President
of the Senate and Waziri Ilorin, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and the
Emir of Ilorin, during the Ilorin Emirate 2018 Grand Durbar
Chairman,
Senate Committee on Navy, Senator Isah Hamma Misau and his
counterpart in the Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other
Financial Institutions, Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim have stated
that the manner in which the leadership of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) left all issues which should get serious attention
from the ruling party and focused on attacking Dr. Abubakar Bukola
Saraki has made the Senate President the issue in Nigerian politics.
In
a statement signed by the two Senators, they queried whether the APC
is being fair to Nigeria by focusing on one individual and making him
the subject of all discussions instead of telling Nigerians what APC
has done in the last 38 months that it has been in power.
"This
is the first time in the history of the country that the ruling party
will leave the issue of its achievements and start blaming its
failure on just one individual, no matter who the individual is. It
is also the first time a ruling party will plan to hoodwink Nigerians
by saying everything wrong under its watch is due to the action and
inaction of one man.
"APC
has devoted all the time and knowledge of their national
chairman, national leader, publicity Secretary, four senators
and two presidential aides to the daily abuse of Saraki, such that it
appears as if Saraki is the only politician in Nigeria today. They
have made Saraki the issue in Nigerian politics today. If these
individuals devote the energy they are exerting on Saraki to finding
solutions to the security problem, economic crisis and collapse of
infrastructure, among them, they will come out with some action plan,
except they are only skillful in mischief making.
"We
can see through this plot. The plan is to get Saraki so engrossed in
the battle for survival in the Senate and the pummeling from the APC
cabal such that he will have no time to pursue his aspiration for
2019. However, this is a short time strategy. It will not work. That
is why the man remains unfazed by the antics.
"We
are surprised that all the decisions that the Senate took as an
institution is now blamed on Saraki. Are we also going to give the
credit of all the achievements of the Senate to Saraki as well? The
laws that have been signed by the President and which led to
the World Bank improving the rating of Nigeria in the Ease of Doing
Business Report, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bills which broke
the jinx of over 14 years on the law, the progressive constitution
amendment bills, the five anti-corruption laws, and many others, as
well as the fact that the 8th Senate has done better than the
previous ones in terms of number of bills passed, the petitions
successfully treated and the various interventions: will all these be
credited to Saraki and not the entire Senate?
"You
blame a man for what an institution lawfully did. Is this not
dishonest? Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan who moved the motion for our
adjournment till September 25 and the Minority Leader,
Senator Godswill Akpabio who seconded the motion are in APC, yet they
kept quiet when all the falsehood are being peddled now that Saraki
"unilaterally and hurriedly adjourn the Senate". These
Senators kept quiet about their roles simply because they want to be
good boys. When the motion for adjournment was carried by voice vote,
no dissenting voice was heard.
"
Many people who are grandstanding now do not care how history will
record their roles. How can those who play key roles in the Senate
now turn round and be blaming everything on one man? Is Saraki now a
superman? Is he not just one Senator like each and every one of us?
Let us play back all the tape records of the Senate proceedings.
Which of the decisions that are now being criticized did the APC
pretenders in the Senate oppose? Of the ten- man Senate leadership,
five of them are in APC. Those who enjoy privileges in the
Senate now look the other way when the Presidency is complaining.
"We
abide by the principle of collective responsibility. This Eighth
Senate under Saraki has done well. It has set a standard that the
legislature should not be an appendage of the executive. It is an
independent arm of government. Both arms need to extend the hands of
fellowship to each other and the duty to work for co-operation does
not lie on just one of them.
"We
will however warn the APC that they will meet a match in those of us
in PDP if they try to foment trouble in the Senate whenever we
resume. They have made many attempts to subvert this Senate,
including stealing of our mace, brutalizing of members of staff of
the Senate, invasion of the Senate complex with hooded and masked
security agents, refusal to sign important bills, using security
agents and anti-corruption agencies to intimidate members and the
leadership as well as initiating malicious prosecution against
members", the two Senators stated
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