Lagos-based legal practitioner and former President of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ayo Obe, has denied any affiliation with the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), the proposed “Third Force” out to dislodge President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Nigeria’s political power houses come the 2019 general elections.
Some prominent members of the NIM are a former governor of Cross River State, Mr Donald Duke and a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Olisa Agbakoba.
Distancing herself from the Movement that parades names like former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke and a former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Obe, an advocate for democratic principles, posted on her Facebook page:
“I am not a member of the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM).
On several occasions I have asked NIM’s officers not to use either my name or my photograph to promote the group, but as an increasing number of people have been asking me whether I am connected with it, I think it best to clarify.
After NIM had been launched, I began to receive text messages inviting me to this meeting or that, and when I replied that I was not part of the NIM, its Director General, Wale Okunniyi, explained that he had been under the impression that one of the founders, Olisa Agbakoba, had spoken to me about it. As he had not, and I knew nothing about the group, I asked for material about what it stood for. Wale agreed to send me some information.
What he actually did was to subscribe me to some NIM’s WhatsApp groups, so that I began to receive (indeed, be inundated with) discussion which gave a fair idea of what it was about, and also, what motivated those who were active in it.
However, apart from posting #BringBackOurGirls Lagos notice about its special Christmas #SpeakOutSaturday to NIM’s WhatsApp group, I have not taken part in any of its social media discussions, I have not physically attended any NIM meetings, and I have not offered myself for appointment, election or selection into any of its offices or committees.”
According to Obe, “Despite this, my name and/or picture have been circulated on at least three occasions as having some position, or having been appointed to committees of the NIM. Each time I have complained to Wale Okunniyi, and he promised to correct the error.
Now, as more and more people have continued to ask me questions about NIM which I am neither able nor inclined to answer on its behalf, it seems clear that it is only the messages associating me with NIM that have reached, and remained with, the wider public. It is therefore incumbent on me to make it clear that I am not a member of NIM.
I may say that I am all for diversity and choice in Nigeria’s democratic space, and therefore welcome efforts to present the electorate with different ways of approaching politics in the country. To that extent, this clarification should not be taken as criticism that a group of Nigerians have taken it upon themselves to offer something new in the form of NIM. I wish the group well in its endeavours. But I am not one of its members, officers or supporters.”
From 1995 to 2003, Obe (née Ogunsola) served as President of CLO, Nigeria’s oldest indigenous human rights organisation. She also headed the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), an election-monitoring/democracy-building coalition of independent NGOs between 1999 and 2001
She is a Partner, with Chief Olasupo Shonibare, in the Lagos-based law firm, Ogunsola Shonibare. Also, she headed the Elections Program of the National Democratic Institute (NDI)’s Nigeria office in Abuja. Currently serving on several boards and projects, Obe chairs the Board of Trustees, Goree Institute (Senegal).
