Politics
ON Monday, August 20, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the president of the Senate, replied Bola Ahmed Tinubu, national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. In a 12-paragraph statement titled “The Tinubu Rhetoric: My Response,” Saraki revealed that Tinubu had expressed strong reservations about the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government; and also demonstrated certain inconsistencies “when one reviews his antecedents over the years.” The response clearly showed five salient points for Nigerians to take away.
Saraki argued that the National Assembly is not an appendage of the executive. He said: “I have been consistent in my complaints to all leaders of the APC, including Tinubu, that a situation where the National Assembly is not constructively engaged or carried along in key policy decisions, particularly those that will eventually require legislative approval, is not in the best interest of the nation. No genuine leader of the legislature will be comfortable that the Presidency will simply write a terse letter to the National Assembly on key issues which the federal legislature is expected to later deliberate upon and give its approval. The Buhari administration consistently treats the legislature with contempt and acts as if the lawmaking body should be an appendage of the Executive. To me, this is unacceptable.”
The Senate president pointed out that Tinubu himself had suffered disrespect from the Buhari administration. He said: “Tinubu himself will recall that during the various meetings he had with me at the time he was pursuing reconciliation within the APC, I raised all the above issues. I can also vividly recall that he himself always expressed his displeasure with the style of the government and also mentioned that he had equally suffered disrespect from the same government which we all worked to put in office. I also made the point that whatever travails I have gone through in the last three years belong to the past and will not shape my decisions now and in the future.”
Besides, Saraki claimed that it was Tinubu who revealed that he will support Buhari on a stretcher, “…the point of disagreement between Tinubu and I is that while I expressed my worries that there is nothing on ground to assure me that the administrative style and attitude would change in the next four years in a manner that will enable us to deliver the positive changes we promised to our people, he (Tinubu) expressed a strong opinion that he would rather ‘support a Buhari on the hospital stretcher’ to get a second term because in 2023, power will shift to the South-west… It is clear that while my own decision is based on protecting the collective national interest, Tinubu will rather live with the identified inadequacies of the government for the sake of fulfilling and preserving his presidential ambition in 2023. This new position of Tinubu has only demonstrated inconsistency — particularly when one reviews his antecedents over the years.”
Notwithstanding, he said that his quarrel with Tinubu was on his opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015. He said: “Again, let me reiterate my position that my uncertain and complex relationship with Tinubu has been continually defined by the event of 2014 when myself and other leaders of the APC opposed the Muslim-Muslim ticket arrangement about to be foisted on the APC for the 2015 polls. It should be noted that he has not forgotten the fact that I took the bull by the horns and told him that in the interest of the country, he should accept the need for the party to present a balanced ticket for the 2015 General Elections in terms of religion and geo-political zones. Since that time he has been very active; plotting at every point to undermine me, both within and outside the National Assembly.”
In any case, Srakai claimed that Tinubu’s newspaper published a fake report about him. Thus, he said: “Members of the public will recall that when the issue of my decision to quit APC came to the fore and many APC leaders were holding meetings with me, a newspaper owned by the same Tinubu published a false report about the promise of automatic tickets, oil blocks and other benefits. I immediately rebutted their claims and categorically stated that I never discussed any such personal and pecuniary benefits with anybody. My challenge that anybody who has contrary facts should come forward with them still remains open.”
– Aug. 21, 2018 @ 13:55 GMT |
Tags: Five takeaways from Saraki’s response to Tinubu
