Word: obasanjo
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...there are signs of change. A few nonpoliticians are running for office and raising the debate above pork-barrel politics. And there is no incumbent fighting to retain the presidency. Olusegun Obasanjo is stepping down after eight years in power - Nigeria's longest-ever period of democratic rule. It's not that he's leaving voluntarily, exactly. It says something for the strength of Nigeria's fledgling parliament that last year it derailed a plan to amend the constitution so Obasanjo could run for a third term...
...Obasanjo has given the country some stability, pushing through profound economic reforms, achieving an $18 billion debt cancellation deal and taking on some of Nigeria's most corrupt politicians. More than $380 billion has been stolen by Nigeria's rulers over the past five decades according to the government. One military ruler alone stole some $6 billion. Obasanjo set up the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (efcc), which says it has recovered $5 billion of stolen assets, going after ministers and governors, and even prosecuting the chief of police, who served six months in jail...
While pursuing Obasanjo's political enemies, however, the efcc seems to have granted immunity to many Big Men - as they call them here - of his People's Democratic Party (PDP). Obasanjo makes no secret of his plans to retain power in a different guise. He has become chairman of the board of trustees of the PDP, and from that position he could control nominations for government positions and even policy and strategy. As one Western diplomat said, "He intends to sit in the passenger seat giving advice and ready to grab the wheel if Nigeria goes off course...
...Obasanjo is backing Umaru Yar'Adua, a quiet, prudent former chemistry teacher, for the presidency, after a falling-out last year with his former ally Vice President Atiku Abubakar. When Abubakar announced he was running for President, he was barred from standing by the electoral commission, which cited his indictment for corruption. Abubakar has challenged the ban in the Supreme Court and continued to campaign as a candidate. But the leading challenger to the PDP is now Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general who organized a coup against President Shehu Shagari in 1983 and lost the 2003 election to Obasanjo...
...colleague Gilbert daCosta, "It is incredible for any church to even tolerate homosexuality and survive in Nigeria. Your church would be dead in the water." Akinola, however, has proven himself in the past to be a brave man. He took a strong and important stance against Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's bid for an extraconstitutional third term. He needs to be brave again and speak out against the penalties in the Nigerian bill. If he truly has concerns about human rights, he should express them with vigor. Failure to do so ought to prompt his new Virginian congregants to give...