Governors mediate in political feud, army pledges loyalty

Governors of Nigeria’s 36 states said on Tuesday they were intervening in a political crisis sparked by an impeachment threat against President Olusegun Obasanjo so as to save the country from chaos. The head of the military services also pledged loyalty to the president and ruled out military intervention. The governors met Obasanjo before selecting a six-member delegation which held separate meetings with leaders of the House of Representatives, including the speaker, Ghali Umar Na’Abba. The House, which is the lower chamber of parliament, last week gave Obasanjo two weeks to resign or face impeachment, accusing him of incompetence, breaches of the constitution and corruption. He rejected the charges and dismissed the legislators as "jokers". Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Governor Segun Osoba of the southwestern state of Ogun said their aim was to cool rising political tempers in the country. "We do not have the mandate to interfere on either side," he told reporters in the capital, Abuja. "But at least we can break the ice and create a window for amicable resolution of the problem." The confrontation between the executive and the legislators has increased political tension in Nigeria ahead of crucial elections in 2003. The run-up has so far been turbulent, raising fears of a return of the military, who handed over power to an elected government in 1999 after an unbroken 15-year spell at the helm of the West African state. On Tuesday, the country’s most senior military officer, Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi, ruled out the possibility of the military taking advantage of the current situation to seize power. "The members of the armed forces remain apolitical and therefore cannot be lured into committing political thuggery or lend support to anything that is unconstitutional," he told reporters. Ogohi, however, acknowledged that unidentified elements had been using the political crisis as a pretext "to incite the members of the armed forces against the constitutionally elected government". He said the security forces were on alert to deal with the "disgruntled elements".