Senator Saraki emergence as senate president on June 9, 2015 was a strategic defection and he celebrated it in 2018. He strategically defected to build an alliance with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to produce Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP as deputy senate president. By that singular political legerdemain, Saraki upended the calculations by the APC leadership and the presidency to install their preferred candidate as senate president.
The strategic defection of Saraki in June 2015 which was celebrated in July 2018 made the agents of the executive arm of government to have consistently treated him and the senate with contempt. It is a carryover of belligerence arising from the grudge and battle from which the Saraki senate presidency emerged. The strategic defection in 2015 and its celebration in 2018 has created leadership vacancy with unclear focus and determination with undemocratic legislative process in the administration of the senate.
The strategic defection led to the deliberate refusal to screen nominees for appointments submitted by Mr President who are members of the party from being confirmed by the senate. This has caused untold embarrassment and ridicule to the party and the government.
The strategic defection led to the organization of a public rally in Kwara state where members of the party urged Saraki to decamp to PDP. That as a follow up to the above the Kwara state governor who is known to be Saraki staunch supporter had made public pronouncements suggesting that he will decamp from the party as an indicator to your formal defection.
The strategic defection led to the use of the office of the senate President to cause avoidable delays in the budgetary process and passage of the appropriation act into law thereby frustrating the implementation of the party’s manifesto and programs and frustrating the APC led Federal Government in the actualization of the campaign promises of the party.
The strategic defection led to the converting the guest house of the senate President to meeting points and presiding over anti APC activities in the guest house and encouraging defection of senators from the party and presiding over such meetings and compiling a list of the said defectors including some without their consent.
When Saraki was nominated for president only 57 senators mostly PDP and other members of like mind Senators were on the floor of the Senate having been duly nominated no other nomination then the Clerk of National Assembly declared Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate.
He was elected unopposed by 57 Senators that were present at plenary. The new Senate president has already been sworn in by the Clerk of the Senate.
Interestingly, 51 Senators mostly of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were absent at the inauguration. He was nominated by Abiye Sekibo from Rivers State. He won the race following a power sharing deal that had the minority but influential PDP backing the new Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
A total of 75 senators participated in the election out of which 54 voted for Ekweremadu and for Ali Ndume who surprisingly was even happier than Ekweremadu after the announcement of result, giving credence to the fact that his nomination was done to prevent him and other 25 APC senators in the ‘Like Minds’ group from being accused expressly given the position PDP, the opposition party in the 8th National Assembly.
Senator Bukola Saraki misled President Muhammad Buhari in 2915 into believing that he was welcome to help broker a solution to a crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the choice of the party’s candidates for top legislative posts in the National Assembly, including President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. The APC had chosen Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as their candidates for the Senate Presidency and Speaker slots respectively. But in a stunning development, Mr. Saraki was elected as President of the Senate after garnering the block support of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some APC senators who broke rank with their party. In a similar vein, PDP members of the House of Representatives threw their block votes behind Yakubu Dogara, selecting him as Speaker over the APC-endorsed Gbajabiamila.
The strategic defection led to Mr. Saraki and his cohorts to ignore the protocol for the president’s formal proclamation for the inauguration of the National Assembly, a source close to Saraki said they relied on a letter written by Buhari asking them to be inaugurated. Instead, 57 senators loyal to Mr. Saraki, most of them PDP members, unanimously “elected” Mr. Saraki after he was nominated by Senators Dino Melaye and Sanni Yerima. The rebelling APC Senators worked overnight to produce new rules for the elections with the help of outgoing Senate President, David Mark. Mr. Mark was later elected as “Senate Majority Leader”. PDP governors from Rivers, Ondo and several other leaders of the party witnessed the election and swearing in of Saraki .
The Presidency recently listed what it called sins committed by Senate President, Bukola Saraki against President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) before his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Buhari’s aide on social media, Lauretta Onochie in a long post on her Facebook page, titled: ‘The Many Sins of Bukola Saraki Against APC and the APC-led government’, said Saraki was a clog in the wheel of progress of the development of Nigeria and the implementation of the policies of the administration.
The post read: ”APC is the most tolerant political party in the world. No other party would accommodate Saraki the way APC did till we could take no more. Here are a few of his sins. Just a few obvious ones that are in the public domain.”
1. Non-confirmation of EFCC Chairman sent in by the president impeding and threatening to derail the fight against corruption.
2. Giving preference to PDP members in committee appointments in the Senate.
3. Delay in the confirmation of the boards for AMCON, CBN, NERC, NSADA, ICPC, among others.
4. Giving the deputy Senate president to the opposition party.
5. Placing roadblocks to the actualization of government’s promises to Nigerians.
6. Constituting a clog in the wheel of progress of the development of the country and the implementation of the policies of the administration.
7. Joining forces with the opposition to ridicule President Buhari’s fight against corruption.
8. Stole money from the APC campaign during the presidential campaign in 2015 and starved the campaign council of funds.
9. Maintains a relationship with a gang of armed robbers who have been notorious for disturbing the peace of good people of Kwara state.
10. Rallied corrupt elements to buy his Senate Presidency seat against the wishes of the Party.
11. Currently inducing Senators with $100,000 each to suffocate PMB’s government in the Senate.
12. Delay of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 budgets and thus impeding the economic development of the country.
13. Budget padding and inserting 391 projects into budget of only two agencies.
14. Shutting down the National Assembly and personalizing the National Assembly affairs especially when he is required to answer questions at law enforcement authorities, we see the entire senate following him to the CCT and shutting down the Senate.
13. His refusal to entertain the virement for the funding of critical MDA’s which will ensure key agencies like INEC, NSA, NPF conduct their duties to ensure a free and fair elections.
14. Frustrating key laws in the fight against corruption and promoting laws that serve personal interest like the Bill on re-ordering the sequence of elections.
15. Fictitious insertions of amounts that are diverted in the name of constituency projects.
16. Lack of internal democracy where he, at will, suspends senators with different opinion from him.
17. Refusal to approve loans meant for infrastructural development of the country.
18. Using the Senate as an institution to fight personal vendetta.
19. Generally undermining the government for the past three years.
20. Permitting and tacitly endorsing frivolous motions to unjustly attack the President and the government.
The strategic defection of Saraki in June 2015 which was celebrated in July 2018 made the agents of the executive arm of government to have consistently treated him and the senate with contempt. Saraki’s defection is no longer news to me. He defected in 2015 and celebrated it in 2018.
Inwalomhe Donald writes from Benin City [email protected]
