Saraki’s Messy Trouble With Buhari, Senate President In A Fix - The Sun

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Saraki’s Messy Trouble With Buhari, Senate President In A Fix - The Sun

The lingering crisis of confidence between the upper legislative chamber and the Presidency is taking a toll on the Senate Presi­dent, Dr Bukola Saraki as he sits precariously at the helm.


Having failed to thaw the ice through a combination of peaceful overtures and blackmail, the Senate president is at his wits’ end, struggling to grapple firmly with the is­sues and reach amicable resolution of the more-than-three-months-old debacle.


Long before Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) slammed a 13-count perjury charge on him, the Presidency appears to have shut Saraki out of its official activities.


Senator Saraki is not scheduled to see President Muhammadu Buhari “anytime soon and certainly not this year,” said a source yesterday.


“Although there were silent peace moves to get
him to see the president, that will not happen.
He’s not even on the Presidential Villa’s protocol list to see the president,” the source added.


Although Saraki and President Buhari belong to the same ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the embattled Senate president is not in the good books of the Presidency and the party, as he had been ac­cused of “anti-party activities” and refusal to uphold party supremacy.


Last month, Senate Leader Ali Ndume led some senators to meet with the president in what was termed a “peace shuttle” which extended from Abuja to Lagos. At the meet­ing the president reportedly told the law­makers to go and obey party’s position on the composition of Senate leadership.


Sunday Sun learnt that some comments made against top shots in the Presidency, which eventually got to their ears, might have worsened an already frosty relation­ship.


A ranking Senator recounted to Sunday Sun how the peace moves initiated by the Saraki leadership fell flat on its face, com­pounding his fragile hold on the Senate power levers.


“Can you imagine that some members of the leadership told us that ‘we don’t need the Presidency? They are the ones who need us after all, they need us to pass bills and ap­prove the national budget,” the Senator said.”


The alleged statement reportedly got to Aso Rock and straight to the ears of some top members of the party there.


Sunday Sun learnt that the Presidency is still angry at Ekweremadu’s return to his post as deputy Senate president after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost its majority hold on the chamber in the March 28 senatorial poll.


Sources close to the Villa disclosed that Ekweremadu’s emergence and the unyield­ing disposition of Saraki on it, is a major clog in the wheel of progress, which percep­tibly would eventually erode APC’s gains in the Senate.


As Saraki’s deputy, Ekweremadu is also a presiding officer. This means that in the absence of the Senate President, Ekwer­emadu would preside at plenary.


In the event that President Muhammadu Buhari transmits a bill that the PDP resents, there is no way that bill would survive.


Sunday Sun further gathered that there is a tradition where the President meets with the leadership of the National Assembly at least every other week and with Ekwerema­du as deputy Senate president, it would be difficult for Buhari to sit down with a PDP member to articulate and fashion out poli­cies for the country.

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Moreover, the Presidency was reportedly miffed with the illegal probe of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last month.


“It was clearly established that the decision of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to go ahead with the probe did not get the nod of the entire House because the matter should have been presented in plenary, before being referred to the committee for consideration. “It was established that the first major step of presentation of a petition against the EFCC was not done before the committee went to work.


Mark my words, that probe is going nowhere, because it was procedurally flawed,” a source told Sunday Sun.


Added to storm gathering from the presidency in the direction of the Senate president, the Senate Unity Forum (SUF), a group of senators loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the preferred candidate
of the party for the Senate Presidency is not letting up on its avowed goal to get its pound of flesh from Saraki.


The SUF had instituted a case in court against the Senate and the leadership of the National Assembly for using forged Standing Rules to conduct elections into the office of Senate president and deputy


Senate president on Tuesday, July 9, following the inauguration of the National Assembly.
Sunday Sun learnt last Friday, that the SUF’s civil suit, with an originating summons, FHC/ABJ/ CS/651/2015, filed by Senators Suleiman Hunkuyi, Kabir Garba Marafa, Abu Ibrahim, Robert Ajayi Boroffice and Gbenga Ashafa is being pursued vigorously.


One of the members of the group disclosed that, “The matter is still in court. We have the backing of our party and we will pursue the matter to a logical conclusion. This case is now a case of ‘no retreat, no surrender’ because there was no amendment of the Senate Standing Rules. The one we know was that of 2011 and it was never amended in the life of the Seventh Senate. He added that although the case was filed when the courts were on recess, “as at last week, the case file has been taken to the President of the Federal High Court. We expect the case to be assigned to a judge soon.”


Meanwhile, the trouble shooting efforts made by Saraki’s loyalists on the protracted Senate leadership crisis have failed to achieve the desired result.


A member of the Senate leadership met recently with the former Lagos State governor and leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the crisis, but the peace effort failed to thaw the ice.
A source privy to the meeting, which held in a highbrow area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, said, “The summation of Asiwaju’s comments was that they should go and comply with the party’s position on who and which zone should constitute the leadership.


Asiwaju told them that his position has not changed, that he aligns fully with President Buhari on the Senate leadership respecting the party, and there must be party supremacy because you cannot disrespect the president.”


The Senate leadership position are: Senate leader, deputy Senate leader, chief whip and deputy whip.


In July, APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun wrote Saraki, listing four senators nominated by the the party to fill the four poitions. Instead, three caucuses, namely North­east, North west, and South­south nominated other senators to fill the positions. The exemption was the South-­west, which is still vacant. The party’s candidate, Senator Olusola Adeyeye was tipped as the chiefwhip. The Saraki camp did not contest the position, but it has remained vacant due to the imbroglio.


Reports at the weekend indicate that the National Assembly may not resume plenary on September 29. No reason was given for the proposed resumption shift.