How I Worked With Abdulsalami To Thwart Obasanjo’s Third Term Bid - Ex-SA President, Thabo Mbeki

A former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has revealed that he and a former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar worked against the third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Mbeki revealed this when he spoke virtually at the Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar Festschrift Conference held in Abuja on Thursday, stating that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term bid as President of Nigeria was fatal for African democracy, The Cable reports.

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The second post-apartheid president of South Africa had engaged Abubakar on the developing situation after he had put a call through to Obasanjo expressing his displeasure over his proposed bid to change the constitution.

Mbeki said: “As a privilege to reiterate the commitment of General Abubakar to democracy in Nigeria in 2006, more than five years after he had handed over powers to Olusegun Obasanjo, the constitution on whose basis president Obasanjo was elected described a two-term limit for the head of state, and since he (Obasanjo) had been elected for the second time, this meant that he would end his term in 2007,” the second post-apartheid president of South Africa said.

“But some time before, in 2005, a campaign began in Nigeria to amend the constitution to allow for three presidential terms. This developed to a point that the draft of the proposed amendment had been presented to the Nigerian parliament as papers.

He added that the development made him realise Abdulsalam’s influence as “a defender of democratic order and the peace and unity of Nigeria, as well as the welfare of all its people.”