Tell a Tale

Saraki and Dogara The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday kicked against the emergence of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively. Saraki, a former Kwara State governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, emerged unopposed shortly after the Clerk of the National Assembly,   Salisu Maikasuwa,   proclaimed   the eighth Senate   into existence. Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party trounced Ali Ndume of the ruling party to become Saraki’s deputy. Dogara   defeated the   former Minority Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, in a keenly contested poll. All Progressives Congress on Tuesday kicked against the emergence of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively. Saraki, a former Kwara State governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Go...

  The dramatic election of four key officers of the National Assembly yesterday unsettled the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and breathed life into the Peoples Democratic Party which lost its prime position to the APC. At the end of intrigues and drama that followed the battle for the four presiding officers’ positions in the National Assembly, all the candidates of the APC lost to the candidates backed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In his immediate reaction to the emergence of the National Assembly presiding officers, President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged that a constitutional process has occurred in the election even though he wished the process had followed the initiative by the APC. Senator Bukola Saraki of the APC was returned unopposed as Senate President as the game of intrigues which played through Monday night to the early hours caught the APC leadership on the wrong side. His emergence was facilitated by the solid backing of the...

The first president of the Senate in the Fourth Republic, Senator Evan(s) Enwerem emerged under the same controversial circumstances as Senator Bukola Saraki did yesterday.  Enwerem became Senate President against the desire of the majority of his party members in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who in a straw poll had chosen Senator Chuba Okadigbo. Okadigbo had days after his emergence as senator-elect traversed the country visiting every senator-elect to canvass support for his ambition to be Senate President. But days before the leadership contest, President Olusegun Obasanjo moved against him and used the minority parties, the Alliance for Democracy, AD, All Peoples Party, APP and a sprinkling of PDP senators. In the end, Enwerem triumphed principally because Obasanjo backed him against the desire of the majority of PDP senators. Only yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari who had vowed not to follow the same path refused to interfere and despite pressures stood hi...