Obasanjo’s effort to ascend to a god-presidency and
holds the key to understanding why President Obasanjo’s tenure elongation
project became so damaging to the long-term prospects of democracy and its
institution in Nigeria,” they said.
The third term agenda was said to
have gulped about $500 million, according to the authors.
Nasir el-Rufai, minister of the
federal capital territory (FCT) under Obasanjo, was quoted in the book as
saying the constitutional amendment bill to elongate the ex-president’s tenure
“went before the national assembly with hundreds of millions of dollars raised
to procure its passage”.
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