The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has denied
reports that he is nursing the ambition for presidency in 2019, saying he actually quit his presidential bid in the 2015 election for President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki stated that he contributed immensely to the
emergence of Buhari as President and contributed
greatly to his victory in the presidential election held
on March 28, 2015.
The Senate President, who spoke to select journalists
in an exclusive interview in Abuja on Saturday, also
denied having plans to dump the All Progressives
Congress due to the ongoing crisis in the party over
his leadership of the Senate.
Rather, he said what remained paramount in his
mind at the moment was how to support the Buhari-
led administration to tackle the various social and
economic problems confronting the country.
Saraki said, “I was the first person that stepped down
his political ambition, once General Buhari
announced that he was going to contest the
presidential election. And since then, prior to the
period of election, I worked tirelessly to support his
emergence.
“Even some of my friends who are not supporting me
now are doing so because I did not support them in
their presidential ambition and that I supported
President Buhari. That is why I find it funny that the
same people are now claiming to love Buhari more
than me. It is a very funny world.
“These are people that I was begging to leave the
stage for Buhari to run since all of us are young. They
are now the one going round to say that Saraki did
not like Buhari but time will tell.”
The Presidency, however, faulted Saraki’s claim of
stepping down for Buhari ahead of the presidential
election.
Saraki had on October 13, 2014, announced the
suspension of his presidential bid in the interest of
the country and his party. He, however, did not state
which of the other aspirants he was going to back.
Saraki’s statement then partly read, “I decided to step
down my ambition because Nigeria’s political outlook
for 2015 is very complicated and this is the time for
every patriotic politician to situate his personal
ambition in the context of the country’s overall
interest.
“I don’t think our party can afford too much internal
rancour going into next year’s election. I, therefore,
think some of us need to make the sacrifice and be
part of the solution rather than part of the problem
of the party.”
This will be Saraki’s first personal response to the
ongoing crisis that is trailing his controversial
emergence as the President of the Senate on June 9.
Saraki had led a faction of APC senators, under the
auspices of the Like Minds Senators, to defy the
party’s choice of Ahmad Lawan as the Senate
President.
In what many have described as a ‘coup’, the pro-
Saraki group had allied with the opposition
lawmakers in the Peoples Democratic Party to make
Saraki leader of the upper chamber of the legislature
in the absence over 50 APC senators.
A similar scenario had also played out in the House
of Representatives where Yakubu Dogara opposed
Femi Gbajabiamila, the choice candidate of his party,
to emerge Speaker of the House.
Explaining what happened on the National Assembly
leadership election day, Saraki said he smuggled
himself into the chamber on the day the 8th
Assembly was inaugurated when he became aware of
an alleged plan to abduct and prevent him from
standing for the Senate presidential election
The Senate President also defended his absence from
the International Conference Centre venue of a
proposed meeting between President Buhari and
APC lawmakers on the day of the election.
He insisted that he did not receive any invitation for
the meeting.
Saraki said, “As regards the meeting, on the morning
of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4am
of that day and I had got information that efforts
would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get
access into the chambers.
He said the plan before was that senators-elect
should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel around
8:00am and 9:00am to proceed to the National
Assembly.
The Senate President said he was, however, advised
against going to the chamber at the scheduled time
as there were plans to stop him from being part of
the day’s proceedings.
Saraki said he got into the National Assembly
Complex as early as 6:00am and stayed in a car in the
car park from then till quarter to 10:00am. He noted
that all through the period, there was no
communication to him.
“So, anybody who said they spoke to me to go the ICC
was not true because I didn’t even know what was
going on. All I was monitoring was how people were
arriving at the complex. It was at quarter to 10:00am
that I got information that the Clerk to the National
Assembly had entered the chamber.”
The APC, however, described Saraki’s non-invitation
claim as a lie, saying all senators-elect were invited to
the said meeting.
Saraki, a two-term ex-Governor of Kwara State and
former Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum,
said it was at that point that he got down from the
“small car” in which he was hiding and entered the
chamber.
“Even when I was in the chambers, I didn’t know what
had transpired earlier on. The only thing I observed
was that it appeared that some of our senators were
not in the chamber. But for the fact that my
colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that
they were on their way. And by 10:00am, the
programme started.
“Before I knew it, my election had come and gone.
Even, my people were worried. It was only when I got
into the chambers that they were relieved,” Saraki
added.
The Senate President also dismissed his alleged pact
with the PDP to elect Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy
Senate President.
Ekweremadu of the PDP, who occupied same
position in the last Senate, had been re-elected as
Saraki’s deputy in the Senate that has the APC as
majority.
The Senate President, however, insisted that it
was the absence of the APC Senators from the
chamber that caused the emergence of Ekweremadu
as his deputy.
He said, “Never in our wildest imagination did we
envisage that some senators would not be present on
the day of the inauguration. In my view, and in the
view of some of those who worked closely with me, I
worked hard for my election. I had direct contact with
every single senator; one on one. Weeks to the
election, I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard,
both in our party, the APC, and out of it.
“I approached every senator, I talked to them. We
built confidence, not only in the APC, but, also, in the
PDP. I talked to them. That was why I laugh when
people said that I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I
had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu.”
Saraki stated that he did not need any deal to win the
election, saying he had “penetrated everywhere.”
Speaking further on the penetration, he said, “One of
the meetings was held at Transcorp Hilton and
Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Ibrahim Gobir
co-chaired it. Both the APC and the PDP members
were present.
“At that meeting, if you heard most of them there, the
position they took was that ‘this is the Senate
President they want. Across party lines, they said that
they believe in me and that this is the Senate
President that can lead us. There was no deal.”
Saraki, who described Ekweremadu’s deputy Senate
presidency as painful and unfortunate, maintained
that it was caused by the absence of his APC
colleagues. He recalled that the PDP senators had
announced to the public that they were supporting
him.
He further said, “With regard to the deputy, when
they told us that they had a candidate, we, too, told
them we had a candidate for Deputy Senate President
in the person of Senator Ali Ndume.
“We never, in our imagination, thought they (other
APC senators) would not turn up. By the time we got
there, we were only 24 while the PDP was more than
40.
“It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy
Senate President. It is painful. It is painful for any
APC member because when we went through the
struggle. That was not what we signed for.”
Saraki said it was unfair to put the blame on “one
side” because it was a combination of errors and
miscalculations that led having some senators at
another place instead of being on the floor of the
Senate on that day.
“So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to
emerge (as Senate President) is what I reject
completely and those who followed the events would
know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge,” he
stated.
Saraki also disagreed with insinuations that he went
against the position of the party which had allegedly
zoned the position of the Senate president to a
particular region.
“At no time was any decision taken by the party to
zone the position to any particular zone,” he stated.
Saraki also said he had had personal discussions
with the Lawan and they had allegedly deliberated
extensively on how to collectively move the Senate
forward in the interest of the senators, the APC and
members of the public.
He said, “I also have an opportunity to sit down and
discuss with Senator Ahmad Lawan as part of our
reconciliation efforts. I am confident that this matter
will soon fizzle out because we are making serious
efforts.
”
Saraki further said serious arrangements were
already ongoing to unite the various sides to the
crisis, even as he hinted that he had reached out to
the leaders of the party, President Buhari and
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on how to collectively move the
country forward.
“Regards to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; as you all know, he
is one of the leaders of the party. I have great respect
for him. We have worked closely together before.
Unfortunately my group did not agree with him on
this issue.
“However, we are both responsible and committed to
the project of the party and Nigeria that we will
overcome this and move forward. It is part of our
plans, as part of the healing process, to meet with
him and it will happen soon,” Saraki added.
Saraki did not step down for Buhari – Presidency
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Saturday, said there
was no truth in the claim by Saraki that he stepped
down for President Buhari in the APC presidential
race.
Adesina, in an interview with one of our
correspondents, said the issue of stepping down did
not arise because the party conducted a free and fair
presidential primary which Buhari won.
The presidential spokesman said all Nigerians know
those who took part in the party primary.
Adesina said, “There was no issue of stepping down
during the presidential race in the APC. There was a
presidential primary that was plain, transparent, free
and fair.
“We all know those who were involved in the primary;
all Nigerians know those who participated in the APC
presidential primary and President Buhari emerged
the winner of that process.”
When asked if Saraki had reached out to the
President as he claimed, Adesina said, “The President
has always maintained that the party is supreme. The
party started a process which was truncated.
“The President has always maintained that those who
truncated or aborted the process were the ones who
precipitated crisis.
“The President had said in earlier statements that he
would work with anybody who emerged the Senate
President, but then, that did not include those who
will subvert (the process).”
‘Saraki snubbed Buhari to emerge Senate
president’
A leader of the APC, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH
on the condition of anonymity, said Saraki was only
trying to be clever by half.
The leader of the party, who spoke in a telephone
interview with one of our correspondents on
Saturday, said Saraki had boxed himself into a
corner.
“Saraki is simply trying to be clever by half. He is in a
fix and he is trying to justify his illegal actions,” the
source said.
He added, “Saraki is bound by the nation’s
constitution to read the party’s list without any
amendment. If the PDP had sent him their own list of
principal officers, will he tamper with it or won’t the
PDP send their own list?”
Insisting that the Senate President lied about not
being invited to the ICC meeting, the reliable party
source said Saraki was invited.
The source said, “He is lying if he said he was not
invited to the ICC meeting. All National Assembly
members-elect were invited via an SMS.
“He deliberately snubbed the President because he
had already struck a deal with the PDP to actualise
his inordinate ambition in defiance of his party’s
position.
reports that he is nursing the ambition for presidency in 2019, saying he actually quit his presidential bid in the 2015 election for President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki stated that he contributed immensely to the
emergence of Buhari as President and contributed
greatly to his victory in the presidential election held
on March 28, 2015.
The Senate President, who spoke to select journalists
in an exclusive interview in Abuja on Saturday, also
denied having plans to dump the All Progressives
Congress due to the ongoing crisis in the party over
his leadership of the Senate.
Rather, he said what remained paramount in his
mind at the moment was how to support the Buhari-
led administration to tackle the various social and
economic problems confronting the country.
Saraki said, “I was the first person that stepped down
his political ambition, once General Buhari
announced that he was going to contest the
presidential election. And since then, prior to the
period of election, I worked tirelessly to support his
emergence.
“Even some of my friends who are not supporting me
now are doing so because I did not support them in
their presidential ambition and that I supported
President Buhari. That is why I find it funny that the
same people are now claiming to love Buhari more
than me. It is a very funny world.
“These are people that I was begging to leave the
stage for Buhari to run since all of us are young. They
are now the one going round to say that Saraki did
not like Buhari but time will tell.”
The Presidency, however, faulted Saraki’s claim of
stepping down for Buhari ahead of the presidential
election.
Saraki had on October 13, 2014, announced the
suspension of his presidential bid in the interest of
the country and his party. He, however, did not state
which of the other aspirants he was going to back.
Saraki’s statement then partly read, “I decided to step
down my ambition because Nigeria’s political outlook
for 2015 is very complicated and this is the time for
every patriotic politician to situate his personal
ambition in the context of the country’s overall
interest.
“I don’t think our party can afford too much internal
rancour going into next year’s election. I, therefore,
think some of us need to make the sacrifice and be
part of the solution rather than part of the problem
of the party.”
This will be Saraki’s first personal response to the
ongoing crisis that is trailing his controversial
emergence as the President of the Senate on June 9.
Saraki had led a faction of APC senators, under the
auspices of the Like Minds Senators, to defy the
party’s choice of Ahmad Lawan as the Senate
President.
In what many have described as a ‘coup’, the pro-
Saraki group had allied with the opposition
lawmakers in the Peoples Democratic Party to make
Saraki leader of the upper chamber of the legislature
in the absence over 50 APC senators.
A similar scenario had also played out in the House
of Representatives where Yakubu Dogara opposed
Femi Gbajabiamila, the choice candidate of his party,
to emerge Speaker of the House.
Explaining what happened on the National Assembly
leadership election day, Saraki said he smuggled
himself into the chamber on the day the 8th
Assembly was inaugurated when he became aware of
an alleged plan to abduct and prevent him from
standing for the Senate presidential election
The Senate President also defended his absence from
the International Conference Centre venue of a
proposed meeting between President Buhari and
APC lawmakers on the day of the election.
He insisted that he did not receive any invitation for
the meeting.
Saraki said, “As regards the meeting, on the morning
of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4am
of that day and I had got information that efforts
would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get
access into the chambers.
He said the plan before was that senators-elect
should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel around
8:00am and 9:00am to proceed to the National
Assembly.
The Senate President said he was, however, advised
against going to the chamber at the scheduled time
as there were plans to stop him from being part of
the day’s proceedings.
Saraki said he got into the National Assembly
Complex as early as 6:00am and stayed in a car in the
car park from then till quarter to 10:00am. He noted
that all through the period, there was no
communication to him.
“So, anybody who said they spoke to me to go the ICC
was not true because I didn’t even know what was
going on. All I was monitoring was how people were
arriving at the complex. It was at quarter to 10:00am
that I got information that the Clerk to the National
Assembly had entered the chamber.”
The APC, however, described Saraki’s non-invitation
claim as a lie, saying all senators-elect were invited to
the said meeting.
Saraki, a two-term ex-Governor of Kwara State and
former Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum,
said it was at that point that he got down from the
“small car” in which he was hiding and entered the
chamber.
“Even when I was in the chambers, I didn’t know what
had transpired earlier on. The only thing I observed
was that it appeared that some of our senators were
not in the chamber. But for the fact that my
colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that
they were on their way. And by 10:00am, the
programme started.
“Before I knew it, my election had come and gone.
Even, my people were worried. It was only when I got
into the chambers that they were relieved,” Saraki
added.
The Senate President also dismissed his alleged pact
with the PDP to elect Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy
Senate President.
Ekweremadu of the PDP, who occupied same
position in the last Senate, had been re-elected as
Saraki’s deputy in the Senate that has the APC as
majority.
The Senate President, however, insisted that it
was the absence of the APC Senators from the
chamber that caused the emergence of Ekweremadu
as his deputy.
He said, “Never in our wildest imagination did we
envisage that some senators would not be present on
the day of the inauguration. In my view, and in the
view of some of those who worked closely with me, I
worked hard for my election. I had direct contact with
every single senator; one on one. Weeks to the
election, I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard,
both in our party, the APC, and out of it.
“I approached every senator, I talked to them. We
built confidence, not only in the APC, but, also, in the
PDP. I talked to them. That was why I laugh when
people said that I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I
had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu.”
Saraki stated that he did not need any deal to win the
election, saying he had “penetrated everywhere.”
Speaking further on the penetration, he said, “One of
the meetings was held at Transcorp Hilton and
Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Ibrahim Gobir
co-chaired it. Both the APC and the PDP members
were present.
“At that meeting, if you heard most of them there, the
position they took was that ‘this is the Senate
President they want. Across party lines, they said that
they believe in me and that this is the Senate
President that can lead us. There was no deal.”
Saraki, who described Ekweremadu’s deputy Senate
presidency as painful and unfortunate, maintained
that it was caused by the absence of his APC
colleagues. He recalled that the PDP senators had
announced to the public that they were supporting
him.
He further said, “With regard to the deputy, when
they told us that they had a candidate, we, too, told
them we had a candidate for Deputy Senate President
in the person of Senator Ali Ndume.
“We never, in our imagination, thought they (other
APC senators) would not turn up. By the time we got
there, we were only 24 while the PDP was more than
40.
“It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy
Senate President. It is painful. It is painful for any
APC member because when we went through the
struggle. That was not what we signed for.”
Saraki said it was unfair to put the blame on “one
side” because it was a combination of errors and
miscalculations that led having some senators at
another place instead of being on the floor of the
Senate on that day.
“So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to
emerge (as Senate President) is what I reject
completely and those who followed the events would
know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge,” he
stated.
Saraki also disagreed with insinuations that he went
against the position of the party which had allegedly
zoned the position of the Senate president to a
particular region.
“At no time was any decision taken by the party to
zone the position to any particular zone,” he stated.
Saraki also said he had had personal discussions
with the Lawan and they had allegedly deliberated
extensively on how to collectively move the Senate
forward in the interest of the senators, the APC and
members of the public.
He said, “I also have an opportunity to sit down and
discuss with Senator Ahmad Lawan as part of our
reconciliation efforts. I am confident that this matter
will soon fizzle out because we are making serious
efforts.
”
Saraki further said serious arrangements were
already ongoing to unite the various sides to the
crisis, even as he hinted that he had reached out to
the leaders of the party, President Buhari and
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on how to collectively move the
country forward.
“Regards to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; as you all know, he
is one of the leaders of the party. I have great respect
for him. We have worked closely together before.
Unfortunately my group did not agree with him on
this issue.
“However, we are both responsible and committed to
the project of the party and Nigeria that we will
overcome this and move forward. It is part of our
plans, as part of the healing process, to meet with
him and it will happen soon,” Saraki added.
Saraki did not step down for Buhari – Presidency
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Saturday, said there
was no truth in the claim by Saraki that he stepped
down for President Buhari in the APC presidential
race.
Adesina, in an interview with one of our
correspondents, said the issue of stepping down did
not arise because the party conducted a free and fair
presidential primary which Buhari won.
The presidential spokesman said all Nigerians know
those who took part in the party primary.
Adesina said, “There was no issue of stepping down
during the presidential race in the APC. There was a
presidential primary that was plain, transparent, free
and fair.
“We all know those who were involved in the primary;
all Nigerians know those who participated in the APC
presidential primary and President Buhari emerged
the winner of that process.”
When asked if Saraki had reached out to the
President as he claimed, Adesina said, “The President
has always maintained that the party is supreme. The
party started a process which was truncated.
“The President has always maintained that those who
truncated or aborted the process were the ones who
precipitated crisis.
“The President had said in earlier statements that he
would work with anybody who emerged the Senate
President, but then, that did not include those who
will subvert (the process).”
‘Saraki snubbed Buhari to emerge Senate
president’
A leader of the APC, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH
on the condition of anonymity, said Saraki was only
trying to be clever by half.
The leader of the party, who spoke in a telephone
interview with one of our correspondents on
Saturday, said Saraki had boxed himself into a
corner.
“Saraki is simply trying to be clever by half. He is in a
fix and he is trying to justify his illegal actions,” the
source said.
He added, “Saraki is bound by the nation’s
constitution to read the party’s list without any
amendment. If the PDP had sent him their own list of
principal officers, will he tamper with it or won’t the
PDP send their own list?”
Insisting that the Senate President lied about not
being invited to the ICC meeting, the reliable party
source said Saraki was invited.
The source said, “He is lying if he said he was not
invited to the ICC meeting. All National Assembly
members-elect were invited via an SMS.
“He deliberately snubbed the President because he
had already struck a deal with the PDP to actualise
his inordinate ambition in defiance of his party’s
position.
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