It is unthinkable that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and Senate President Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) are still poles apart, having worked closely together and with others to ensure victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last election. Time, they say, heals all wounds, but how long shall we wait before the frosty relationship between PMB and ABS begins to thaw? Nigerians who voted for change are yearning to see this happen. The APC covets it. The National Assembly and the Presidency need it, because they will need one another if the object is to make the APC’s administration succeed. That issues circumstances threw up on the inauguration of the Senate are still being allowed to linger begs belief. PMB is already 100 days in office. The Senate will mark a 100 days in a few days. I think it is high time we moved, as a party that is genuinely ready to serve the people. It is no longer a secret that since Saraki was elected as president of the eighth Senate on June 9 2015, Buhari has not officially engaged with him. Were Buhari to defer to the precedent set by his predecessors, such interface would have taken place in the evening on the day the National Assembly was inaugurated.
The paths of the president and Saraki have crossed twice since June 9 – at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the APC and during the Eid-el-Fitri prayers in Abuja. While these meetings proved critics of the unfolding drama wrong, they did not provide the much needed latitude for the two national leaders to robustly interface on how to direct the ship of state now firmly in the hands of the APC. I dare say that those currently encouraging the president not to officially meet with the Senate president are doing so out of selfish personal interests. No matter how we look at the events that produced Saraki as Senate president and Senator Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy, nobody can blame Saraki for the absence of his main opponent in the race, Senator Ahmad Lawan and for the election of Ekweremadu, made possible by the absence of majority of APC senators. Though the election of Ekweremadu is painful as it has deprived the APC of homogeneous leadership in the Senate, the leadership of my great party, the APC, must find a way around this stumbling block, if all its lofty ideals are not to be sacrificed so soon.
Saraki and President Buhari are both spot on that the onerous business of governance will no longer be business as usual. This presupposes that they need one another to succeed. They have no choice but to collaborate to lift this country out of poverty, insecurity, joblessness, infrastructural decay and to build a better image for the country in the international arena. The Senate has already screened the service chiefs and has stated its willingness to screen the ministers whenever they are nominated by PMB. What would it be like for the Senate to reject any of the ministerial nominees? It happened during ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. It took the fatherly intervention of Obasanjo for some of the nominees first rejected by the Senate to be cleared. Presently, there is talk of a drastic reduction in the number of ministers to serve in the current dispensation. The move, according to those reading the body language of the president, is aimed at cutting the cost of governance. This can only happen if the relevant constitutional provisions are amended. The constitution cannot be amended without the approval of both chambers of the National Assembly, where the Senate remains key.
I don’t think Mr President, given his avowed commitment to merit, capacity and due process, would have condoned Saraki being compelled to step down for Lawan, as was being orchestrated by some of our party leaders. It would have been most unjust and a total negation of all that the APC stands for. Why should some members of the party go all out to stop Saraki in the absence of any legal impediment against him? I think those after Saraki based on their permutations that he might be too formidable come 2019 are not only being unfair to him, but are also trying to stop the APC from gaining ascendancy in future elections. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that the move of five PDP governors to the APC led to the victory of the party in the last elections. Saraki, as a former chair of the Governors’ Forum, played a pivotal role in wooing the governors. Events today have shown that Saraki did not do this selfishly, because he never latched on that feat to contest the presidency. He made it clear that since Buhari was going to contest, the younger elements in the party ought to give him the chance and alongside other notable leaders of the party, contributed and worked tirelessly for Buhari to clinch the ticket of the party and ultimately win the presidential elections. This is why I think those telling Mr President that Saraki has presidential ambition for 2019 are selling the president a dummy. Even if he does have such ambition, he is imbued with enough common sense to forgo it should Buhari seek re-election in 2019. Buhari should realise that those telling him that Saraki is still ‘PDP’ and may lead the party to oppose the APC in future are not being sincere. Nigerians have already rejected the PDP and the good works of Buhari as the leader of the national leader of the APC are daily helping to convince Nigerians they made the right choice. Buhari has started well and we believe things can only get better. I think what should be paramount for Mr President and the national leadership of the APC is how to consolidate their gains in the last election and not allow selfish and sectional interest becloud their sense of mission and purpose. Mr President and indeed the APC cannot afford to squander the goodwill of Nigerians on the altar of unnecessary internal squabbles. Buhari cannot do without the cooperation of the National Assembly in his efforts to defeat insurgency, revamp the economy, eliminate corruption and give Nigerians an efficient civil service.
A great party can only be sustained by great membership. How can the needed cohesion in the party come when the two most powerful leaders of the country produced by the APC are still engaged in a cat and mouse gyration? How far can official communication carry the Presidency and the Senate in initiating and pursuing the turnaround of this country after 16 ruinous years championed by the PDP? Is the excuse that Saraki became Senate president against the wish of certain forces in the party enough to throw the baby away with the bath water? Let’s not allow an unnecessary schism destroy the bright future of the APC.
We all know that Mr President is peeved because Senator Ike Ekweremadu of PDP emerged as deputy Senate president, which ought not to be so. Going by the events of June 9, his emergence was inevitable, but we cannot allow this to continue to cause division between Buhari and Saraki. Saraki has openly declared that he had no deal whatsoever with the PDP to produce his deputy. We all know that Ekweremadu’s emergence was made possible by a wrongly timed meeting of some APC senators at the International Conference Centre on the inauguration day. I think Ekweremadu’s position today presents the APC with an opportunity for the leadership of the party to woo him and I think his becoming a member of the party would permanently bring peace and stability to the 8th Senate, quell the anger in the party and above all, help to geopolitically balance the present administration.
Let this challenge, which I consider a teething problem, be resolved in the overall interest of the party. This is the time to settle rifts, heal wounds and forge a united front because a house divided against itself cannot stand.
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