Senate President 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 APC
due to the 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 ones going round to say
that Saraki did not like Buhari but time will tell.”
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.”
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.
Saraki continued, he described Ekweremadu’s deputy Senate presidency as
painful and unfortunate, but 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” as 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.
“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 claimed.
The APC, however, described Saraki’s claim of non-invitation as a lie, "all senators-elect were invited."
Like mother, like daughter!
