{"id":51743,"date":"2021-10-13T18:16:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T17:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=51743"},"modified":"2021-10-13T17:37:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T16:37:36","slug":"how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani","title":{"rendered":"How Senators\u2019 re-election was blocked for opposing Obasanjo\u2019s third term bid \u2013 Ken Nnamani"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, has revealed how certain Senators were stopped from returning to the National Assembly in 2007 for thwarting the attempt to extend former President Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n<p>On May 16, 2006, the upper chamber of the federal legislature shot down the move by pro-Obasanjo lawmakers for an alteration of the constitution to allow three terms for Nigeria\u2019s presidents.<\/p>\n<p>Nnamani stated that the military might have dethroned the Federal Government if such an amendment was made.<\/p>\n<p>Since leaving power, Obasanjo has strongly denied that he desired to exceed the extant two terms limit.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with journalists in Lagos, Nnamani expressed sadness that patriotic Nigerians were ostensibly punished for insisting on the right thing.<\/p>\n<p>The Enugu-born All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart said what happened to his former colleagues still hurts him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people say I have regrets. No, I don\u2019t have personal regrets. I would call it a general regret because my leadership of the Senate was not personal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegret what? I was the number three citizen of Nigeria. To me, being principled was more than going back to the Senate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Nnamani described the 5th Senate as one of the best in Nigeria, revealing that more than half of members had doctorate degrees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had 57 PhD holders, I know because I have a list of their credentials. Engineers, Doctors, Professors, former Vice Chancellors etc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they could not go back to the Senate due to their insistence on democratic tenets. They (powerful forces) worked against them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Senators were weeded away for opposing the third term agenda. No personal regrets; the general regret was seeing them blocked from returning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy colleagues cared for me. Whenever a senior security officer came to my office, they would later come or call me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey asked: What\u2019s happening? Hope all is well? Did they come to arrest you? I\u2019m happy they supported me, their backing gave me courage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe avoided \u2018banana peels\u2019. No secrecy, spendings were transparent. So, I don\u2019t regret doing the right thing, I will do it again if the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring our time, there was no conflict between the legislature and the executive. Obasanjo was and is not my enemy\u201d, Nnamani stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Asked to assess the 9th Senate under the leadership of Yobe Senator, Ahmed Lawan, he explained that events and times are no longer the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere will always be leadership style, people are not the same. You also have to understand that circumstances and times have changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they give approvals it must be that majority of Senators are in support. You can\u2019t impose on your colleagues, you\u2019re only the leader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari administration appointed Nnamani as Chairman of the Constitutional and Electoral Reforms Committee.<\/p>\n<p>The politician will clock 73 on November 2. His book which chronicled the tenure extension plot, \u2018Standing Strong: Legislative Reforms, Third Term and Other Issues of the 5th Senate\u2019, is set for launch next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, has revealed how certain Senators were stopped from returning to the National Assembly in 2007 for thwarting the attempt to extend former President Olusegun Obasanjo\u2019s tenure. On May 16, 2006, the upper chamber of the federal legislature shot down the move by pro-Obasanjo lawmakers for an alteration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":51742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14,26],"tags":[1570,2140,2915,254,479],"class_list":["post-51743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-ken-nnamani","tag-nigeria","tag-obasanjo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Senators\u2019 re-election was blocked for opposing Obasanjo\u2019s third term bid \u2013 Ken Nnamani - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, has revealed how certain Senators were stopped from returning to the National Asse ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Senators\u2019 re-election was blocked for opposing Obasanjo\u2019s third term bid \u2013 Ken Nnamani\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, has revealed how certain Senators were stopped from returning to the National Asse ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-13T17:16:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/10\/img-61670b367f0f4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"570\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"How Senators\u2019 re-election was blocked for opposing Obasanjo\u2019s third term bid \u2013 Ken Nnamani\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-13T17:16:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani\"},\"wordCount\":510,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/10\/img-61670b367f0f4.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Ken Nnamani\",\"Nigeria\",\"Obasanjo\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-senators-re-election-was-blocked-for-opposing-obasanjos-third-term-bid-ken-nnamani\",\"name\":\"How Senators\u2019 re-election was blocked for opposing Obasanjo\u2019s third term bid \u2013 Ken Nnamani - 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