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Saraki’s downfall in 2019 poll was judgment for his disloyalty to APC —Buhari group

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Oshiomhole not fit to continue in politics let alone being chairman of a party – Saraki

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has said that the dumping of Senate President Bukola Saraki by the people of Kwara State during the 2019 general elections was instant judgment for the senator’s ‘treachery’ against the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The group said that no amount of “political brinksmanship” by Saraki can water down the damning verdict delivered by the people of Kwara State on his four-year stint as head of the legislative arm of government.

Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State, was defeated in his bid to return to the Senate, following an open campaign against his influence in the state.

The Senate president, who contested under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having earlier dumped the APC, which he helped to clinch federal power in 2015, appeared to be receiving some accolade over his leadership of the Senate in the last four years.

However BMO, in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, argued that the treatment Kwara people meted out to Saraki “is clearer than any skewed self-appraisal Saraki may want to do to present himself as ‘one of the best Senate Presidents in the nation’s political history’ and, in the process, paint the Executive in bad light.”

Arguing that what Saraki got at the polls was instant judgment for his treachery to the APC throughout his tenure as Chairman of the National Assembly, BMO said:

“We agree with the APC’s National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that the outgoing National Assembly leadership was antagonistic to President Muhammadu Buhari for the better part of its tenure.

“His predecessor David Mark was in that office for eight years and hardly was there a time he was openly confrontational against the late President Umaru YarAdua or former President Goodluck Jonathan of the same political party, except when he accused the Jonathan administration of shielding the former Pension Reform Task Team leader Abdulrasheed Maina from prosecution and issued an ultimatum to the then President to break all links with the controversial civil servant.

“Not surprising, Benue State people rewarded Mark with what looked like an indefinite Senate tenure in recognition of his contribution to an excellent Executive-Legislature relations, until he opted against a return to the upper chamber.

“This cannot be compared to the blatant rejection of Saraki and every single one of his minions who stood for different elective positions only a few weeks ago in a state that he had an almost total control of for about 16 years.

“If this is not a just reward delivered by his immediate constituents for his antagonistic and self-centred leadership of the Senate, we don’t know what it is, especially as even a neophyte knows that all politics is local.”

The group noted that Saraki’s response to Tinubu’s position showed that indeed the Senate under him was bent on imposing a ‘noxious, reactionary and self-interested legislation on the nation.’

“In an apparent bid to paint the Executive bad, Saraki, through his media aide, had argued that President Buhari sent only 11 bills to the National Assembly in four years.

“But he also shot himself in the foot, nay,7 feet, by admitting that only two of the bills had been passed as at April 22! Two Executive bills passed in almost 4 years while more than 200 private members bills were passed within the same period!

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“At least 26 bills passed by the Senate were of course rejected by the President for several reasons. These include the Peace Corps Bill which several senators including the leadership were believed to have backed for selfish reasons.

“We also know that the President initially rejected the Electoral Act (amendment bill) because the lawmakers left out the Smart Card Reader, aside from the very many errors and the ‘landmines’, including electronic transmission of results so close to election date,” BMO said.

BMO added that all these happened because the National Assembly in general and the Senate in particular did not have the benefit of a selfless leadership.

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