DAALHAJI:
Am loving this Saraki guy, he really knows his onions. Carry on, Sir

seunmsg:
Politics is all about interest, whether selfish or altruistic. In 2015, Tinubu wanted the vice presidency position while Saraki wanted to become Senate president. They both pursued their personal ambition that is within their rights. Attacking Tinubu based on his 2015 aspiration is plain silly.

As regards 2019, it is again all about interest, selfish or altruistic. Tinubu is supporting Buhari because his group will stand a good chance of getting the presidency in 2023. Igbo's are supporting Atiku with the hope that south east will get the vice presidency and subsequently get the presidency after his tenure. Atiku, Saraki, Tambuwal, Kwakwanso etc all rejoined PDP simply because of their presidential ambition. Power will go back to the south for 8 years if Buhari wins a second term. So, they have to fight it out with him now. Politics is all about interest, alignment, positioning and calculation.

ridwanomooba:
The Tinubu Rhetoric: My Response, by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki

I have always restrained from joining issues in the media with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and this is based on my respect for him. However, I will not allow him to create a wrong, false and mischievous impression about the reasons for my decision to exit the All Progressives Congress (APC) and present his prejudice as facts for public consumption.

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.

In the same way, I find it very objectionable that many stakeholders who worked strenuously to get the administration into office have now been excluded in the government and not consulted on key decisions as necessary and expected. In fact, some of them are treated as pariahs. A party that ignores justice, equity and inclusion as basic pre-conditions for peace, unity and stability cannot sustain its membership and leadership.

Let me redirect the attention of the former Governor of Lagos State to the aspect of my July 31, 2018, statement announcing my exit from APC in which I emphasized that the decision "has been inescapably imposed on me by certain elements and forces within the APC who have ensured that the minimum conditions for peace, cooperation, inclusion and a general sense of belonging did not exist".

In that statement, I further noted that those APC elements "have done everything to ensure that the basic rules of party administration, which should promote harmonious relations among the various elements within the party were blatantly disregarded. All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined. And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion. The experience of my people and associates in the past three years is that they have suffered alienation and have been treated as outsiders in their own party. Thus, many have become disaffected and disenchanted. At the same time, opportunities to seek redress and correct these anomalies were deliberately blocked as a government-within-a-government had formed an impregnable wall and left in the cold, everyone else who was not recognized as “one of us”. This is why my people, like all self-respecting people would do, decided to seek accommodation elsewhere".

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.

However, during those meetings, 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. This viewpoint of Tinubu’s was not only expressed to me but to several of my colleagues. So much for acting in national interest.


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.


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.

It is a surprise to me that Asiwaju Tinubu is still peddling the falsehood about the fact that my defection is about automatic ticket and sharing of resources. 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.

It should be known that Democracy is a system that allows people to freely make their choices. It is my choice that I have decided to join others to present a viable alternative platform for Nigerians in the coming elections. Tinubu and leaders of the APC had better respect this decision or lawfully deal with it. As for me, Allah gives power to whom He wishes. Human beings can only aspire and strive to fulfill their aspirations.

Signed:

Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, CON
President of the Senate

CSTR1005:

Where are you getting your history from?
it was dora akunyili in the national assembly that fought turai and her kitchen cabinet to force Jonathan to be sworn in .
Don't revise history here.

Jonathan gut 10million votes with his biggest base being igbos and the South South, Buhari got 12 million with unprecedented northern support and majority Yoruba votes .
Common sense shows that it was igbo support that prevented Jonathan from losing woefully given the odds.

Buhari claimed he got just 5% from the south East. Yes, because we didn't vote for him.
95% of our votes went to Jonathan which made the election very close.

The Yoruba on the other hand have always been perpetual opposition.
Hanging on to buhari coattails will not change that.

Amumaigwe:


Saraki only divulged what Tinubu intimated him during a private reconciliatory meeting and you are punching the air refuting it even before Tinubu who is at the centre of the accusations. Were you at the meeting please? You so called sophisticated lots are really as funny as moro-ns.

obinoral1179:
the north will be enjoying the fight between the SE, SS and SW.... If buhari wins and APC decide to field a SW come 2023 if The PDP field a northern the north might win which will take them to 16 years rule so the SE better play their games well..... Because 2023 is between them and south west

mysteryman2014:


All this power equation without consideration for the south east is a precipe for disaster. How can a whole political zone of a nation be so totally ignored in the country political equation.

Injustice to one is injustice to all.

dukie25:
Baba Oloye, we dey your back gidigba.

BabaRamota1980:
Saraki is whipping up emotions of SEasterners for his cause. If he is so concerned about a balanced candidacy he should advise PDP to field Christain candidate as flagbearer. North has produced enough Muslim Presidents, its time for a Christian from North to rule.

So Christian Northern President and Southern Christ VP. Are you well at all?

BENZINA:
There is something great about this man(Saraki) i still find difficult to explain.

35824L:
Nobody from SE will ever be president again, that's for sure.

0balufonlll:
x

Everyone knows power is coming back to the Southwest in 2023 then back up north after 8 years then back to Southwest & the cycle goes on.

BENZINA:
There is something great about this man(Saraki) i still find difficult to explain.

BabaRamota1980:
Saraki is whipping up emotions of easterners for his cause. If he is so concerned about a balanced candidacy he should advise PDP to field Christain candidate as flagbearer. North has produced enough Muslim Presidents, its time for a Christian from North to rule.

BabaRamota1980:


At this point it does not matter who they vote, given any combination betwee APC and PDP from 2019 onward the shortest route for an Ibo Presidency will materialize in 2040.
Twenty years from next year.

edibobo:
Will Tinubu knows whether he will see 2019 and even Buhari ?

Amumaigwe:


Oga, we don't need Igbo president to excel. It is you lots that depend on government patronage that should bother about that presidency nonsense simply because you cannot compete.

Tell me where any genuine Igbo leader has shown obsession for presidency. Even Ohaneze has joined forces with IPOB to denounce the stupid lure by APC for Igbo votes by the phantom offer of Igbo presidency, reechoing their obsession rather for restructuring.

So go get another meaningful pasttime as these your leadership-hopefuls are the reason you are severely deprieved and Igbos don't need sympathy or any partnership not geared towards restructuring this shithol-e.

Amumaigwe:


We are not talking about Igbo presidency because Igbos don't look forward to it. What I want to make abundantly clear to you is that the presidency blackmail is not working and will never work.

Why will it not work? Because Igbos don't need it to excel. Why Yoruba are scheming to foist a mentally and morally bankrupt dying man on Nigerians a second time is because they are seeking to take over the instruments of government to enjoy undue advantage. This they intend to do even if it means Buhari completely ruining Nigeria over the next 4 years. Dangerous scavengers, what a shame.

reality1010:

Yorubas are devilish and evil minded.I wonder why God created them. Hope they r not the Moabites tribe we often read in the Bible. No wonder all the killings of Idoma, Tiv, Igbos, Plateau people, Taraba people, Adamawa people, Kaduna people and others never mean anything to them as far as their ambition for 2023 is not jeopardize.They shouted restructure and when given d opportunity they said it s not restructure that we need. From their religious leaders to everyone of them talk from both mouths.They spy ur meetings and play double standard in evry affairs.Always looking for corrupt means to success.Any govt they work with is always indentified with failure because they are afraid of inclusive system.Yorubas will always prefer the status quo to remain because they v nothing to offer. While d North will embark on agricultural revolution, d South south will make money or wealth with their oil and the Southeast have ingenuity in every thing including oil as a resources.Apart from Lagos state foundationed by Federal Government,all d rest states in Lagos r locals.

wyqay:
saraki just heat the nail on the head. true talk l believe you,because i forsee this before now

StillX10:
This toilet that Tinubu calls mouth is just spewing trash

Tinubu is a legend at buffoonery