POLITICAL fireworks have erupted once again over Nigeria’s most divisive political controversy, the alleged third-term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as ex-lawmaker and prominent political activist, Dr. Usman Bugaje, has boldly countered Obasanjo’s recent denial, accusing the former president of using “threats” and “money” to push for a constitutional amendment to extend his stay in power.
News Point Nigeria reports that Obasanjo, speaking last week at a Democracy Dialogue hosted by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in Ghana, dismissed what he called a “persistent myth” about his alleged ambition to remain in power beyond 2007.
“I’m not a fool. If I wanted a third term, I know how to go about it. And there is no Nigerian dead or alive that would say I called him and told him I wanted a third term,” Obasanjo said.
But Bugaje, appearing on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Monday monitored by News Point Nigeria, delivered a fiery rebuttal, insisting that Obasanjo not only sought a third term but used state machinery, intimidation, and financial inducements to try to force it through.
“I can confirm to you that Obasanjo looked for a third term. He did everything he could within his power to get it, but he failed,” Bugaje declared.
The former lawmaker painted a picture of a tense political climate in 2006 when lawmakers were under intense pressure to pass an amendment to the 1999 Constitution that would have allowed a president to seek a third consecutive term.
“Now, the fact that he did not take a telephone to make a particular call to anybody is not sufficient evidence that he did not look for a third term. All of us in the National Assembly at that time knew beyond any doubt that he worked day and night. Many of us were threatened by his own agents,” Bugaje revealed.
Bugaje went further, recalling the ordeal of Senator Victor Lar, then leader of the Northern caucus of the House of Representatives, who was allegedly forced into hiding multiple times before a decisive meeting where lawmakers resolved to block the third-term amendment.
“Those who actually distributed the money and threatened us are alive. Those who received the money are alive. Those who refused to receive the money are alive. There is sufficient evidence. This is incontrovertible. There is no way he can deny it,” Bugaje stressed.
The third-term agenda was one of the most explosive issues in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. In 2006, an amendment bill seeking to allow presidents and governors to run for three consecutive terms triggered months of heated debate.
The National Assembly eventually voted down the amendment, effectively killing any speculation about Obasanjo’s future in office and clearing the way for the 2007 general elections that brought late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to power.
Bugaje’s comments also revive earlier claims by former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, who alleged he was offered ₦250 million bribe to support the amendment but refused.
In January 2024, Wabara reiterated this claim in an interview series, “Untold Stories with Adesuwa,” insisting: “That’s very correct.”
Similarly, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has claimed that his close alliance with members of the National Assembly was instrumental in stopping the plot.
Obasanjo has repeatedly dismissed allegations of a third-term agenda as a smear campaign by his political enemies, famously saying in his 2023 New Year message that he was “audacious enough” to have secured a third term if he truly wanted it.
But Bugaje’s latest intervention suggests that the wounds of the 2006 constitutional crisis remain open, and the country’s political elite are still sharply divided on what really happened behind closed doors.