The crisis in the Presidency is taking a serious dimension in the country, report have it that OBJ ordered ATIKU official jet to be grounded for no reason and the order was not communicated to the VP at all, except when he got to the Presidential winge of the Airport.
I think with OBJ latest action on his VP, it will make our democracy a laughing stock at the international community that what Nigeria is practising is not democracy but autocracy, futhermore,it will portrait OBJ as someone who does not tolerant the VP by denying him the constitutional benefits that are attached to Office of Vice President. If OBJ think is not comfortable in working with VP, he should instigate the National Assembly to impeach the VP rather than deny VP the constitutional benefit accrue to his office as seating VP.

Does the constitution stipulate that the VP be allowed access to the jet?

Mariory:

Does the constitution stipulate that the VP be allowed access to the jet?

If you real understand 1999 Constitution, u wil see that the Presidency is not about one person, rather for the President and Vice President, that is why the Constitution emphasis that the President most have a running mate before the person can be deem elected to the office of President. The Vice President has his official jet, just has the president one. Report have it that the jet was bought in 2002 specfically for office of the Vice President. The Presidential Fleet is made up of jets for the President. Vice President, Senate President and Speaker of House of Representative. VP in official capacity should not be deny official jet.

@ALL For your information Atiku is no more the VP of Nigeria. Infact he stoped being the VP when he was selected the presidential candidate of AC. He should not only be stoped from usingg the Jet he should be impeached for in anti party activities.

The guy is a dumbass, he is just too greedy. I wonder the kind of president he would become if he could not respect his boss.

The guy is just too foolish

In my own opinion its very wrong for the President not to give the Vice President wht belongs to him under a democary, it wrong, its bad, dictatorial and selfish, whtever that is hapening between them, the jets belong to Nigerians and no Obasanjo, he should be manly enough to let Atiku use it until atiku is impeached which is the only way to remove him. until hes removed by the National Assembly he is still the Vice President and should be acorded the respect and honour

Omofineboy u are a baby politician.

Read the handwriting it;s on the wall there is no way Atiku can remain in that office for another 3days please read this the guy is just foolish


http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/

Even though I do not like Atiku. Obasanjo i think is ruling Nigeria like he is dictating to his kids. How can you disgrace the second in command because he is not on ur side?

Just recently Nigeria and OBJ were effectively held captive by Abacha and only by God grace did OBJ come out of this alive, to know think that this same man would now be playing God over the affairs of this nation at best makes me to marvel at the creator awesome power. This country is bigger than Atiku and OBJ and "they" shall find out that "HE" that protects NIGERIA does not sleep. This too shall pass. GOD BLESS NIGERIA.

@ all
you clamour for democracy without knowing what it means.

There are a set of rules to follow -  1999 Constitution is what must be adhered to.

Atiku is technically no longer the VP. The constitution states that the VP and President should be of the same party. Atiku is no longer in PDP since he is the flag bearer of another party.

atiku is still a member of the PDP

hey! You cant be in two parties

Is there a law prohibiting that?

And who the hell is paying the holiday for the vise?
Tax payers.
The trip was not official so it should not even have come into question.
that JET BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE AND NOT FOR PRIVATE HOLIDAY:

@Sbucareer

which section of the constitution are you referring to?

@ SBU Career.
Do not mis inform the public by feeding them some excerpts from GB.

The British practice parliarmentary democracy while we practice presidential system.
There, the parties choose their PM and he chooses his cabinet from their fold. They are his ministers and he can sack them. It is applicable here in Nigeria as well but not in the case of the VP. OBJ can sack any minister who errs or even reschuffle the cabinet at will.

Dem no born am well, him and him party, to sack the VP. He has no right whatsoever to refuse the man the aircraft. That is an illegal thing to do and amounts to a breach or infringement on the rights of the VP. It is even an impeachable offence for OBJ to do a thing like that.

Now on the part of Atiku, he is the only 1 human being our 1999 constitution mandates to be from the same political party as the president. If he wants to contest the office of the president, during this 2007 election, he must either seek to contest within his constitutionally bound party which is the PDP or resign his post as VP, join another party and contest.

Legally speaking two errors have occured and must be corrected. Atiku has been nominated the candidate of the AC while he is still VP which is error number 1. OBJ has sacked him which is error number 2.

INEC will not and cannot recognise Atiku as AC's candidate because he is still the VP until he resigns, is impeached or dies. This is a very simple conclusion explained to us by our learned friends. It is either he resigns as VP so that INEC can recognise his nomination as AC candidate or he offers his unreconisable AC candidature to someone else or better still to the party. Se fi ne, shi ke na.

@sbu
are you so out of tune that you are using the british constitution which is parliamentry on nigeria?

atiku"s removal can not stand

@ Dranoel and jaybaba

what do you say about the Nigeria law quoted above?

Now on the part of Atiku, he is the only 1 human being our 1999 constitution mandates to be from the same political party as the president. If he wants to contest the office of the president, during this 2007 election, he must either seek to contest within his constitutionally bound party which is the PDP or resign his post as VP, join another party and contest.
Legally speaking two errors have occurred and must be corrected. Atiku has been nominated the candidate of the AC while he is still VP which is error number 1. OBJ has sacked him which is error number 2.

don't you think you are going around a roundabout again
error number 1 caused error number 2
if he is contesting under another party he will have to relinquish his power wont he?

Let us sit down and think about this for a while.

Atiku is the presidential flagbearer of AC, member of the PDP and the VP of the country whose president is the leader of the PDP. Now, how dis one be for una ear??

I have not seen any country in the world that run a VP from another Party, I have not seen country in the world where the Vp will not obbey and carry out the orders of his boss and still want to be the VP.

What Atiku should have done was to resign his position, decamp tp AC and run for presidency.

Since he has failed to do that I think Baba has every right to sack him.

That is what I have been saying, are we now saying Atiku should be allowed to continue in the office? Definitely, since he decamped to AC and was at the rostrum on that day condemning the government he participated in for closed to 8 years, common sense demand that he should have resigned immediately. By not resigning, it portray the type of a president he want to be to us. Having said this, has any so called human rights, lawyers, civil rights groups said anything about his decamping and glaring condemnation of the government he took part in for 8 years? No, noone deem it fit and it seems everyone see nothing wrong in his action. I bet that is the reason Baba took it upon himself to declare his seat vacant. It was indeed when he did that, that the so called atiku supporters started shouting that OBJ is trying to remove his VP unconstitutionally, whereas it was Atiku himself who commit the first illegality. We wait and see sha! and let the court decide afterall, the case is now in the court. We shall see if our constitution will be interpreted to allow a VP from another party to continue in the office. What an arrant nonsense. The earlier Atiku resign, the better for him not to disgrace himself further. Besides, let him dare and come to Nigeria after his holiday, he will certainly be picked up by EFCC since he has lost his immunity.

Why do many of us get into a discussion, debate or arguement with very stiff mindsets based on sentiments and bias?

I see a lot of people here supporting Atiku just because they dislike OBJ, not that what the VP did was right in any way.

Such blind commendation or condemnation is hugely responsible for the state of affairs in Nigeria today and it is sad this is happening.

Even if OBJ has been wrong all his life this singular decision on Atiku is right and should be seen as so by all well meaning Nigerians.

Resorting to our enemy's enemy automatically becomes our friend may boomerang sooner rather than later.

It is not because we hate either OBJ or Atiku that make us condemn either or any of them. We believe in due process. I for instance believe both men should be impeached with automatic allacrity on January 14th when the National Assembly resumes seating in the new year. Why? Both men have lost the moral integrity to run this country and have been evidently wasteful.

I do not hate either OBJ or Atiku as persons but I dislike their actions and policies as leaders of Nigeria as these actions and policies have not benefitted Nigerians.

Afam

Even if OBJ has been wrong all his life this singular decision on Atiku is right and should be seen as so by all well meaning Nigerians.

In fact, this is worst thing he will ever do! Rubishing NIGERIAN Constitution in democratic environment!!

babasin:

Afam
In fact, this is worst thing he will ever do! Rubishing NIGERIAN Constitution in democratic environment!!

And, I assume you believe Atiku hasn't done anything wrong, right?

This is a cause and effect scenario and it is funny and strange how some of us conveniently avoid what led to the pronouncement but are really interested in protecting the constitution when appropriate steps were taken to remedy the mess Atiku created by being the only VP in the world that doubles as a presidential candidate of a rival party.

No matter what happened betwwen Atiku and Obj he is supposed to be loyal to him or resign his position. You can not be a vice president of a country and not be in good relationship with the president. No matter how many wrong things OBj has done but with this one behaviour from Athiefkyu he is worst than him I wonder what president he want's to be.

@ Izu1

You mean Atiku should be loyal to OBJ even at the expense of Nigerians? Loyalty ought to have a boundary. I cannot be loyal to an unjust cause. Atiku is corrupt but he has been able to gain some credibility simply for standing up to oppose 3rd term. I would not vote for him unless he was contesting an election with Abacha or OBJ as the only alternatives. He is the better of the three evils.

No matter what happened betwwen Atiku and Obj he is supposed to be loyal to him or resign his position. You can not be a vice president of a country and not be in good relationship with the president. No matter how many wrong things OBj has done but with this one behaviour from Athiefkyu he is worst than him I wonder what president he want's to be.

We should be careful what stands we take. OBJ has demonstrated more lawlesness and crude behaviour than anyone else in leading Nigeria. Atiku has kept quiet all along simply because he wants to be President some day. Both men are dishonorable, have no virtue and are most innoble. I call on the N.Assy to impeach both men speedily before OBJ illegally disolve the N.Assy which I see him doing any moment from now.

My man Jay I agree with you.

I am not saying Obj is a saint all I am saying is that Atiku should have resigned. he has been in the government for six years and things were moving fine until Obj tested his loyalty with the third term issue.

What I expected Atiku to do was to be quiet in the whole third term issue and quietly urge Obj to continue without making any public issue on the statement. Instead, he was going about like a hero saying rubbish about his boss.

My opinion is this Obj shold be left alone to finish his tenure while Atiku should be impeashed becos for now we do not have a VP

DRANOEL:

@sbu
are you so out of tune that you are using the british constitution which is parliamentry on nigeria?

atiku"s removal can not stand

Jaybaba:

@ SBU Career.
Do not mis inform the public by feeding them some excerpts from GB.

The British practice parliarmentary democracy while we practice presidential system. . .

@ Jaybaba and DRANOEL
I am ashamed that you attacked sbucareer after he did a "cut and paste" from the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 the only valid constition on which this federation is based