- Opponents shelve removal bid until after ministerial nominees’s clearance
- Ruling party summons emergency NWC meeting to resolve crises
Opponent of the embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki have decided to slow down the plot to oust him following his ongoing trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false declaration of assets. Senators whose group lost the Senate presidency to Saraki have been plotting his removal since the CCT filed a 13-count charge against him for false declaration of assets while he was governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.
The case is to resume on October 21. However, New Telegraph gathered at the weekend that the anti- Saraki senators had decided to give him a respite in order not to endanger the consideration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list, which is expected to be released between tomorrow and Thursday.
There are fears in the Saraki’s opponents’ camp that the Senate president and his supporters who considered his trial political, might fight back by stalling the clearance of the ministerial nominees. The president, who first dropped the hint that his cabinet list would be ready by end of September while on a trip to the United States in July, had reaffirmed his commitment to keep to his promise, irrespective of the fears that the list could be a casualty of the infighting among power blocs within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). A source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, told the New Telegraph that the Senate would receive the ministerial list tomorrow or on Wednesday, stressing that Buhari would not want to fail in meeting the September deadline for the submission of the list.
The source called on Nigerians to disregard the speculation making the round that the Senate might postpone indefinitely its resumption date because of the crisis in the Senate. He said: “You know many Nigerians like to peddle rumours once there is a matter on ground; while others feast so much on rumours and speculations too.
In fact, rumour is almost like a profession in this country because there are people who specialise in it and derive a lot of pleasure from it. “The President of the Senate is already in Abuja as we speak, and in my interactions with him since he came in, there has not been any single utterance from him portraying an intention to shift the resumption date.
So, I can tell you that the Senate will resume on Tuesday as earlier scheduled.” However, a source said the push for Saraki’s ouster by the Senator Ahmad Lawan-led Unity Forum would hamper the process of having the nominees screened and cleared expeditiously.
A member of the Unity Forum confided in New Telegraph that ‘the timing’ of any such move against Saraki has to be considered. “Honestly, when we were telling Nigerians that this man cannot be our Senate president, the whole country, especially the media, almost branded us undemocratic elements.
“Those of us who did not want him did so on grounds of morality and integrity as well as on political grounds- that such a man cannot lead us in the Senate. “But here we are; the world has seen the entire scandal that is now ongoing. The most painful aspect of it is that some Nigerians either play politics with it or are even looking for scapegoats; that the man is being persecuted.
“Yes we are still resolute and firm in our decision to make him step aside, especially against the backdrop of the ongoing trial; but the issue we are looking at is that of timing. “The timing of any such move has to be strategic so as not to create problems for us when the ministerial list gets to us. We don’t want to be distracted.
We don’t want a situation whereby our moves in the Senate against a single individual will draw us back or slow us down as regards the federal cabinet. “If need be, Senator Saraki will preside over the process that will screen the ministerial nominees, but as soon as we are through with that stage, because we do not want Nigerians to say we are the ones stalling the process of having ministers, we will move against him,” the source said.
It was also learnt that in the new cabinet, former Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, may emerge the next foreign affairs minister. “I think out of all those considered, it is only the former governor of Ekiti that has an inkling of what ministry he would head. It is possible the president has confided in him and from all indications, the man started his work when he went with the president to the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, even though unofficially”, a presidency source said. It was gathered that Fayemi led a team of Foreign Service experts to put together the president’s UN address. Meanwhile, Senator Aliyu Wamakko, a former Sokoto State governor, at the weekend, dismissed reports of plots to remove Saraki. Wamakko, in a telephone interview with New Telegraph, also described reports on plots by members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to take over the Senate as untrue.
He said senators were meeting to strengthen the Senate under Saraki, with a view to recovering the lost grounds on the legislative business under the APC government. He added that unknown to many; Buhari had nothing to do with Saraki’s present ordeal, most especially his trial with the CCT.
He said Buhari was concerned about the crisis in the National Assembly that has affected legislative business. He said: “I see Mr. President, Saraki and senators holding a meeting very soon on how to salvage democracy which certain elements have been trying to subvert.
They will find time to meet to stop our opponents from progressing with acts to sabotage of our democracy. “Once the President and the Senate leadership sit at a round table with a resolve to re-oil the wheels of democracy for national progress, the cynics, the political rabble-rousers and those who never mean well for the APC government will go to sleep.”
According to him, Saraki, having submitted himself to the law by appearing before the CCT, has helped the case preferred against him. He appealed to critics stop pre-empting the cause of law. He said the removal of Saraki as being canvassed by those he described as faceless groups outside the National Assembly, would not bode well for the Senate, democracy and Nigeria. He said: “Majority of senators, weeks ago, passed a vote of confidence on Saraki because they were convinced that his style of leadership has been broad and progress inclined.
Nothing has changed. Majority of our colleagues still believe that Saraki remains a stabilising factor in the Senate for now. “A change of leadership, at this point in time, as being canvassed, will certainly spark some endless sessions of rancour, suspicion, crises and uncertainty among members.
When such begins to happen, no one will be able to predict the end.” However, the APC, in the face of its multiple crises, has summoned an emergency meeting of its National Working Committee (NWC) to resolve the disagreements in the party. It was learnt that the meeting would, among others, examine the crisis of confidence among party leaders over the composition of the cabinet, for which some of them had complained of being sidelined; the controversial Bayelsa State governorship primaries and the Saraki trial.
Although, Buhari is currently in New York, United States where he is attending the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, it was gathered that he went along with the cabinet list and would probably make some last-minute changes before sending it to the National Assembly.
New Telegraph learnt that the list was virtually ready before the president travelled, except for a few names whose background checks were yet to be completed by the Department of State Services (DSS). Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, who is expected to submit the list to the Office of the Senate President, is also currently in New York as part of the presidential delegation to the UN meeting.
Enang, in a telephone interview with New Telegraph, expressed hope that the president would meet the deadline for the submission of the list to the legislature. Findings showed that the APC the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had summoned the NWC meeting for today. New Telegraph also learnt that the APC has been battling with how to resolve the alleged power tussle between Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el- Rufai, over who should be the right hand man of the president.
The party is not also certain how it should respond to the current travails of Saraki. New Telegraph learnt that some APC chieftains are not comfortable with the insinuations that the trial of Saraki was an act of persecution masterminded by the party to unseat him.
A source who spoke to one of our correspondents on the multiple crises plaguing the party, alleged that there was also a rift among the National Leader of the party, Senator Bola Tinubu, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the former Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, over the control of the party. The crisis, the source said, had stalled the constitution of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party and holding of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.
Source: New Telegraph
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