An event reminiscent of a coup occurred at the National Assembly on Tuesday the 9th of June 2015. Former Governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki was declared winner of the Senate Presidency against the wishes of the Godfather Jágaban and some inner members of the ruling party, APC. The president was also not happy with the outcome as his preferred candidate Senator Lawan also lost out.
To make matters worse, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, the preferred candidiate of Jágaban for Speaker of the house also lost out in what was the biggest surprise of the day. As at this morning, many had expected his election as speaker to be in the bag only for him to eventually lose out to Yakubu Dogara in dramatic fashion.
The events of the day occurred in dramatic fashion as just over 50 Senators were said to have voted for Saraki with the rest perhaps falling for a decoy that had them stuck in the International Convention Center waiting to meet with Buhari only for Saraki to pull a fast one on them.
The election of Saraki who conceded Senate Deputy President to PDP’s Ekwerenmadu perhaps also generated a wave that may have also resulted in Gbajabiamila losing his ambition to be elected as a speaker to as little as 5 votes.
This will be written in history as a major defeat for Tinubu who many felt was determined to hold on to the control National Assembly hot seat by appointing his loyalist. Whilst a major defeat for him, this could be seen as a major victory for Nigeria as we have shown our democracy is now growing beyond anyone’s influence. And now that the cards have crumbled before Tinubu and the President, it is now time to face the economy.
The new government has been busy setting the agenda for the battle against Boko Haram and politicking for National Assembly leadership issues to bother about talking bold about the economy. It is going to two weeks now and nothing regarding their plan to kick start economic revival has been mentioned. We are awaiting his comments on the current fuel crisis, oil prices, taxes, government revenue, CBN monetary policy etc.
He also is yet to appoint key advisers such as his Chief of Staff, National Security Adviser and Secretary to the government. We also hope he will announcement his nomination for ministerial appointments.
Nigerians are watching and discontentment is in the air with many increasingly losing patience with the president. Refusing to tackle all these issues headlong is reminiscent of the past government and no one surely wants a repeat of that!
I know God Fatherism will be history in my generation, because it brings nothing but Dictatorship by few elite.
Deviating from that, 51 APC senators absent, that leaves me with no other choice than to question the so called “change” that the ruling party are canvassing for.
Another question that come to mind is, is SARAKI a DESPERADO ?
#ACCOUNTABILITY
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If this is change then I am Warren Buffett. The man who presided over the Societe Generale Bank and brought distress, hunger and death to numerous depositors/shareholders is now the change we got? Let’s be careful, Godfatherism must end because we cannot & will not have progress with Godfatherism BUT, the Sarakis & Godfatherism should go together! How does Buhari fight corruption when the corrupt have ring-fenced themselves into his govt?