Efforts by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, to nip in the bud the crisis set off by the recent election of the principal officers of the National Assembly may have hit a brick wall.

The crisis of confidence which has pitted party leaders of the All Progressives Congress against the new principal officers of the National Assembly may take a turn for the worse this week.

Contrary to the belief in several quarters, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is widely believed to have accepted the election of the principal officers as a fait accompli, is said to be unhappy with the leadership of the National Assembly.

Sources close to the two camps told our correspondents that President Buhari and senior party officials were still peeved that Saraki and other party members defied the party and formed an alliance with the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

The APC senators loyal to Saraki had on June 9 boycotted a peace meeting convened by Buhari and the leadership of the party. The meeting, which was attended by senators loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the APC’s official candidate for the position of the Senate President, was going on when Saraki, with the support of his loyalists in the APC and all the PDP senators, emerged as the senate president unopposed.

Since then, the party has been in crisis, even though the APC had said it would work with Saraki.

During the week, Saraki, paid a well publicised visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. His aim, reports say, was to seek the former president’s intervention in the crisis. Saraki wanted Obasanjo to pacify the APC leaders on his behalf. But Sunday PUNCH gathered that the former president’s intervention has failed to yield the results desired by Saraki and his camp.

It was gathered that shortly after Saraki’s visit to the former president, Obasanjo made a telephone call to Buhari advising him to make up with Saraki. The former president had reportedly told the president to work with Saraki and let the party deal with all the disciplinary issues that the former governor of Kwara State had been accused of. However, the President was said to have been non-committal.

Sources privy to these happenings told our correspondents that the telephone call initiated by Obasanjo was not the first time the former president would intervene in the matter. Sunday PUNCH reliably gathered that Obasanjo had met with Buhari in South Africa, last Sunday, and sought his help in resolving the crisis in the ruling party. Sources said that the former president, who was in Zambia for the 22nd annual general meeting of the African Export-Import Bank, had travelled from there to South Africa to meet with President Buhari.

Speaking over the weekend, some senior party leaders expressed doubts about the viability of Obasanjo’s intervention. They told SUNDAY PUNCH in different interviews that Saraki is an ally of former vice-president Atiku Abubakar whom Obasanjo is not very fond of.

One of them said, “It is not a secret that Atiku is solidly behind Saraki. How the senate president thinks Obasanjo will back any move by Atiku is what we don’t understand. Atiku was the first person that Saraki visited when he emerged as senate president. The ex-president will definitely not turn Saraki back but deep in his heart, he knows which camp he belongs to.”

But a source in the corridors of power told our correspondent on the condition of anonymity that the President’s response to pleas for his intervention had remained the same.

Sources said while Buhari was careful not to make his disappointment with Saraki public, he was very angry that the senate president led a rebellion against his party and also teamed up with the PDP to undermine it. One other reason the crisis has remained intractable, the source added, was the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President.

“The President believes that Saraki earned the support of the PDP because of the deputy senate presidency he conceded to the opposition party. It is a treacherous thing to do to one’s party,” the source said.

Buhari had reportedly shunned all moves by Saraki to meet him before the senate president’s visit to Obasanjo.

However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Buhari was not avoiding Saraki. Rather, he said, it was the Senate President who is yet to visit the presidency. When asked specifically when Saraki would be meeting with the President, Shehu said it was left for the President of the Senate to decide.

“There is no truth in the claims that the President does not want to meet with any of the National Assembly leaders. He has said that he respects institutions and that strong men build institutions,” Garba said.

Our correspondents report that Saraki may be reluctant to make an approach because he doesn’t want to be rebuffed. A prominent member of the Like Minds Senators, a group sympathetic to the senate president, confirmed that Saraki had not fixed an appointment with Buhari after meeting Obasanjo.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “After the meeting with Obasanjo, there has been no specific move on the part of the senate president to meet with Mr. President. They will meet at the appropriate time.”

A senior APC official, who confided in SUNDAY PUNCH, said, “From all indications, all sides in the crisis are maintaining their hard-line positions on the crisis. It seems Saraki is not ready for reconciliation. His group is insisting on its position. The Lawan group has given its conditions for peace and the President believes that there must be party discipline.”

Meanwhile, in a clear sign that the president may not have a problem with the leadership of the House, Buhari will be granting audience to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, this week.

The meeting, one of our correspondents learnt, is at the instance of Dogara.

Shehu, confirmed Buhari’s meeting with Dogara. He however declined to give details of the specific day on which the meeting would hold.

“I have just gone through the President’s activities for the week and I saw that Dogara is scheduled to meet with him (the President) during the week,” Shehu said.

On his part, the spokesperson for the pro- Saraki group, Senator Dino Melaye, said the senate president had appeared before the party’s reconciliation committee.

He said, “The party set up a reconciliation committee with the APC General Secretary as Chairman and Saraki had appeared before the committee.”ouse, Buhari will be granting audience to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, this week.

The meeting, one of our correspondents learnt, is at the instance of Dogara.

Shehu, confirmed Buhari’s meeting with Dogara. He however declined to give details of the specific day on which the meeting would hold.

“I have just gone through the President’s activities for the week and I saw that Dogara is scheduled to meet with him (the President) during the week,” Shehu said.

On his part, the spokesperson for the pro- Saraki group, Senator Dino Melaye, said the senate president had appeared before the party’s reconciliation committee.

He said, “The party set up a reconciliation committee with the APC General Secretary as Chairman and Saraki had appeared before the committee.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/apc-crisis-obasanjos-peace-mission-hits-brick-wall/

Saraki...the treacherous one. The Judas of our time.

Change we all wanted, Change we got

Obasanjo is a stinky navigator, Nigeria' father of corruption !

NOTICE
OBJ IS ONE OF NIGERIA MAJOR PROBLEM Bleep GODFATHERNISM

God please help Nigeria
cc seun lalasticlala ishilove

otipoju:
Saraki...the treacherous one. The Judas of our time.

true talk
SINator Sakakiri's action is typical of the Ilorin people =( betrayal). Have we all forgotten the story of Alimi and Afonja (one betrayed Yoruba and the other betrayed him)? The blood still run in the veins of Ilorin people till today! No wonder the proverb that says.... Tell the Ilorins' to excrete the betrayal in them, they can never excrete everything in 3 years!

I think we should run back to God for help.

though this is good for the nation because there will be checked and balances on all form of governanace but it is backstabbing for the APC. We shall see where it will end.

handsomeclouds:
SINator Sakakiri's action is typical of Ilorin people ( betrayal). Have we all forgotten the story of Alimi and Afonja (one betrayed Yoruba and the other betrayed him). The blood still run in the veins of Ilorin people till today! No wonder the proverb that says.... Tell the Ilorins' to excrete the betrayal in them, they can never excrete everything in 3 years.

Anyways it isn't all of them that have got the attitude.... But majority do! Have met only few nice ones. My appreciation and alloyed gratitude go to them

APC is heading toward disintegration , the party members have no regard for the party's constitution... 2015 election was their uniting factor, now that the election is over, APC is of no use to them

#God bless Nigeria

lol. political drama

I like the way PMB is handling this maturely. No problem with the leadership of NA but will not condone acts of indiscipline especially when it involves conniving with PDP to undermine the interest of your own party. PMB is finally learning politics - If Saraki can form an allegiance with PDP and go as far as conceding the post of deputy senate president to the PDP, what is the assurance that similar alliance will not be formed in the future to impeach PMB or at least PDP using the influence of Ekwerumadu as a ralling point and frustrate PMB's government

What will it take to resolve the crisis in APC Saraki and Ekweremadu's resignation If that is the case then they are in for a long thing. The leadership of the Senate is here to stay. Anything contrary will set the stage for more crisis. What has happened has happened.They better bite the bullet and move on.

In the interest of Nigeria, APC has to move on. We cannot continue to bicker while the nation deteriorates.

Truth be told, saraki allowed his personal interest override that of the party, and that was totally wrong

tonychristopher:


Sariki is a fulani man he said it himself I have a thread on that ...pls stop attached

We are not doing the Goodluck "AZIKWE" of 2011 we are talking of the Bukola who's a brother to Gbemisola. Will are talking about the son of Olusola who happen to be the husband of Toyin.

oluspencer:


We are not doing the Goodluck "AZIKWE" of 2011 we are talking of the Bukola who's a brother to Gbemisola. Will are talking about the son of Olusola who happen to be the husband of Toyin.

Is saraki which is the surname a Yoruba word

A man said he is Fulani and your here disputing that ..there should be dignity left in you

oluspencer:


We are not doing the Goodluck "AZIKWE" of 2011 we are talking of the Bukola who's a brother to Gbemisola. Will are talking about the son of Olusola who happen to be the husband of Toyin.

what a description

gists:
I like the way PMB is handling this maturely. No problem with the leadership of NA but will not condone acts of indiscipline especially when it involves conniving with PDP to undermine the interest of your own party. PMB is finally learning politics - If Saraki can form an allegiance with PDP and go as far as conceding the post of deputy senate president to the PDP, what is the assurance that similar alliance will not be formed in the future to impeach PMB or at least PDP using the influence of Ekwerumadu as a ralling point and frustrate PMB's government

Wen Saraki Nd others defect to apc
U all shout "progressives" they become new old things passed away
Wen they spend their loot to oil their political machinery and deliver votes they aren't threat to PMB "coming administration"
Nw they refuse to be cow in and instead for ur party to seek help from pdp who can form a quorum u sidelined their votes (49)and insist on the "mock" election conducted
Their is abosuletly nothing wrong in Saraki emergence
Buahri was nt well accepted in East but got better acceptance in SW here and North Nd won
Saraki was nt well accepted by apc but got well accepted by PDP Nd he won

Tho Itz morally wrong but
Nigeria political scene has no "moral etiquette" If not d likes of Saraki won't be welcome into the fold of a party that seek(claims) to right d wrongs it alleged the same set of pple of emanating

I have read this thread over and over again to know if their is igbo involvement but I can't find one to my greatest surprise some people were mentioning igbo here. Yoruba people with igbophobia mentality.