Farouk Aliyu: I Rejected N250m Bribe for Obasanjo’s Third Term

Former House of Representatives Minority Leader Farouk Adamu Aliyu has alleged that he was offered N250 million to support the controversial third-term agenda of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006 but turned it down, insisting the bid was real despite the former president’s repeated denials.

Aliyu made the claims in an interview on the Naija Unfiltered podcast, published on YouTube last Friday. He recounted how, as a lawmaker representing Birnin Kudu/Buji Federal Constituency between 2003 and 2007, he came under pressure during the heated debate over a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed Obasanjo to seek a third consecutive term.

According to Aliyu, then-Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Nuhu Ribadu contacted him and urged him to travel to Abuja for a meeting with Obasanjo. He said he initially declined but later agreed after Ribadu appealed to him as a friend. Upon arriving in the capital, Aliyu maintained that the third-term project would not succeed. He was subsequently directed to meet an unnamed individual who offered him N250 million to back the amendment.

“Third term was real. In fact, N250 million was given to me. I didn’t take it,” Aliyu stated. He further alleged that then-Speaker Aminu Bello Masari was offered N400 million (some earlier accounts by Aliyu put the figure at N500 million) and Majority Leader Abdul Ningi N400 million; both rejected the money. Rank-and-file lawmakers, he claimed, were offered a minimum of N50 million each.

“Masari, who was speaker then, 400 million was offered. He did not take it. Abdul Ningi, the majority leader, 400 million naira was offered to him. He did not take it. And N50 million was just dashed to small, small fries,” he said. Aliyu added that he later returned to Abuja specifically to discuss the proposal and made his opposition clear: “I came back to Abuja to discuss the third term, and I told them it won’t fly.”

The National Assembly ultimately rejected the proposed constitutional amendments in May 2006, ending any prospect of extending Obasanjo’s tenure beyond 2007 and paving the way for the election of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Obasanjo has consistently denied seeking a third term. In September 2025, he stated that no Nigerian, living or dead, could truthfully claim he told them he wanted one, adding that if he had desired it he would have known how to pursue it.

Aliyu’s latest comments align with statements he made years earlier. In a 2009 interview with this newspaper, he described similar inducements, noting that supporters of the project received a minimum of N50 million while some were offered N250 million, with Masari and Ningi allegedly targeted with higher sums which they refused. In 2020, he again referenced receiving an offer of N250 million while criticising Obasanjo on other matters.

The third-term controversy remains one of the most contentious episodes of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Multiple former lawmakers and political figures have over the years alleged that cash inducements, pressure and threats were used to push the amendment. Former Senate President Adolphus Wabara has also claimed he rejected a N250 million offer. Other accounts, including those from former lawmakers such as Usman Bugaje and Olusola Adeyeye, have described financial incentives ranging from N50 million to higher figures, alongside political pressure. Contemporary reports from 2006 noted EFCC investigations into alleged bribery of legislators, though no high-profile prosecutions directly tied to the third-term push resulted in convictions.

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The episode underscored deep divisions within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the broader political class at the time. Civil society groups, sections of the media, and a determined bloc of legislators ultimately prevailed in defeating the amendment on the floor of the National Assembly.

Aliyu, now an APC chieftain from Jigawa State, has not named the individual who allegedly made the offer to him, nor has there been an immediate public response from Obasanjo, Ribadu, Masari or Ningi to the latest claims. The former minority leader’s account once again brings into focus the intense manoeuvrings that surrounded the failed attempt to alter Nigeria’s constitutional term limits two decades ago.