A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ibrahim Mantu has lamented the fact that former president Olusegun Obasanjo did not succeed in his quest for a third term bid after completing his constitutional 8 years as president of the nation.

The Nigerian senate in 2006 rejected a proposal to extend the constitutionally allowed number of terms a sitting president is allowed to serve to 3.

Obasanjo was on his second term as at the time of the rejection of the plan.

Speaking to Premium Times, Mantu applauded Obasanjo for accepting the rejection of the bid by the Senate and not resorting to other tactics in a desperate bid to hold on to power.

“If Obasanjo had wanted to cause confusion, he was still the incumbent President, he could have caused a lot of problem,” he said.

“He could have even asked the military to stage a coup against him. Then, United Nations would come and say we should negotiate and that Obasanjo should be there for two years and all sort of things.”

He further stated that considering the current state the country is in, Obasanjo spending another 4 years as democratically elected president would have been the best option for Nigeria.

He regretted not throwing the full weight of his influence in the senate behind the bid at that time while noting that the bid failed “because most of the senators bought into the campaign of those people who did not want Obasanjo to have another tenure.”

He added: “The truth is if I had known Nigeria would find herself where we are today, I would have even taken the last drop of my blood to ensure it happened because it would have been in the greatest interest of the nation.”

“We never envisaged we would be here. Since Obasanjo left, the way this country has been run up to this moment, I weep for Nigeria.”

Mantu also revealed that Obsanjo was not in the least happy about the rejection of the bid at the senate even though the ex-president had repeatedly stated back then that he was not interested in a third term in office.

“I don’t want to say much about that,” Mantu said speaking about Obasanjo’s reaction.

“All I know is that he was not happy.”