Oyegun: Why Saraki, Dogara Were Recognised

Add caption

As the All Progressives Congress (APC) moves swiftly to mend the cracks that surfaced following the National Assembly leadership contest, the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, has provided further insight into why the APC leadership decided to accept the emergence of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara despite initial objections.

But the former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Kwakwanso, has said that the ruling party delayed in taking measures that could have prevented the embarrassment it suffered in the National Assembly.

Oyegun, who spoke to journalists yesterday against the backdrop of divergent views coming from APC leaders on the outcome of the National Assembly elections, said though the party saw what transpired during the inaugural legislative sitting as a misnomer, it nonetheless felt the urgent need to accept the reality and quickly reconcile its members so as not to allow it to cripple governance.

“All the party has decided to do is to reunify as quickly as possible our members in both chambers of the National Assembly under the existing realities. That is the first priority. Every other thing will follow suit.

“All other thing will have to wait. This is because, if for instance, the president says he wants to present his list of ministerial nominees to the Senate, we would not want a situation whereby the senate will be divided,” he said.

Oyegun said he was happy that the party was gradually arriving at an amicable settlement of the situation, adding that it was aimed at preventing further intra-party squabbles.

He also warned the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not take it for granted that APC was embroiled in a crisis, describing what happened as a “temporary setback which is bound to give way within a short period of time”.

“Let me assure the public that peace is on the way. We had a problem in the family, no doubt about that, but we are moving quickly to resolve it. As you can see, we are working hard to see that the leaders and rank and file don't start throwing punches.

“There was no doubt that when you have problems, your opponents will seize the opportunity to rise. But what is important is how quickly we get our acts together and put all this behind us and move forward strongly.

“Some of these setbacks, no doubt, will give the other side the opportunity to laugh, but it is temporal and usual wherever you have human beings,” he said.

Oyegun also dismissed the notion that President Muhammadu Buhari was delaying ministerial appointments to the federal cabinet.
“I don’t think that notion is correct. We have a very capable president. He is as capable as ever. The president is a very careful man. He wants to be sure that the kind of people he will appoint are people who are passionate about the country. What is really important is the speed of delivery of his policies.

“You can see that things are already improving in spite of that fact. You can see in the electricity front, the supply of petroleum products, etc. They are not connected.

“What the president is doing is to conduct a very thorough check on the background of the people he will appoint,” he said.
He stressed that the president has the prerogative to pick either people within the party or outside the party, adding, “This is an executive function and the president has the right to consult as widely as possible. This means he might pick people within the party or people outside the party.

“It is a prerogative the president should exercise and we cannot question that. We are quite happy with the way he is proceeding.”
Oyegun also rejected speculations that he was among those being considered to be the next Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in the new administration.

He said he never solicited for the SGF post or any other position other than national chairman of the party, which he presently occupies.

“I have not in anyway solicited for any position other than the national chairmanship of APC. I think I am clear enough, isn’t it? And nobody has approached me that he is considering me either for that position or another,” he said.
Senator Kwakwanso, at the briefing, however said that the party missed some important steps that should have been taken to avoid the loss it suffered during the elections for the National Assembly leadership.

“On the issue of what went wrong with our party with regard to the crisis during the election of the National Assembly leadership, I think so many things went wrong prominent of which had to do with time.
“The election was something that had a relationship with time and we knew very well that we had so many weeks to prepare ourselves for the elections in the legislative chambers.

“I wished time was really taken to ensure that we had a successful election. Although this is not the time to begin to trade blame, but many of us had drawn the attention of our leaders to do the right thing at the right time.

“Sometimes you might decide to do the right thing at the wrong time that will certainly backfire.
“I think the party missed the crucial opportunity to resolve the issues probably because most of the people involved were facing these challenges for the first time in their political history,” he explained.

While recounting his experience on the day of the inaugural sitting of the Eighth National Assembly, Kwankwaso said he was receiving a group of supporters who visited him from Kano that morning when a call came informing him that the election of Senate leadership had commenced.

He said he promptly got into his car and asked the driver to head to the National Assembly complex instead of the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja where he and other APC lawmakers were scheduled to attend a meeting with the president.
But he explained that on getting to the Assembly complex, he saw that the election for the Senate presidency had been concluded and Senator Saraki was already being sworn in.

He said he got a text message from some officials of the party informing him of the meeting with Buhari and not directly from the president.
He said there were people among his colleagues who felt that the National Leader of APC, Bola Tinubu, has a domineering influence on the party.

“Many of these senators believed that Tinubu was supporting Senator (Ahmad) Lawan and because of that they opposed him,” Kwankwaso said.
He also said the leaders of APC might have underrated the members of the G-5 governors and their potential to do “good or bad” depending on the circumstances.

Kwakwanso acknowledged that APC was divided following the National Assembly elections and needed urgent and painstaking efforts by the leadership to rally members and reunite them once again.

“I think the party is unfortunately divided but it is not too late to correct things. The party should take steps to correct things and to ensure that the crisis is quickly put behind us,” he said.

According to him, he had advised Saraki to step down his ambition but he refused. He said that the action of the Saraki group in going to reach an alliance with the PDP was a romance taken too far.

He faulted the fact that PDP was given the opportunity to produce the Deputy Senate President, stating that the party was rejected by Nigerians at the polls “but was allowed to bounce back to life and is even setting the agenda for the APC government”.
Alluding to the post of Deputy Senate President, he said: “Our party will definitely look at the situation and see how to take back what belongs to us. All I am saying is that he (Senator Ike Ekweremadu) has taken what does not belong to them and all those who supported him to do that should be ashamed of themselves.”

He advised the APC to write to his recalcitrant colleagues cautioning them against any further acts of indiscipline so that similar acts do not recur, adding, “I believe that the party is doing something to calm frayed nerves and to bring back unity in the party.”
He noted that more that 50 per cent of Saraki’s support base in the Senate is made up of PDP elements, expressing fears that if care was not taken, the National Assembly would start “Tambuwalising” things again.
“As things stand, the National Assembly might become a stumbling block for the Buhari administration,” he said.
Kwakwanso, who revealed that he was yet to be sworn in, added that he was unaware of any reconciliatory move that had been initiated by Senator Saraki as reported in some newspapers.

According to him, “The only thing I am aware of is that the party has started peace moves.”
He however said he would expect the party leadership to go a step further by issuing caution letters to all those involved in scuttling the party's consensus agenda during the elections at the National Assembly and to warn against a reoccurrence.

Meanwhile, Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura, stated Sunday night that the National Caucus of the APC would meet today with the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) on the crisis arising from the National Assembly leadership contest.

Speaking to journalists in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, Al-Makura expressed regrets over the crisis that ensued from the fallout of the election, describing the situation as “unfortunate” but expressed confidence that the ruling party would come out stronger and more united.

“There is nothing abnormal about what happened. It is politics and this is because the APC is a conglomerate of varying interests.
“I consider what happened in the National Assembly as something natural and in spite of the bad blood this generated, we remain one united family,” Al-Makura told journalists in the presence of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor of the state.

The governor disclosed that the leadership of APC would find a viable solution to the crisis and ensure that it does not eventually split the party.

“The party caucus and the BoT have been invited for a meeting which I believe will find a way forward for a lasting solution,” Al-Makura said, further affirming that they in APC “consider Saraki and Lawan as brothers and Dogara and (Hon. Femi) Gbajabiamila as brothers as well”.