As the members of the Nigerian 8th National Assembly move to elect their principal officers tomorrow 9th May, fresh investigation by us has shown the several factors tending against the long-nurtured ambition of the former governor of Kwara state and current senator representing Kwara Central senatorial district, Bukola Saraki. Saraki has recently been in a running battle with the leadership of his party, APC over their decision to dump him after giving him their nod prior to the general election.
The Tinubu Factor
We gathers that perhaps the greatest obstacle to Saraki’s emergence is the opposition mounted by the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who pulls a great deal of string within the party’s hierarchy. Tinubu was said to be crossed with Saraki over the latter’s surreptitious role in scuttling his ambition for the vice presidency which the then party candidate Muhammadu Buhari solely handed to Tinubu. With the foresight that Tinubu’s emergence will nullify his own ambition for Senate Presidency, Saraki was said to have deployed a sizeable section of the media (predominantly social media) which he controls to mount pressure on Tinubu to drop his ambition. This, for Mr. Tinubu is payback time.
Another reason adduced to by a close confidant of Tinubu who pleaded anonymity is the issue of House of Representatives Leadership which is a pet project of Asiwaju Tinubu. Speaking to us he said “you know the house project is strongly attached to the Senate project, whatever happens there cascades into the House election and Asiwaju cannot afford not to have a foothold in the National Assembly. He has invested so much in Gbaja’s project and he will never allow Saraki and his boys to rubbish that”
Corrupt Tendencies and The Diezani Connection
With President Buhari’s insistence on having a zero allocation for corruption and all its appearances, opposers of the Saraki Presidency has continued to flag the president on the need to pay attention to those who will emerge as leaders in the National Assembly else the anti-corruption stand of his government may be frustrated. They argued that with the many issues of corruption surrounding Saraki coupled with his alleged role in collecting massive kickbacks from erstwhile petroleum minister, Diezani Allison Madueke during electioneering to fund the campaign of some of the Senators-Elect rooting for him today, Saraki may have compromised ab initio the intention of the Buhari government to look into the books of the nations most corrupt sector.
Presidency sources informed us that president Buhari who was initially indifferent to whoever emerges as Senate president has been seriously impressed by some powerful interest against allowing the candidature of Saraki to fly and has subsequently given the party leadership an instruction to that effect. The result of that order may have been played out in the APC mock primaries conducted over the weekend.
David Marks Influence
Though the current Senate President, David Mark and his party the PDP are now in the minority and should ordinarily not been in a position to influence who succeeds him, insiders have informed us that David Mark actually hold the aces as far as the forthcoming elections is concerned. The APC holds the majority in the senate with 60 seats as against the PDP’s 49 but the current division within the ranks of APC senators-elect has thrown up the PDP senators via the leadership of David Mark as the Beautiful bride.
We gathered that some APC leaders had earlier sought the opinion of the Senate President while shopping for a consensus candidate for the position and Mr. Mark had clearly stated his preference for Senator Ahmed Lawan haven worked harmoniously with him and even appointing Senator Lawan as the Chairman of Senate committee on Public Account despite being in opposition party. Mr. Mark was reportedly said to have shown his strong reservation for Sen. Bukola Saraki indicating that his candidature may not enjoy the support of the PDP senators loyal to him. The APC leaders taking a cue from the Tambuwal’s saga on how much influence the house leadership may exert on who succeeds them quickly jettisoned the Saraki idea.
Analysts have however observed that David Mark’s suggestion may be an attempt to con the APC into presenting a weaker candidate and cause parallel division amidst the APC senators to pave the way for his own re-election which is looking probable now that there is a sharp split within the APC.
Culled from Leaktimes
No comments:
Post a Comment