New book on Fourth Republic National Assembly has traced the introduction
of the use of money to curry the favour of the lawmakers in the federal
parliament to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to the book slated for public presentation Monday at Yar’Adua
Centre in Abuja, the first time money exchanged hands in the Fourth
Republic National Assembly was at inception in 1999 when Obasanjo moved to
stop the Senate Presidency bid of Senator Chuba Okadigbo who was adopted
by the leadership of the ruling party at that time, the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) to emerge as the Senate President.
Obasanjo’s preference was Senator Evan Enwerem who decamped from All
People’s Party (APP) to PDP after winning his election to represent Owerri
Senatorial District of Imo state. Obasanjo’s penchant for him was on
account of his belief that Enwerem would be much easier to control and
rail-road than single-minded Okadigbo
The book reveals that even before the inauguration of the Senate in June
3, 1999 large amount of money was moved in to rally Alliance for Democracy
(AD), APP Senators and to divide PDP Senators towards actualizing
Obasanjo’s inclination for Enwerem
The book concludes that it was at this point that the seed of mercantile
politics was sown in the National Assembly.
The book drives its point home on page 99 thus: “Obasanjo’s desperation to
move against the popular wish of the ruling party at that time
unfortunately opened a Pandora box of monumental financial enticement and
mercantile politics in the federal legislature”.
The book notes that this was further consolidated during Obasanjo’s
unpopular third term project in 2006 which was eventually killed by the
lawmakers
The book written by Dr. Austin Uganwa provides detailed and robust images,
account and analyses of first eight years Fourth Republic National
Assembly embellished with scholarly media perspectives.