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Why Akpabio can’t confront Tinubu – Saraki *Buhari made me an orphan
Bukola Saraki, former Senate President, has provided reasons the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, has donated itself as rubber stamp to the executive arm, saying that it is because those now in charge saw the harrowing experience he underwent in the hands of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s former President and dreaded the same fate.
Saraki, said not to originally be slated for the number three office in the country, in 2015, but emerged regardless, due to an intriguing political coup carried out on the All Progressives Congress (APC) apparatchik, said at the weekend that Buhari went all out to make things tough for him throughout his four-year tenure which ended in 2019.
Saraki, who particularly cited his rift with then President over indiscriminate borrowings, regrated that their frosty relationship worsened because both the Nigerian elite as well as ordinary people, on whose behest he was fighting to ensure their future was not bastardised, abandoned him to his fate.
Seeing how Nigerians stood aloof, he argued that his successors’ in office, not wanting to share the same fate, had to acquiesce to everything subsequent executives brought to them in order to save their individual skins.
Nigerians had not spared the Senates of Ahmad who replaced the former Governor of Kwara State and Godswill Akpabio, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, currently in office for the manner Buhari and now President Bola Tinubu, had zero resistance at the Senate, with the most recent example being the endorsement of the State of Emergency in Rivers State, which many have described as illegal.
Saraki, spoke at the 2025 Reunion Gala Celebration of King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) of North America, Houston, Texas, United States, while stressing that none of his successor would like to be subjected to the kind of intimidation experience, agreed that the Red Chambers had actually become a rubber stamp.
The former Kwara State governor.
Speaking on the theme: Empowering the Future from Legacy to Infinity, he said: “The legislature under my leadership was silenced, harassed, assaulted, bullied, and blackmailed, and the executive deliberately frustrated the passage of good laws, initiatives, and recommendations that would have been highly beneficial to our society.
“We were like orphans. The elite and ordinary people kept quiet, were nonchalant, and stayed aloof. Now, years after we left office, subsequent leadership of the National Assembly would rather be a rubber stamp and play dumb because they do not want to go through the harrowing experience that Saraki went through.
“I could have agreed with everything the Presidency under Buhari wanted and cut deals with them all the way. I would have been a good ally. Thus, when I read posts on social media or stories in the traditional media criticising the current National Assembly and praising our tenure, I just shrug my shoulders and feel unconcerned.
“This is a big failure of followership, and it is an enabler for the continuous failure of leadership. These sad developments are indications that our institutions are weak. Instead of building institutions, we are building strong men and women.”
Emphasising that his experience in governance had shown that many people elected into key offices got there without any idea or plans of policies, programmes, leaving them run government on whims and caprices, and at the mercy of the ubiquitous “government scammers,” at the corridors of office, he urged more interest in politics.
Hear him: “We should decide that from today, we will no longer keep quiet while our country is being misgoverned. We must always intervene when we see a wrong candidate being fielded, a wrong policy being implemented, or a wrong project being sited.
“We must leave our comfort zone. With the level of education, experience, and exposure available to those of you present here, Nigeria needs your involvement in her governance.
“You can participate by either contesting elections or supporting the emergence of those you believe are capable and can make a difference. Your voice and resources can push good candidates into offices. All of you here must play key roles at the various levels…
“We have failed because our best hands and heads refuse to venture and offer themselves for leadership. Those who constitute the followership have also failed to play their good roles by being discerning in choosing leaders. They often fail to hold the leadership accountable.
“There is an argument as to whether every society is a reflection of its leaders or if the leaders are a reflection of the general society from which they emerge.
“Whichever side of this debate we take, what is certain is that no leader can achieve success by accident or bring about positive changes by accident. Development can only be achieved in any society by intentional actions and well-designed, carefully thought-out, and efficiently implemented policies, programmes, plans, and projects introduced by the leadership and supported by the followership. To do this, we should all come out of our shells. Let us stop the idea that politics is dirty, too rigorous, demanding, and invasive of our privacy.”
Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has given assignment to Nigerians to put all those aspiring to take up political positions in the country through the grill to ascertain their level of integrity, saying it was required as a sine qua non for the job they seek.
Obi, who has been a subject of discussion in the polity since the allegation of corruption was levied against him by Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of his campaign in 2023, over the conduct of the party’s primaries to choose candidates for the 2027 general elections, said the grilling must start with his own person.
A guest in an interview on a podcast with Rufai Oseni, a popular television anchor, the former Governor of Anambra State, stated that it was actually for this reason that he had now sworn to see the litigation he instituted against Okonkwo through.
His take is that the Nollywood actor should use the courtrooms to give all the details of bad behaviour, following his threat to expose him fully, after alleging that he was collecting money from aspirants in the said election for electoral favours.
Hear him: “The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future. So, I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring them to court.
“Not just Kenneth, everybody should now say those things they know that is bad about me or I did that is wrong because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” Obi said.
“So, if you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating or didn’t go to the primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, didn’t do, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it up.”
For the umpteenth time, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned about the dangerous implication of using state institutions, particularly the judiciary to destroy Nigeria’s democracy, saying it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), speaking on the heels of Tuesday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal, halting the de-registration order by the Federal High Court, insisted that judicial officers must not lend themselves to any act capable of undermining the nation’s democratic process.
The appellate court had ordered a stay of execution on the order made on Monday by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC alongside four other political parties).
A totally scandalised Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had taken umbrage, sparing no hard words in upbraiding the lower court judge, stating that his likes were unfit to sit on the bench.
In a unanimous ruling by a three-man panel, the court held that Lifu’s action was “the highest form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court previously held that a judge who acted in such a manner.
Describing his conduct as the height of judicial rascality, the upper court, stated: “Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court.
“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.
This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for a stay of execution is here yet granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed.”
Atiku, who hailed the position of the higher court, which restored his hope to be on the ballot as presidential candidate in the 2027 election, also noted the role of INEC as “significant.”
He said: “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of the Federal High Court judgement seeking the deregistration of our great party, the ADC, and four other political parties. It is particularly significant that INEC itself initiated the application for the stay.
“The development reflects growing public concern over judicial contradictions and politically charged rulings within the judiciary. “Any attempt to undermine Nigeria’s hard-won democracy through judicial manipulation is a grave danger to the Republic. If our democracy suffers further injury, history will demand accountability from those entrusted with dispensing justice.
Outside ADC, Lifu’s order, also included: Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), similarly slammed for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration and participation in elections.
“He is running in contempt of the court. Justice Lifu should be arrested because he is acting in contempt of the court which is a criminal act,” were the exact words with which the African Democratic Congress (ADC), demonstrated its angst over the court ruling on Monday, ordering its de-registration as a political party in Nigeria.
A furious Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, told his host while appearing as a guest on Monday’s edition of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television that the judge of the Abuja Federal High Court who gave the order was actually playing with fire because of the consequences.
Directly accusing him of playing the script of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to ensure that President Bola Tinubu emerged the sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election, the party spokesman, was emphatic that the plan would not work, as head or tail, ADC must be on the ballot in all the elections.
Hear him: “There is a Court of Appeal order saying don’t hear this case until October 27. So, on what basis? You can’t place something on nothing. The Court of Appeal said don’t act on this until I hear it on October 27. So, on what basis did he deliver the judgement
“So, for us in the African Democratic Congress, what we’re convinced and they know is what they have done has no leg to stand on legally. What they want to do is to create doubts in the minds of the people that this ADC has too many legal cases, can we actually run on this? And to distract us. But we’re not distracted.
“We’re very clear. It was in spite of all they have done since ADC came on board that we ran one of the best and one of the most comprehensive direct primaries in the history of democracy in Nigeria. So, we are strong enough to withstand this. And that’s why I’m saying that we are going to contest in 2027. We’re ADC. We don’t buckle before dictatorship.”
Stressing on the implication of the judgement, which also affected Accord Party (AP), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) for allegedly failing to meet constitutional and electoral performance requirements, following a suit by the National Forum of Former Legislators, he said it portended grave danger.
He added: “We are not surprised. We know that the Nigerian people believe that there is a problem with the judiciary, but what we did not expect is the level of judicial rascality that was demonstrated today.
“What we are saying is that we reject it in its totality, and we are saying that the people behind this are playing with fire. Hundreds, if not thousands, have obtained nomination forms and contested elections and emerged as candidates on the platform of the ADC.”
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