SPORT: City are set to move for Liverpool's Sterling

City will press ahead with their efforts to sign Raheem Sterling this week – although there is still a reluctance at the Etihad to meet Liverpool’s £50million demand in full after a second bid of £35million plus £5million in add- ons was rejected. With Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne expected to give City the signal to press ahead with a £35million offer to Wolfsburg by rejecting a new contract when he returns from holiday, the Manchester club are making good on chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s promise to spend big this summer. Khaldoon’s commitment has been matched by the City fans, with a record 39,000 season tickets now sold for the redeveloped 54,000-capacity Etihad. Another 2,500 supporters who made a £100 downpayment last season on a season ticket are expected to swell that number. And those figures are likely to get another boost if City get to unveil £150million of new signings. A club insider said: “Season ticket sales have gone brilliantly and we are likely to have a 50,000-plus average crowd for the first time in our history.”

FOOTBALL: Louis van Gaal to AXE Angel Di Maria in STRAIGHT SWAP with PSG star Edinson Cavani

Argentine winger Di Maria, who cost a British record £59.7million, is attracting interest from Europe’s elite after flopping at Old Trafford last term. Champions League winners Barcelona have been linked with the ex-Real Madrid star, while French champions PSG and German giants Bayern Munich re long-term admirers. But the United board do not want to sell Di Maria, 27, to either Barcelona or Bayern amid fears he will prove an instant hit for their rivals. Although he could be equally successful at PSG that would not be such a problem – as long as Louis van Gaal’s men land £50m-rated Cavani in return. Dutch coach van Gaal drew up a lengthy list of top striker targets at the start of the summer but so far none has materialised. Tottenham’s Harry Kane is not for sale, Atletico Madrid man Mario Mandzukic has joined Juventus and Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke is too pricey at £32.5m. That leaves Cavani, 28, as the best world-class option available for United - especially if it means they off-load expensive misfit Di Maria without losing face. And Cavani would love a move to the Premier League, having become fed up at always playing second fiddle to PSG main man Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The prolific Uruguay skipper regularly ends up on the wings for Laurent Blanc’s side, with Swedish star Ibrahimovic the preferred striker. Cavani’s career stats suggest he would bring exactly the sort of firepower van Gaal wants at Old Trafford. With Napoli, he rattled 78 goals in 104 Serie A games. For PSG, he has an impressive 34 in 65 league outings.

I Thought You Knew (King Saul, The Unfavoured King)

The first king of Israel, anointed by the seer Samuel. He went out looking for some lost donkeys with his fathers servants, when he was directed to go ask the seer (prophet) for directions after their futile search got them nothing. 1 Samuel 9vs 6. He was annoited and appointed captain of God inheritance the next day. Note here though that Saul was not made king immediately, at least he has been anointed but not yet proclaimed or known as the king. Saul was called king after he won his first battle against the Ammonites! All hail the King! 1 Samuel 11 vs 15. He fought some memorable battles and won some wars during his reign. In his second year he was (1 Samuel 13 vs 8 - 14) the kingdom of King Saul was discontinued because he made a mistake! He offered a burnt offering to the Lord while he was instructed to wait for the prophet for seven days. So, right there he was informed that the Lord has chosen someone else after his own heart to be the Captain over his people. (David) but his name was not yet mentioned till years after. King Saul was given his second and final test in 1 Samuel 15. He was instructed to go and destroy the amalekeites. Did he yeah!, but not all, he kept their king and some fat oxens and other animals to offer burnt offering! ( what was wrong with Saul and burnt offerings huh). Right there in the presence of his elders and the people, he was rejected finally! The End of his reign in God's agenda. In my opinion, King Saul was doomed from the beginning, reasons? God never wanted the Israelites (Israelis) to have a king aside him, but they want to be like other nations. 1 Samuel 12 vs 12 They forced prophet Samuel to beg God and plead, they never stopped till they where answered. 1 Samuel 8 vs 7 - 9 Samuel knew the end before the beginning as a Seer (Prophet) he knew King Saul was not favoured. The told him in his second year that he has been rejected! 1 Samuel 13 vs 14 David that was to be king after him was not yet ready for the position or not available. So a care taker was needed to occupy till it's set. 1 Samuel 15 vs 28 Some school of thought argued that - Grace is something you had to work for then, but King Saul didn't find favor/grace before his creator hence all his episodes of rejection even after he asked for forgiveness from Samuel. 1 Samuel 15 vs 25. We are now in the time of grace, there is no need to offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to God. His grace is sufficient for us. Just take it! My opinions though! I might be wrong, I might be right. Let me know how your view about the King Saul's story, drop your comments below. Thanks

Joel Osteen: "Satan attacks you when you are closer to destiny"

The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy. The enemy always fights us the hardest, when we are close to our victory. Many Christians give up, at the moment of challenge, not knowing that the devil's desire is to distract us from the mark of our blessing, through temporary challenges. When you are tempted to get discouraged, sour, go back to the shallow waters, it is never going to work out, it has been too long, that is when you have to dig your heels in, and say, I have come too far, to stop now.

Tottenham enter race to sign Victor Moses

Super Eagles and Chelsea forward, Victor Moses could remain in London, with reports linking him with a summer move to Tottenham Hotspur. The Mirror has claimed that Spurs have turned their attention to Moses, having missed out on the signature of Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez and Monaco youngster Anthony Martial, who have both signed new deal with their respective teams. And it is being suggested that the Nigeria international is not keen to return to Stoke City as the prospect of playing in the Europa League with the White Hart Lane outfit is a more interesting option. Victor Moses, who in August 2012 signed a five year contract with Chelsea, has has been farmed out on loan to Liverpool and Stoke City in the last two seasons.

SARAKI OPENS UP: How I escaped abduction on inauguration day

17 days after his election, Senator Bukola Saraki, yesterday, opened up on the controversial poll, saying those in opposition to him planned to abduct him to prevent him from emerging as Senate President. Saraki disclosed that, on Tuesday, June 9, Senate inauguration day, following information he got of the abduction plot to keep him off the National Assembly, he altered his schedule by arriving the parliament car park at 6am, stayed in his car and then trekked at quarter to 10am into the chamber. He dismissed the insinuation that for him to win, he entered into a pact with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Senator Ike Ekweremadu to be produced as his deputy, just as he stressed that the absence of All Progressives Congress, APC, senators in the chamber paved the way for the emergence of Ekweremadu. The Senate President, who noted that the emergence of Ekweremadu will make things difficult for him, said, “Never in our wildest imagination did we envisage that some senators would not be present on the day of the inauguration.” Speaking with journalists, in Abuja, Saraki insisted that he never got any message to attend a meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC) with President Muhammadu Buhari on the Senate inauguration day. “First of all, as regards the meeting (at ICC), on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish at a meeting until 4:00am of that day and I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get access into the chamber”, he said. The Senate President narrated further: “So, as early as 4:00am and 5:00am, I had made contingency plans that I must get into the National Assembly because the plan before was that senators-elect should go to Transcorp Hilton Hotel around 8:00clock and 9:00am to proceed to the National Assembly. “But I was advised that it would not be safe or it would not be secure for me to do that because if some people made sure I didn’t get into the chamber, it would not be possible for me to be nominated, for the nomination to be seconded and for me to accept the nomination. “I can tell you today that I was in the National Assembly Complex as early as 6:00 in the morning and I stayed in a car in the car park till quarter to 10:00am. That is the truth. I stayed there and I was there with no communication whatsoever. “So, anybody who said he spoke to me to go to the ICC was not being truthful because I didn’t even know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people were arriving the complex. “It was just before 10:00 that I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly had entered the chamber. So, I got out of the small car I was inside, stretched myself and put on my Babariga because I didn’t have it on before then. “I walked from the car park into the chamber. That was why some of you would have seen that I looked very tired that morning. “Even when I was in the chamber, I didn’t know what had transpired earlier. The only thing I observed was that it appeared that some of our senators were not in the chamber, but because the fact that my colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that they were on the way and, by 10:00am, the programme started. “Before I knew it, my election had come and gone. Even my people were worried; it was only when I got into the chamber that they were relieved.” Speaking on the emergence of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, Saraki said, “In my own view, and, in the view of some of those who worked closely with me, I worked hard for my election. I had direct contact with every single senator, one on one; weeks leading to the election, I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard; both in our party, the APC and out of it. “I approached every senator, I talked to them, we built confidence, not only in the APC, but, also, in the PDP. I talked to them. That was why I laughed when people said I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu. “I didn’t need any deal to win. I had penetrated, there was no deal; I didn’t need any deal in the first place. I had worked hard such that everybody who was a Senator, I campaigned hard and canvassed for their votes and won their confidence. “At one of the meetings held at Transcorp Hilton which Senator Godswill Akpabio co-chaired with Senator Ibrahim Gobir and a few others, which had both APC and PDP members, if you heard most of them there, the position they took was that ‘this is the Senate President they want.’ “Across party lines, that day they believed in me and that this is the Senate President that can lead us, there was no deal. “Sometimes, I wonder how some of our colleagues found themselves at the ICC. If it had been a case that the Clerk of the National Assembly had made an announcement and the event had been postponed or it was no longer holding, plus, the invitation, I’m sure some are asking now, what really happened? “First of all, the PDP senators had announced to the public that they were supporting me without even meeting me because, in their own meeting, majority had decided to vote for me. “In their own interest, strategically, they decided that, `look, this is a fait accompli’ because 30 of their own senators were going to vote for this man anyway and the remaining felt it was better to join. “It wasn’t until 2:00am that they called us to tell us their decision . With regards to the deputy, when they told us that they had a candidate, we, too, told them we had a candidate for Deputy Senate President in the person of Senator Ali Ndume! “After our own meeting, it was our thinking that it was after the election of the Senate President that the two groups in APC would meet and we would agree on a candidate. We never in our imagination thought they would not turn up. By the time we got there, we were only 24 while the PDP was more than 40. “In an election, there’s no way they would not have defeated us and that was what happened? And now, when people say it was a deal, I say that if the CNA had started the procedure in the House of Representatives first, and moved to the Senate, thereafter, today, we, the APC, would have had a deputy Senate President.” Speaking further on the election of Ekweremadu, the Senate President said: “It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy Senate President. It is painful. It is painful for every APC member because when we went through the struggle, that was not what we signed for. But it has happened; but it is unfortunate and it is not fair to put the blame on one side because it is a combination of errors and miscalculations that led us to have, that morning, some Senators were at another place instead of being there. “So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to emerge, is what I reject completely and those who followed the events would know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge.” When asked to speak on his rumoured ambition for 2019 presidency, Saraki noted that there were enough challenges confronting the country and not 2019, adding that those talking about the election at the moment could be described as irresponsible.

Who protects the president? Controversy as DSS leaves Presidential Villa

The rivalry between the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Army came to a head on Thursday when the aide-de-camp to President Muhammadu Buhari, an army officer, Lt Colonel Lawal Abubakar, through a memo, disengaged the DSS from providing close body protection for the president as they have always done for many years. It was the climax of the distrust of the DSS operatives by the president’s team since he won the election of March 28. In the memo, seen by Sunday Vanguard, the ADC claimed that ‘recent events’ which he did not name necessitated the change he was effecting in the security architecture of the Villa especially as it concerns the close body protection of the president. The ADC memo addressed to the chief security officer to the president,said: ‘’Sequel to directives, I am to inform you, with immediate effect, the authorization of the redeployment of some DSS personnel from some duty beats/locations. Personnel of the armed forces of Nigeria and the Nigeria Police who were trained as presidential body guards (PBGs) are to provide close/ immediate protection for Mr. President henceforth. “However, the personnel of the DSS, in conjunction with other security forces, are to man other duties, beats/locations located within the immediate outer perimeter of the Presidential Villa”. The ADC went ahead to list some of the beats/ locations that are off limit to the men of the DSS which effectively mean that the personnel of the DSS would effectively be about two kilometers away from the precincts of the Presidential Villa. The memo by the ADC to the CSO was the culmination of several weeks of suspicion of the DSS, especially in the run up to the presidential election. It would be recalled that prior to the election, the spokesperson of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar, revealed that in carrying out its operations, the service raided a building which was being used as a centre by agents suspected to be working for the APC to clone the Permanent Voter Card of the Independent National Electoral Commission. Several of such operation, which saw the APC receiving the short end of the stick, created the impression that the DSS had removed its toga of neutrality and was working in the interest of the Peoples Democratic Party whose candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, was the sitting president. With the emergence of Buhari as president, it was learnt that some persons in his inner circle plotted the idea that since the DSS appeared to have been partisan in favour of the Jonathan (which they interpreted to mean the PDP), the DSS would be stripped of its constitutional role of providing close body security for the president and his family. In order to ensure that there was no vacuum, it was gathered that a retired senior security personnel, who worked closely with the Buhari campaign team, wrote to the heads of some security agencies, including the DSS, to nominate a certain number of their personnel for training in close body protection in Jaji, Kaduna State. It could not be ascertained whether heads of other security agencies complied with the directive, but it was learnt that the DSS, which had already trained a new set of operatives to take over from the personnel that provided security for Jonathan, did not honour the request from the aide, who, they argued, was not known to the service because he had no appointment in government as at then. As it is customary, all the nation’s security agencies deployed some of their men and equipment to provide maximum security for the President as soon as he emerged as president- elect. While there was little or no friction between the private security guards of the then president- elect and members of the Nigeria Police and the army, for instance, the personnel of the DSS were viewed with suspicion. The disdain came to a head at a mosque when an attempt by the DSS operatives to restrict access of the private security guards of the president-elect almost resulted in a fisticuff but for the timely intervention of some senior aides. Few weeks after the mosque incident, personnel of the Nigerian Army, without coordination with the security operatives on ground in the Presidential Villa, were drafted to join the presidential body guard to understudy how to protect the president. Later, when the new crop of body guards, who had been trained for over three months to take over from those that served under Jonathan, resumed at the Presidential Villa, they were turned back, allegedly on the order of the ADC to the president. A day before the memo officially warning the DSS operatives to stay away from the Presidential Villa, it was learnt that the ADC went to all the beats manned by the PBGs and drove them away. According to Sunday Vanguard’s findings, apart from being constitutionally empowered to provide close body protection for the president, the vice president, the governors and their deputies, the president of the senate, the speaker of the House of Representatives and their families, the DSS is the only security organization that has the competence to provide protection for the VIPs. That is why when there are visiting heads of state, the department provides not only the security details but also, support staff. To underscore the fact that even the army and the police lack the capacity to train personnel for close body protection, they frequently sends their personnel to the DSS for training as body guards. Warning about the dangers about personalizing the protection of the president and his family, a security consultant in Abuja who retired from the DSS as Director after serving for 35 years, Mike Ejiofor said personal interests and score settling should not be a yardstick for determining which agency protects the president. “I don’t believe the story that the DSS has been withdrawn from protecting the president because his security should not be toyed with. If the president is intent on changing the security architecture, a policy formulation should be made. He should come up with a working document streamlining the different functions of the various agencies. Statutorily and constitutionally, the state security service is charged with the protection of the president, the vice president, the senate president, the governors, and the deputy governor, speaker of the House of Representatives and state house of Assembly and their families”, he stated. “The president’s security should not be toyed with. I believe that what is going on now is people who are trying to settle personal scores. Instead of looking at national security, they want to settle personal score and in the process compromise national security and the security of the president. What I am saying is that I don’t believe it, but if it is true, it’s rather unfortunate because those military that are being drafted are not trained in body guard protection. The DSS are trained for VIP protection and the president falls under VIP”. According to a Nigerian Army Intelligence officer in the Villa who spoke with Sunday vanguard on the matter, even if there was a need for a change of security personnel around the Villa and especially around the president, the situation could have been better handled than it was done because of the wider security implication both for the president and the country. The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, noted,”There is a system in place where all the security agencies in the Villa have their defined roles and responsibilities. Even within the army, there are different corps in the Villa and their roles are defined. Statutorily, we have come to know that the role of close body protection is the role of the DSS. Apart from their personnel who are trained both within and outside the country for the role, there are sensitive equipments that they are the only people who have the competence to handle them. Withdrawing them whimsically as it was reported to have been done is not only tardy but exposes the country to ridicule. I am sure that at the end of the day, reason will prevail and the emotional decisions that seem to have been made in the last few days would be reversed”. It was gathered that the National Security Adviser, who coordinates security matters for the president, has waded in to resolve the crisis. As a man who professes that his administration would be guided by the rule of law, it speaks well of Buhari to abide by the provisions of not just the law but also conventions. And such weighty decision on who provides close body security for the president and his family cannot be taken on the basis of emotions or ego but on sound judgment, what the law provides and convention.

Nigeria records highest number of drug related convicts in the World — NDLEA

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has said that Nigeria has the highest number of persons serving jail terms for drug related offences worldwide. Mr Iweajunwa Okechukwu, NDLEA commander in the Niger State, told Journalists in Minna, the state capital, that this development has now become one of the biggest problems confronting the country today. “All over the world, Nigerians are notorious for drug trafficking. We have the highest number of traffickers serving jail terms more than any other country in the world,” he said. He said Government is worried about this development, hence the Theme of this year’s drug free day is ‘Lets Develop our Lives, our Communities and our Identities without Drugs.’ Okechukwu reminded Nigerians of the recent Indonesian drug saga in which Nigerians who were involved were executed, adding that more Nigerians are also facing similar charges in some other foreign countries. This, he said, is not a good development for the country. He said in Niger State drug abuse is now becoming a serious issue, especially the prescription of drugs and psychotropic substances such as tramadol, rohypnol and diazepam.

Families besiege mortuary in search of 12 dead Ogun varsity students

It was a hectic task for workers of Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital, Sagamu to control the crowd as families and friends of some students of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, who lost their lives on the Sagamu-Benin Expressway, on Friday, besieged the hospital in search of them. No fewer than 12 persons lost their lives when a container from a truck fell on a 14-seater commercial bus they were travelling in from Ago- Iwoye to Lagos State. Sunday Vanguard gathered that some relatives were told by the hospital authorities that the bodies were not deposited at their morgue as reported by some media outfits. A senior staff of the hospital, who craved for anonymity, noted that grieving family members of the victims were directed to comb private morgues within the town, saying information at his disposal had it that some bodies of victims were deposited at a private hospital mortuary. It was further gathered that the university’s Head of Students Affairs,Professor Lekan Arikewuyo, and the Chief Security Officer, Mr. Rasheed Adekunle, were, early yesterday morning, in search of private morgues were the bodies of the victims of the accident were deposited.

The Saraki, Dogara resistance

This is the story of how the All Progressives Congress, APC, shot itself in the foot. Whereas some individuals, very familiar with anointing individuals to fill positions irrespective of the sensibilities and sensitivities are involved, the national stage, which has its own fervor, appears confounding. As the party – or a section of it – continues to attempt to impose its will on others, it is becoming clearer that President Muhammadu Buhari has successfully innoculated himself from the shenanigans going on in the APC in the name of party supremacy. This report will show that only a few individuals, intent on imposing their will, are responsible for the generation of heat in the polity. -*BETWEEN A GUBER CANDIDATE AND NATIONAL LEADER*- Pin-drop silence! That was it. The encounter between one of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from Lagos, and a gubernatorial candidate of the party, who had served as minister during Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure, ended abruptly. The leader had attempted to cause the realignment of interests and expectations. Having clinched the party’s ticket in this very strong North-West state, which used to serve as capital of old Northern Region, the former minister was told to ensure that the first runner up to him should be awarded a senatorial seat as compensation. The former minister would have none of that. His explanation was that some individuals were already far afield in the campaigns for the Senate and candidates had even emerged for the three senatorial zones of the state and, therefore, substituting another candidate with the loser in another different contest would go against the grain of natural justice, adding that such a voyage in autocracy comes with the consequence of disrupting the activities of the party. To that explanation, the APC stalwart charged, invoking his status as a big man in the party that must be respected. The former minister, known for his principled firmness, charged back: “Please, this is not your state in the South West where you people fix things. What do you know about the politics of our state that it would now be within your remit to determine who goes for what? Please stop it!” End of discussion. -*PARTY LEADERS, WHAT DO YOU WANT?*- The crisis in the National Assembly is nothing but the internal battle for the control of the party which produced majority of members. After performing beyond its wildest imagination in the last general elections by winning the Presidency and taking control of the National Assembly, APC is just experiencing the reality of the wise saying that when hunters go on a joint expedition, the rigours of the hunting exercise cannot be as tedious as that of sharing their spoils. Information available to Sunday Vanguard suggests that, early last year, when the APC was going for its national convention in Abuja to elect national officers, there was an informal attempt by its leaders to share different offices or, at least, ask the major protagonists what position each of them was interested in. While it was obvious that the then General Muhammadu Buhari was interested in the Presidency, others like Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Alhaji Musa Kwakwanso and Chief Rochas Okorocha also indicated interest in the nation’s number one position. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the respected leader of the party, who many were expecting to take the Senate Presidency, said he and the South West wanted the Vice Presidency. Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was asked whether he was still interested in the Presidency as he contested for the same position in 2011. He declined and stated clearly that he wanted to return to the Senate and that he was interested in the Senate Presidency. All that was last year! -*VOICE OF JACOB, HAND OF ESAU*- Pulling the strings from outside, the permutations, which went awry and which may tear down APC, are symptomatic of an individual directing the affairs of a political party. Today, Buhari is President. Tinubu, after failing to get the Vice Presidency for himself because of the Muslim/Muslim issue, has given the position to his loyalist, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. In fact, it would be recalled that but for the enfant terrible, Femi Fani-Kayode, who raised the alarm about the dangers of having a Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket, the APC may have blinded itself to the sensibilities of people of other faiths. Indeed, even after the alarm had been raised, Buhari, being the straight-faced person that he is, said in an interview with The Cable, an online medium, that left to him, he did not see any thing too bad in a Muslim/Muslim ticket. It had to take the rambunctious Obasanjo to warn the APC of making such a grievous mistake. That was how that thought perished. Meanwhile, it was Tinubu who influenced the emergence of John Oyegun as APC Chairman. Now, after the election, a wing of the APC, ostensibly headed by Tinubu, went to town with the story that Saraki is too independent-minded and cannot be controlled. Buhari was also informed of this. They argued further that the former Kwara State governor is ambitious and already interested in the 2019 presidential race and, therefore, should not be trusted with the power of the Senate Presidency. The new plot is hinged on the fact that after controlling the party and the Presidency, the next plan is to move into the legislature and fill its leadership with acolytes. That was why Senator George Akume was first introduced as the APC candidate for Senate Presidency because it had earlier been agreed that the position will be zoned to the North Central geo-political zone. When the Akume candidacy fell flat on its face, a new case was made for the position to be zoned to the North East. Enter Senator Ahmed Lawan as the ‘perfect candidate’ for the position. Unfortunately, Lawan is seen by some as lacking support among his colleagues and has no personal charisma or network to aid the schemes by his sponsor. Saraki, David Mark, Ali Ndume, Danjuma Goje, Joshua Dariye, like most senators and representatives, had argued that the National Assembly members should be allowed to elect their leaders. Saraki made it clear to the entire world that, as a democrat, he will put himself forward for election as President of the Eight Senate and he will respect the decision of his colleagues on the floor of the Senate. Historically, leaders of the National Assembly chosen for the members have never lasted. The cesspit of fallen leaders has Evan Enwerem, Imam Salisu Buari, Adolphus Wabara, Patricia Etteh. Only leaders chosen by members or senators have tended to do well and last long, except Chuba Okadigbo, who himself played a major part in his impeachment as Senate President in 2001. The rest is history. -*WHO ARE THE LEADERS OF APC?*- Sunday Vanguard learnt that some leaders of the party are already kicking and raising fresh alarm. The likes of Atiku, Sani Yerima, Kabiru Gaya, Audu Ogbeh and some others are already questioning the appellation ‘PARTY SUPREMACY’. One of these leaders asked and demanded an answer to this question: “Who and what constitute party leadership? Is the party leadership just Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Mala Bunu? This section of APC leadership has blackmailed the only voice of moderation in the APC headquarters, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, by accusing him of collecting bribe”. This allegation appears very wild because the quality of Oyegun that made him the preferable choice over Tom Ikimi was his integrity. Therefore, when did that key quality of his persona denitrify? Another question: What manner of APC leadership exists without the inclusion of President Muhammadu Buhari? This selective and exclusive leadership without these eminent party leaders appears to be the one insisting that after losing the battle to impose the National Assembly officials, the entire legislature should be crumbled. -*ONCE UPON AN AD, AC AND ACN!*- This same tactic was employed over a decade ago to destroy the leadership of their previous parties – AD, AC and ACN – in order to take control. At several instances and interview sessions, Chiefs Ayo Adebanjo, Olaniwun Ajayi, and others have told and retold the story of the history of ‘respect for party leadership’ as it relates to those who are now championing the concept. -*APC’s SELF-INFLICTED DAMAGE*- What appeared to have happened on the Senate inauguration day was that Saraki teamed up with the PDP senators and about eight from the APC to get the position at a time that about 51 other members of the APC were at the International Conference Centre, Abuja to attend a meeting with Buhari. “As part of the trade-off by Senator Saraki, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP was elected Deputy Senate President. Not a few wondered how a man could have stabbed his own party in the back the way Senator Saraki did, just to realize his ambition”. This is the claim. However, upon closer scrutiny, the APC may have just been lucky not to have conceded a bigger blunder. The 49 PDP senators in the chambers could also have nominated David Mark. With their numerical superiority, Mark would have won before the other APC senators stormed the chambers. Also ignored is the fact that Lawan, the candidate of the section of the party leadership which claimed that it is representing the APC, enjoyed the support of only 27 senators out of the available 108. Thus, the so-called meeting purportedly convened by the President at the ICC, but which the Presidency has denied, was planned by the same section of the party leadership which now flagrantly used the name of ‘the party’ to legitimize its scheme. The plan was to use the gathering, with the presence of Buhari, to railroad and coerce the senators and Representatives to go and rubber stamp its decisions. That Buhari was not in the full know of what was going to happen at that meeting, sources in the presidency told Sunday Vanguard, “was itself an act of treachery and insult on the person of Mr. President; but providence and the mature disposition of the President on the matter, coupled with what appears to be the will of God at the moment, led to what happened.” To buttress his point that Buhari was kept in the dark, the source pointed out: If it is true that President Buhari conveyned the meeting at ICC by 9a.m., how come that by 10. 05 a.m. when the Senate began sitting on the strength of the proclamation issued by the same President stating that the inauguration should be done by 10a.m. same day, Buhari had not arrived the venue of the meeting at ICC which they claimed he convened? Or why did he not send another letter contrary to the first letter he sent the previous weekend?” It is worthy of note that APC members present in the Senate chamber on the inaugural day fielded Senator Ali Ndume for the position of Deputy Senate President and voted for him but were defeated by the 49 PDP senators who were all present as against the 25 APC senators present. Those who kept APC senators from the chamber and did not realise that they ought to change the time on the presidential proclamation sent to the Clerk, made Ekweremadu the Deputy Senate President by default. It should be noted that if the Clerk of the National Assembly had conducted the elections of the leadership of the House of Representatives before that of the Senate, the House of Representatives would have ended up with a PDP Deputy Speaker as it happened in the Senate. The two hours the Clerk spent conducting the election in the Senate before he started that of the House of Representatives saved the day in the House as it allowed APC members to return from the aborted meeting to the House chamber. Otherwise, the PDP would have been in the majority on the floor in of the House in the absence of the APC members. Some leaders of the APC feel comfortable using the name of the President to pursue a personal agenda. They appear to be ready to sacrifice the stability of the Eight Senate for their narrow interest of enthroning stooges as leaders against the wishes of the senators and members of the House. After losing in the contest for the Senate Presidency and that of his deputy, the battle shifted to the selection of other principal officers – Majority Leader, Chief Whip and their deputies. Sunday Vanguard is aware that the convention since 1999 is for the senators from the various zones to elect the occupants of the office allocated to their zones. Both Section 60 of the Constitution and the Senate Rule speak about the occupants of the positions coming from the party with the majority not that they should be selected by the party. This time around, the same group of leaders chose to twist the Senate Rule and Convention to smuggle in their choices into the leadership of the Senate. For example, they deprived the South-South of their due slot and then gave the North Central more than its fair share by adding the Deputy Majority Leader to the Senate Presidency it already has. -*HOW NORTH-EAST SENATORS REJECTED LAWAN*- In the interest of peace and reconciliation, some senators actually worked and begged for the emergence of Lawan as Majority Leader. Both at the APC caucus meeting last Wednesday and the various meetings of the North-East caucus, some senators, including Saraki, lobbied for Lawan to be accepted as the Majority Leader. Sunday Vanguard gathered that Lawan was roundly rejected by 10 out of the 12 senators from the zone. Surprisingly, his sponsors refused to intervene and compel other senators from the North East to accept him. Information available suggests that the Senate President had delayed the announcement of the new Senate principal officers to leave room for the North East caucus to shift ground and accept Lawan. Yet, the senator who wanted to lead the entire Senate could not convince Lawan’s colleagues from his zone to accept him. Saraki clearly read out letters from the zonal caucuses nominating the senators for various positions. The letters were supported by list of senators who signed to support the content. It was obvious that the parliamentary procedure did not support the Senate president reading a letter from the party chairman on a matter concerning only a caucus of the Senate. The appropriate procedure is for the party Chairman to write the leader of his party’s caucus. The caucus can then adopt the contents of the letter and write the Senate President on the issue. At that point, the Senate President will have no option than to make the announcement of the contents of the letter open to senators. However, the APC knew majority of its caucus members were opposed to the contents of its letter. The only equivalent of that action would have been APC writing Buhari, listing the names of all ministers as chosen by the party and insisting that the President should adopt it. Likewise, the APC leadership may want to direct its state chairmen to submit the list of all commissioners to its Governors, with a directive that the Governors must adopt the list without question. -*WORKING TOGETHER*- Eventually, the list of principal officers released showed that the two Senate groups, Unity Forum and Like Minds, shared the positions equally. Both Sola Adeyeye, the Chief Whip, and Ibn Na Allah are members of the Unity Forum supporting Lawan while Ali Ndume, the Majority Leader, and Frank Alimikhena are members of the Like Minds. It is heartwarming that even the so-called leadership of the party conceded that Saraki enjoys support across party lines because majority of the senators believe in his capacity and capability to protect the independence of the legislature and nurture the principle of separation of powers which undergirds the presidential system. The option left to both sides is to reconcile and work together. None definitely has the figure to remove the other. The Senate President, however, is expected to constitute committees and the Senate will move on to serious issues. -*JOHN STUART MILL ON AMBITION AND POWER*- In John Stuart Mill’s PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, we are made to understand that human improvement has no tendency to correct the intensely selfish feelings engendered by power. In Mill’s estimation, which is the warped and bleached version of the modus operandi of the Wantoks of Papua New Guinea – the Wantoksare the ‘big men’ who accumulate state resources any which way and then redistribute via patronizing schemes that keep their people in perpetual servitude – a paradigm that appears to be creeping into the politics of a wing of the APC, politicians will need to learn the lesson that the welfare of a nation must rest on the justice and judicious self-determination of its citizens – and, by extension, party members. It’s ‘overbearing’ ruling party versus peoples’ representatives -*BY HENRY UMORU*- On June 9, members of the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, put aside political affiliation to elect their leaders. Some of them defied their party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. A former governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki, emerged the President of the Senate. Whereas Saraki, representing Kwara Central, is of the ruling APC, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the opposition PDP, surprisingly emerged Deputy Senate President, defeat ing Senator Ali Ndume of the APC. The Senator President pledged that he would be guided by the enormity of the responsibilities that the national challenge had imposed on everybody while, at the same time, strive to be just, equitable and fair to all. As the Senate resumed plenary on Wednesday, June 10, Saraki administered the oath of office and allegiance on the 28 APC lawmakers who were absent at the inauguration of the 8th Senate. Immediately thereafter, the senators protested and even threatened to sue him over the process that produced him and Ekweremadu as President and Deputy President of the Senate respectively. The group, numbering 51, loyal to Senator Ahmed Lawan, who had been nominated for the President of the Senate by the APC leadership and had been at a meeting with President Buhari at the time Saraki and Ekweremadu emerged as Senate leaders, staged a walkout after being ruled out of order by the Senate President. Drama unfolded on the Senate floor when attempts made by Senators Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central) and Barnabas Gemade (APC Benue North East) to get Saraki to reconsider the process that brought him into office through breaches of the privileges of the 51 APC senators that were shut out of the election. Thereafter, the pro-Lawan senators, led by Gemade, under the aegis of the Unity Forum, at a media briefing, accused the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, of carrying out an illegality with the election of Saraki as Senate President when only 57 out of 108 senators-elect across party divides were around. They vowed to contest the process in the court of law. But sensing that the ruling APC may explode, the APC National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun, threw his weight behind the emergence of Saraki as the President of the Senate, adding that the reality was that Saraki’s colleagues had duly elected him and the party was ready to live with the reality. By last Thursday when the Senate President clocked 17 days in office, he had made germane statements concerning the economy, politics, international relations, oil sector, revenue allocation, allowance for lawmakers. During the visit of some civil society groups under the aegis of Civil Society Situation Room, led by Sir Clement Nwankwo, Saraki attributed alleged corruption at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to what he termed “lack of operational budget”, saying such an era where there was deliberate non-provision of operation budget for agencies of government to function was over. According to him, non-provision of operational budget for most agencies, especially income generating agencies, was leading to “serious leakages.” He disclosed that the 1999 Constitution Amendment Bill, the 2011 Electoral Act Amendment Bill, as well as the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, which were either passed by the last National Assembly or refused assent by former President Goodluck Jonathan would be given attention as soon as the Senate resumes from break. Also during the visit of a delegation of the British High Commission led by the High Commissioner, Andrew Pocock, the envoy assured that the UK will work closely with the Nigerian government in ensuring good governance at all levels. When he received the United States of America (USA) Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, in his office, the President of the Senate restated the hope of a brighter Nigeria and reiterated his commitment to enacting legislation that would sustain an investment-friendly atmosphere with the view to bringing the country out of its current economic downturn. Also during the visit of the Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Osagie Okunbor, Senator Bukola Saraki reiterated the commitment of the Senate towards the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bills (PIB) through intensive dialogue that will address the bottleneck which made the bill recalcitrant. The Senate President equally admitted oath of office and allegiance on former Kano State governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Kano Central. To take off effectively, Saraki made his first official appointments, naming Senator Isa Galaudu as his Chief of Staff. In a statement signed by the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, Benedith Efeturi, Saraki also appointed Yusuph Adesola Olaniyonu as his Special Adviser, Media. Also during the period under review, the deadlock in the Senate over the choice of leaders and whips of the APC rumbled on with the senators elected on the platform of APC coming to near blows at a forum to choose their officers. Problem started when a returning senator from Ondo State said the ruling APC would not dictate to senators, saying the party’s nominee would not have emerged as Chief Whip if the vote was left to the South-West senators to decide. He was said to have suggested Senator Ajayi Boroffice for the post. This angered Senator Kabiru Marafa, Zamfara Central. It was at this point that the two senators in different camps went for one another’s jugular before some colleagues rushed to separate them. Saraki, while declaring open the meeting of the APC senators, had said, “I appeal to you all to let us do those things that will unite us than to those that will divide us. I am ready and desirous, as colleagues to work with all of you in order to provide that focused leadership in the Senate and National Assembly as an institution”. Last week, the jostle to fill the principal officers in the red chamber also tore the APC apart. The ruling party has these positions: Senate Majority Leader; Deputy Majority Leader; Senate Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip while the opposition PDP has the Senate Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader; Senate Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip. The APC nominees were as follows: Senate Majority Leader (North east-Senator Ahmad Lawan); Deputy Majority Leader (North central- Senator George Akume); Senate Chief Whip (South west-Senator Olusola Adeyeye) and Deputy Chief Whip (North west-Senator Abu Ibrahim). For the PDP, it was gathered that its caucus would push forward the immediate last Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta and Senator representing Delta South, Senator James Manager for the position of Minority leader; the immediate past Senate Committee Chairman on Power and Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda for Deputy Minority leader; former Governor of Plateau State and senator representing Plateau Central, Joshua Dariye as Minority Whip and former Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and Senator representing Gombe South, Joshua Lidani for deputy Minority Whip. Again, the pro-Saraki senators defied the APC leadership to come up with lawmakers loyal to them to fill four principal offices. At the end of the day, Senator Ali Ndume (Borno, North east) was favoured as Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, a first timer in the Senate, but a two-term member of the House of Representatives from Kebbi State got the position of Deputy Senate Leader while Senator Olusola Adeyeye, from S/West, was favoured as the candidate for Senate Chief Whip and his deputy was the only Senator from the South south, Francis Alimikhana, Edo North. Meanwhile, the Senate has suspended plenary till July 21.

Gani Adams: 'Bad advisers will destroy you like Jonathan' - OPC leader warns Buhari

Oodua People’s Congress’ leader, Otunba Gani Adams has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to be weary of bad advisers if he does not want to suffer the same fate as the immediate past president Goodluck Jonathan. He said Jonathan lost credibility because he was surrounded and misled by bad heads who would usually pose as loyalists. Adams said that Nigerians are longing for true change, noting that if Buhari let bad advisers make up his cabinet, Nigerians would lose confidence in his government, which might result to his destruction. “The former President Jonathan was surrounded by bad advisers who made him lose credibility. Buhari must not appoint ministers that he wouldn’t be able to control. The people in his cabinet should be accountable,” he told Vanguard. The OPC boss highlighted unstable policy, epileptic power outage, corruption, improper planning, high cost of governance as areas the country needs urgent attention.

Buhari: How President humiliated SSS personnel in Aso Rock, fresh 'facts' emerge

A new report has ‘reaffirmed’ the authenticity of the reports that President Muhammadu Buhari removed the State Security Service (SSS) personnel from his inner security detail and stationed them as mere guards outer the perimeter of the presidential villa. The president’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, had, last week, refuted the claims that Buhari expelled the SSS officers because he does not trust them, and believing that they may still be loyal to the past president, Goodluck Jonathan. Adesina explained that what happed to the security personnel in the villa was just “routine adjustments.” He did not however mention that the SSS officers were removed from the president’s primary security detail. Premium Times confirmed that the SSS men were barred from the villa, claiming it sighted a memo on Friday, June 26, which contains the directive. The report said the memo was written by Buhari’s Aide de Camp, Mohammed Abubakar, on June 24 and distributed to key officials in the Villa. It reportedly stated that from that day, “DSS personnel have been redeployed from some duty beats/locations.” The memo, according to the report, clearly stated that security tasks initially being handled by SSS officials are now to be handled by officials of other security agencies. Abubakar said personnel of the Armed Forces and the police, who were trained as Presidential Body Guards, PBGs, are to “provide close/immediate protection for Mr. President henceforth”. The Aide de Camp listed some of the areas to be taken care of by the PBGs to include, Admin Reception, Service Chiefs Gate, Residence Reception, Rear Resident, Resident Gate, Office Reception, C-In-C Control Office, ACADE Gate, C- IN-C Control Gate and Panama. “However, the personnel of the DSS in conjunction with other security forces are to man other duty beats/locations located within the immediate outer perimeter of the Presidential Villa,” he memo reportedly said, without providing reasons for the action.

My life is in danger — Ohakim

A former Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim, has raised the alarm that his life is in danger. In a statement Ohakim issued on Saturday, he claimed that there had been attempts to malign his name and assassinate him. “Following some recent developments around my person and the avalanche of misinformation and deliberate lies being peddled about me, I am constrained to issue this statement, first to douse anxiety of every well-meaning fellow who has shown concern and second, to alert members of the Nigerian public to a clear danger to my life. Throughout my tenure as governor, we never hunted political opponents. There was no political assassination, no arson, no official of government disappeared. “But contrary to the goodwill that existed while I was in office, I have since become an object of attacks and ridicule. Nigerians will recall that on May 15, 2014, directly after I declared interest to re-contest the governorship election of my state, my only house in Owerri was bombed in what was evidently, an attempt to assassinate me. As I write this statement, my portrait is still missing from amongst those of other former governors in a gallery created for that purpose at the Government House, Owerri,” he said. The ex-governor, who is currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, added that there were attempts by some people to pitch him against the commission and other security agencies in the country. According to him, a group in the state, Alliance for Good Governance, who wrote a petition against him to the EFCC. “It was the same group that carried out the failed public demonstration against me in front of the EFCC Headquarters in Abuja. One of the issues raised in the petition was the same carried in similar petitions shortly after I left office four years ago. For example, the petitioners demanded, among other things, that I should be investigated for misappropriating the proceeds from the N18.5 billion drawdown from the Imo state’s N40 billion development bond which my administration issued in 2010. Ohakim also alleged that his voice had been cloned in an interview he purportedly granted to a radio station in which he lambasted some top officials in the security agencies. “The tape of this fake interview was then handed over to some of these key Federal Government officials,” he said. Copyright PUNCH

Boko Haram: 277 soldiers languish in Jos detention facility

More than 277 soldiers arrested for various offences in the ongoing war against insurgency by Boko Haram in the North-East are currently languishing at the Maxwell Khobe cantonment, Rukuba Barracks detention facility of the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army in Jos, Plateau State. SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the soldiers were arrested at various times in the last six months in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, for various offences and are being detained by the Military Police in the barracks. Sources at the barracks told our correspondent that the soldiers were being detained in dehumanising condition without trial for the past six months. It was gathered that some of the soldiers had yet to know the offence for which they were arrested, which, as a result, has made it difficult for the authorities to prefer charges on them. A relation of one of the detained soldiers, who gave his name as Yakubu, told our correspondent that his brother, a sergeant, had been in detention for six months with his family unable to see him. He said, “In fact, since he was detained, no charges have been pressed on him and it is not certain when he will be released. The Army authorities have also denied him access to his family.” In his reaction, the Director of Army Public Relations, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, who responded to an email sent to him, said administratively, only the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Texas Chukwu, could respond to the report. He said, “Thanks, This is administrative please. Kindly speak to Army Public Relations. Cheers.” Efforts made to contact Chukwu were not fruitful. He did not pick repeated calls made to his telephone. Copyright PUNCH.

APC crisis: Buhari meets with Lawan group

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday night met with the Senate Unity Forum led by Senator Ahmad Lawan. SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that during the meeting, which was held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Buhari insisted on party supremacy and supported steps taken so far by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress on the National Assembly crisis. The APC, had before the National Assembly leadership election, endorsed Lawan as its sole candidate for the senate presidency, but Senator Bukola Saraki defied the party to emerge as the senate president. The party had also on Wednesday wrote the Senate President and submitted names of its candidates for the senate principal offices. In the letter, it named Lawan as its choice for the majority leader; Prof. Sola Adeyeye as the chief whip; George Akume as deputy majority leader; and Abu Ibrahim as deputy chief whip. But on Thursday Saraki read nominations by the APC zonal caucuses for the positions. The North- East caucus of the party nominated Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader; while the North- West put forward, Bala Na’Allah as the deputy majority leader. The South-South caucus adopted Francis Alimikhena as the deputy chief. In his reply on Thursday to the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the Senate President explained why he could not abide by the party’s directive on the offices. “Whilst one is strongly persuaded to toe the party line and act in accordance with the suggested party position, regrettably, clear provisions of our extant rules and standard parliamentary convention have not given me that leeway to act otherwise. Therefore, my hands are tied in the circumstances and I seek your understanding in this regard,” he had said. A senator, who was among the team that met with Buhari in company with Lawan, told one of our correspondents on conditions of anonymity, that the president assured them that he would always align with the party’s position on the issue of the National Assembly election. The senator said, “Yes, we met with the president and it was a fruitful one, going forward. We had the assurances of Mr. President that he is fully behind the position of the APC leadership on the National Assembly election. “We are currently on recess but I am sure that when we resume, Nigerians will begin to see the effect of the meeting. I won’t say more than that. “ SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the plan was for the President to meet as many of the various groups that had emerged in the National Assembly. A top member of the party, who confided in SUNDAY PUNCH, said, “Yes. The President met with Senator Lawan and some APC senators. The plan is for him to also meet House of Representatives members from the party too.” SOURCE- PUNCH

I dropped my presidential ambition for Buhari — Saraki

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has denied reports that he is nursing the ambition for presidency in 2019, saying he actually quit his presidential bid in the 2015 election for President Muhammadu Buhari. Saraki stated that he contributed immensely to the emergence of Buhari as President and contributed greatly to his victory in the presidential election held on March 28, 2015. The Senate President, who spoke to select journalists in an exclusive interview in Abuja on Saturday, also denied having plans to dump the All Progressives Congress due to the ongoing crisis in the party over his leadership of the Senate. Rather, he said what remained paramount in his mind at the moment was how to support the Buhari-led administration to tackle the various social and economic problems confronting the country. Saraki said, “I was the first person that stepped down his political ambition, once General Buhari announced that he was going to contest the presidential election. And since then, prior to the period of election, I worked tirelessly to support his emergence. “Even some of my friends who are not supporting me now are doing so because I did not support them in their presidential ambition and that I supported President Buhari. That is why I find it funny that the same people are now claiming to love Buhari more than me. It is a very funny world. “These are people that I was begging to leave the stage for Buhari to run since all of us are young. They are now the one going round to say that Saraki did not like Buhari but time will tell.” The Presidency, however, faulted Saraki’s claim of stepping down for Buhari ahead of the presidential election. Saraki had on October 13, 2014, announced the suspension of his presidential bid in the interest of the country and his party. He, however, did not state which of the other aspirants he was going to back. Saraki’s statement then partly read, “I decided to step down my ambition because Nigeria’s political outlook for 2015 is very complicated and this is the time for every patriotic politician to situate his personal ambition in the context of the country’s overall interest. “I don’t think our party can afford too much internal rancour going into next year’s election. I, therefore, think some of us need to make the sacrifice and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem of the party.” This will be Saraki’s first personal response to the ongoing crisis that is trailing his controversial emergence as the President of the Senate on June 9. Saraki had led a faction of APC senators, under the auspices of the Like Minds Senators, to defy the party’s choice of Ahmad Lawan as the Senate President. In what many have described as a ‘coup’, the pro- Saraki group had allied with the opposition lawmakers in the Peoples Democratic Party to make Saraki leader of the upper chamber of the legislature in the absence over 50 APC senators. A similar scenario had also played out in the House of Representatives where Yakubu Dogara opposed Femi Gbajabiamila, the choice candidate of his party, to emerge Speaker of the House. Explaining what happened on the National Assembly leadership election day, Saraki said he smuggled himself into the chamber on the day the 8th Assembly was inaugurated when he became aware of an alleged plan to abduct and prevent him from standing for the Senate presidential election The Senate President also defended his absence from the International Conference Centre venue of a proposed meeting between President Buhari and APC lawmakers on the day of the election. He insisted that he did not receive any invitation for the meeting. Saraki said, “As regards the meeting, on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4am of that day and I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get access into the chambers. He said the plan before was that senators-elect should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel around 8:00am and 9:00am to proceed to the National Assembly. The Senate President said he was, however, advised against going to the chamber at the scheduled time as there were plans to stop him from being part of the day’s proceedings. Saraki said he got into the National Assembly Complex as early as 6:00am and stayed in a car in the car park from then till quarter to 10:00am. He noted that all through the period, there was no communication to him. “So, anybody who said they spoke to me to go the ICC was not true because I didn’t even know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people were arriving at the complex. It was at quarter to 10:00am that I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly had entered the chamber.” The APC, however, described Saraki’s non- invitation claim as a lie, saying all senators-elect were invited to the said meeting. Saraki, a two-term ex-Governor of Kwara State and former Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, said it was at that point that he got down from the “small car” in which he was hiding and entered the chamber. “Even when I was in the chambers, I didn’t know what had transpired earlier on. The only thing I observed was that it appeared that some of our senators were not in the chamber. But for the fact that my colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that they were on their way. And by 10:00am, the programme started. “Before I knew it, my election had come and gone. Even, my people were worried. It was only when I got into the chambers that they were relieved,” Saraki added. The Senate President also dismissed his alleged pact with the PDP to elect Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President. Ekweremadu of the PDP, who occupied same position in the last Senate, had been re-elected as Saraki’s deputy in the Senate that has the APC as majority. The Senate President, however, insisted that that it was the absence of the APC Senators from the chamber that caused the emergence of Ekweremadu as his deputy. He said, “Never in our wildest imagination did we envisage that some senators would not be present on the day of the inauguration. In my view, and in the view of some of those who worked closely with me, I worked hard for my election. I had direct contact with every single senator; one on one. Weeks to the election, I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard, both in our party, the APC, and out of it. “I approached every senator, I talked to them. We built confidence, not only in the APC, but, also, in the PDP. I talked to them. That was why I laugh when people said that I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu.” Saraki stated that he did not need any deal to win the election, saying he had “penetrated everywhere.” Speaking further on the penetration, he said, “One of the meetings was held at Transcorp Hilton and Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Ibrahim Gobir co-chaired it. Both the APC and the PDP members were present. “At that meeting, if you heard most of them there, the position they took was that ‘this is the Senate President they want. Across party lines, they said that they believe in me and that this is the Senate President that can lead us. There was no deal.” Saraki, who described Ekweremadu’s deputy Senate presidency as painful and unfortunate, maintained that it was caused by the absence of his APC colleagues. He recalled that the PDP senators had announced to the public that they were supporting him. He further said, “With regard to the deputy, when they told us that they had a candidate, we, too, told them we had a candidate for Deputy Senate President in the person of Senator Ali Ndume. “We never, in our imagination, thought they (other APC senators) would not turn up. By the time we got there, we were only 24 while the PDP was more than 40. “It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy Senate President. It is painful. It is painful for any APC member because when we went through the struggle. That was not what we signed for.” Saraki said it was unfair to put the blame on “one side” because it was a combination of errors and miscalculations that led having some senators at another place instead of being on the floor of the Senate on that day. “So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to emerge (as Senate President) is what I reject completely and those who followed the events would know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge,” he stated. Saraki also disagreed with insinuations that he went against the position of the party which had allegedly zoned the position of the Senate president to a particular region. “At no time was any decision taken by the party to zone the position to any particular zone,” he stated. Saraki also said he had had personal discussions with the Lawan and they had allegedly deliberated extensively on how to collectively move the Senate forward in the interest of the senators, the APC and members of the public. He said, “I also have an opportunity to sit down and discuss with Senator Ahmad Lawan as part of our reconciliation efforts. I am confident that this matter will soon fizzle out because we are making serious efforts.” Saraki further said serious arrangements were already ongoing to unite the various sides to the crisis, even as he hinted that he had reached out to the leaders of the party, President Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on how to collectively move the country forward. “Regards to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; as you all know, he is one of the leaders of the party. I have great respect for him. We have worked closely together before. Unfortunately my group did not agree with him on this issue. “However, we are both responsible and committed to the project of the party and Nigeria that we will overcome this and move forward. It is part of our plans, as part of the healing process, to meet with him and it will happen soon,” Saraki added. -*Saraki did not step down for Buhari – Presidency*- The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on Saturday, said there was no truth in the claim by Saraki that he stepped down for President Buhari in the APC presidential race. Adesina, in an interview with one of our correspondents, said the issue of stepping down did not arise because the party conducted a free and fair presidential primary which Buhari won. The presidential spokesman said all Nigerians know those who took part in the party primary. Adesina said, “There was no issue of stepping down during the presidential race in the APC. There was a presidential primary that was plain, transparent, free and fair. “We all know those who were involved in the primary; all Nigerians know those who participated in the APC presidential primary and President Buhari emerged the winner of that process.” When asked if Saraki had reached out to the President as he claimed, Adesina said, “The President has always maintained that the party is supreme. The party started a process which was truncated. “The President has always maintained that those who truncated or aborted the process were the ones who precipitated crisis. “The President had said in earlier statements that he would work with anybody who emerged the Senate President, but then, that did not include those who will subvert (the process).” -*‘Saraki snubbed Buhari to emerge Senate president’*- A leader of the APC, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on the condition of anonymity, said Saraki was only trying to be clever by half. The leader of the party, who spoke in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Saturday, said Saraki had boxed himself into a corner. “Saraki is simply trying to be clever by half. He is in a fix and he is trying to justify his illegal actions,” the source said. He added, “Saraki is bound by the nation’s constitution to read the party’s list without any amendment. If the PDP had sent him their own list of principal officers, will he tamper with it or won’t the PDP send their own list?” Insisting that the Senate President lied about not being invited to the ICC meeting, the reliable party source said Saraki was invited. The source said, “He is lying if he said he was not invited to the ICC meeting. All National Assembly members-elect were invited via an SMS. “He deliberately snubbed the President because he had already struck a deal with the PDP to actualise his inordinate ambition in defiance of his party’s position.

Traders protest Boko Haram prisoners’ transfer to Anambra

Commercial activities were paralysed on Saturday in Anambra State following protests by traders across the state. The traders, who closed their shops as early as 9am in major cities of Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Ekwulobia and Agulu, took to the streets protesting what they termed plan by the Federal Government to transfer Boko Haram detainees to prisons in the state. At Tarzan junction, Nkpor in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state, traders and other residents blocked the Enugu – Onitsha Expressway chanting songs suggesting they would be forced to revive the clamour for Biafran Republic if pushed to the wall. The traders carried placards bearing inscriptions like ‘Buhari should not destroy the peace in Anambra State,’ ‘Biafra kanyi choro’ (We want Biafra), ‘Buhari, Igbos cannot accept your prisoners, ‘We do not want Boko Haram in Anambra,’ ‘Federal Government, why extend Boko Haram to Anambra?’ and ‘Boko Haram prisoners are not allowed here.’ Speaking with journalists during the protests, the Secretary-General, Anambra State Amalgamated Traders Association, Chief Chuma Elucharu, stated that traders in the state decided to shut markets to protest the rumoured relocation of Boko Haram detainees to the state. Eluchraru said the protests would be continuous until the Federal Government assured that there was no such plan. At Onitsha, the protesters threatened to be violent should the rumour proved to be true. There was tension as police used tear gas to disperse the protesters. While addressing the traders, the President- General of AMATAAS, Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo, urged them to be calm, saying further consultation would be made by the association to get clear picture of the situation. Also, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Uche Eze, said there was no need to panic, nothing that the police were handling the situation. Eze enjoined the people of the state to go about their businesses without fear of molestation. A senior officer in the Nigerian Prisons Service in the state who spoke on the condition of anonymity to our correspondent, however, said they got a signal recently to prepare to receive some detainees of the violent sect. But the Nigeria Prisons Service has said there is no plan to transfer Boko Haram suspects in custody to prisons in Anambra State as being speculated. The NPS Public Relations Officer, Francis Enebore, said most of the terror suspects in prison custody are still awaiting trial and cannot be moved out of the jurisdiction of the court where they would be prosecuted. He dismissed speculations that the prison authorities had formalised plans to transfer terror suspects from the northern states to Anambra State, saying there is nothing like that. Enebore said, “Most of the terror suspects are awaiting trial and so, there is no way they can be moved to another state because they must be tried in the state where they committed the crime. “Apart from this, our duty is to move them from prison to court for trial and since they have not been convicted, how can we transfer them to other states outside the jurisdiction of the court where they would be tried? People are just saying things they know nothing about, there is no truth to the rumours that we are transferring terror suspects to other states.”

Kano seeks France’s support on technical education

Kano State government is seeking the support of France in the area of technical education, in order to impart skills on youths from the state and make them employable. Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who sought the support, while receiving the French ambassador to Nigeria, Denys Gauer in his office, also stated that his administration was focusing attention on the teaching of French language in Kano schools. This, he said, was because the state is a foremost commercial nerve centre in West Africa, which receives businessmen from the sub-Saharan Africa, mainly the Francophone countries, adding that his government has established bilingual colleges in Nigeria, as part of efforts to foster socio-economic development. In a statement, signed by the governor’s Press Secretary, Ameen Yassar, Ganduje said that his administration was working towards improved security in the state, assuring the French envoy that Kano is safe for his embassy to reopen its French cultural centre in the state capital. Responding, Gauer said France wanted to be economically present in northern Nigeria, especially in Kano, in view of its strategic position in Nigeria. The French ambassador stated that a French school would soon be established by his government in the state, while the French cultural centre, Alliance Française, which was closed down, due to security challenges would be soon be reopened. He further assured that France would explore more ways of strengthening relations with the government and people of Kano, through the provision of educational scholarships to students and other economic investments in the state. Ganduje recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French embassy in Nigeria to strengthen bilateral cooperation, which will focus on initial and continuous training of French teachers in Kano, as well as the promotion of contemporary course books and the support of the teaching of French in public primary and secondary schools, including private schools.

Dogara, Saraki, working against APC’s success — Sani-Abdu

Member of the House of Representatives from Bauchi State, Mohammed Sani-Abdu, explains to JOHN AMEH why the All Progressives Congress must have its way in the tussle over the appointment of principal officers -*How do you feel that the issue of principal officers led to a fracas in the House on Thursday?*- It is not very true to say that the fracas was because of the names of the principal officers. I think there are historical antecedents to the fracas. Yes, the issue of principal officers is central to it, but there was nothing much that was done than the call that we should go into an executive session; contrary to the House rules which require that first, the House should be convened and then call for prayers. There was no prayer on Thursday. The speaker just came in and said that we should go for an executive session. There will first be prayers, petitions, and if there are letters, he reads the letters and so on, before the orders of the day will start. He skipped all these procedure and just said we should go for an executive session immediately he came in. For sure, this angered the members and that is why I said there are historical antecedents. -*Are you sure people will agree with you that the speaker didn’t follow these procedures or what are the historical antecedents you are referring to?*- First of all, that seat (speakership) was keenly contested; and (Yakubu) Dogara came out tops with only eight votes margin. We should recall that Aminu Tambuwal (immediate past speaker) defeated his rival, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, with over a hundred votes. I am drawing a parallel so you can understand how the current House is so sharply divided. If I were Dogara, immediately I emerged, the first thing would be to secure my seat and the stability of the House. Unfortunately, he didn’t do that. I was the one who nominated Femi Gbajabiamila to contest against Dogara. Even though I am from Bauchi State (same as Dogara), I have personal and other political reasons why I did that, and Dogara knows. However, I was one of the first to congratulate him after he won and I told him because the margin of victory was so slim, it was God’s margin. I advised him to quickly heal the wounds of the House and reconcile forces. I also told him that we discussed with Umar Ghali Na’Abba (former Speaker of the House) and other people that the only way to resolve the problem at the National Assembly, particularly, the House, is to ask the present deputy speaker (Yusuf Lasun) to step down and give that position to Gbajabiamila. This would have allowed these parallel lines to have a coterminous to serve as the beginning of the healing. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and it is not his fault; he gave me plausible reasons why that could not happen. At the end of the day, Dogara’s camp kept both the speaker and deputy speaker slots. Was that why the APC insisted on playing a role in the choice of principal officers? We know that the party has a say in the appointment of principal officers. The party always has that fundamental role. Constitutionally, there is no provision for independent candidature in Nigeria. Therefore, one has to be sponsored for an election by a political party. By filling a membership form, an individual has signed an undertaken that they will be absolutely loyal to the rules and regulations of the party. We all signed this and that is why they gave us a level-playing field to go through the primaries and the main elections. Therefore, we are a product of our own family, the APC, or any party as the case may be. So far, in the history of Nigerian democracy, parties have this commanding view of appointing principal officers. Dimeji Bankole emerged from the South-West; Tunde Akogun, who became the Majority Leader, was the choice of the party; Bello Mohammed from Zamfara State was the Deputy Minority Leader; and at the same time, Kawu Sunmaila was the Deputy Minority Whip. Therefore, it is nothing new. During Patricia Etteh’s time (as the speaker), it was the party, the PDP, that decided on the principal officers. Why should the PDP do it, and now that the APC is in control, everybody is raising eyebrows and causing civil disobedience? The sons of the APC are now trying to rebel against their own father, the APC. That is very wrong. The argument of members on the other side is that the party cannot make these appointments without first agreeing with the various caucuses. When did we even form the caucuses? It is only when the House has been convened and the leadership is in place that the caucuses will emerge. For example, who is the Minority Leader? Can the person now decide what happens in the PDP? For now, there is nothing like caucuses because we don’t have them yet, technically or legally speaking. But, we have different fora within the House, whether the APC fora or zonal fora, but these are not caucuses per say. Until the leadership emerges, there is nothing like caucuses as we speak. We have not reached that stage yet. Therefore, the party has the power to look at various equations, geographical balance and otherwise, to appoint the leaders. Take someone like Gbajabiamila for example. I came to know him in the 6th Assembly as Deputy Minority Leader. I worked with him closely because I was the secretary of the minority caucus when it was formed. I found him to be a very sound character. Being a true Nigerian, I don’t look at where you come from. If you are the most excellent to perform a duty, I will go for you. That was why I went for him against my brother (Dogara) who comes from Bauchi-South where I come from too. This is a national duty. My brother won the speakership and I congratulated him; why are they now working against the APC? That is the beginning of the problem. However, what is actually playing out is that there is the re-engineering of the New PDP (breakaway faction of PDP). They lost out at the front door of elections and they want to get something through the back door of the leadership in the National Assembly to re-launch themselves. Where is all the legacy of Bukola Saraki (Senate President) from? The PDP. Dogara had always been in the PDP, except about nine to 12 months ago when they quarrelled with our state governor for over a period of two years. It became so intense that he had to leave the PDP and join us in the APC. Otherwise, he had been one of the movers and shakers of the PDP, even as a young man. Thus, if you look at all of this and what played out today on the floor, all those who went to protect and champion the cause of Dogara today are from the PDP. So sad, the APC has been gullible and we have played into the hands of the New PDP. You know that some of them are extremely ambitious and have started planning for 2019 already. We knew all along that Dogara and Saraki have the same forum; they have been working together. Also, there is Tambuwal, who has always been a PDP man. He just happened to join the APC. He has been in the ANPP, PDP, New PDP and finally he is back to the APC. Now he is fighting some of his makers and there is ‘Tambuwalisation’ of the House for obvious reasons. There is a bigger picture which will follow. What played out today was not just about the names of principal officers. There will be an implosion if things continue this way. -*You just admitted that the APC has been gullible. How is the party going to handle the situation before there is an implosion?*- The fact is that the party made a mistake. The mistake is what I may call naivety or youthful exuberance of the party. The APC was formed by three and a half of or three and two-halves of different political parties. The merger that gave birth to the party was historical in the sense that it was the first time (such would happen). The APC is barely two years old, yet we went through the crisis of merger when nobody gave us a chance to succeed. The euphoria of forming a new party from different interest groups and parties, that puberty thing, is making the party not to go the whole mile. The President may be a well determined and experienced person and a democrat, but as a group, we have failed by not going the whole mile. We dislodged a ruling party that was so wealthy and very ambitious, only for us to now say that we don’t care about the emergence of the leaders of the National Assembly. That is the greatest mistake and it is a natural mistake because they wanted to imbibe the spirit of true democracy, but we are not there yet. They have forgotten that the enemies armed with sophisticated weapons are still around the corner and they are within the National Assembly. In fact, that is where they are strong. The President has dislodged the executive, but in the National Assembly, the enemies are still strong. To me, the naivety is the biggest mistake. It is not worrisome that one made a mistake, but it is worrisome if one doesn’t rise quickly to amend one’s mistake and wax stronger. I think the party will rise to the occasion as we have done before. -*What is the way forward for the APC in this case?*- As far as I am concerned, the onus lies on Dogara, the Speaker, being the number one person in this matter. As the leader of the House, he has to be responsible to Nigeria, his country, and the constituents that elected us all. My constituency, which is not his constituency, now directly relies on him because his responsibility is also to guide me into doing the right thing. There are many people who can tell him the truth and I am one of those people. He should stabilise the House. The onus is on him to allow party discipline to prevail, if he is truly an APC person. He needs to go back to the line of the party, heal the wounds and appoint these principal officers the same way God appointed him to be the leader of the House. He should discountenance whatever promises he made to anybody outside the party. If this APC platform crumbles, he too will crumble forever.

APC: In the grasp of PDP

The All Progressives Congress, after its massive victory in the 2015 general elections and less than one month as a ruling party, is embroiled in internal battles, writes LEKE BAIYEWU Twice, some members of the All Progressives Congress have rebelled against the party since it came into power on May 29. The APC is only less than two years old as a political party and just one month old as the ruling party. The dream of the party, as expressed by the founding fathers during its formation, was to provide for Nigerians a better alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party, which ruled the country for 16 years. But with the latest developments in the APC, the electorate are in doubt. The APC defeated the then President Goodluck Jonathan and became the majority in the National Assembly — both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Not done, the party went ahead to snatch more state governorship seats from the PDP, controlling about a two-third of the 36 states in the country. Of the 29 states where governorship election was held on April 11, APC won 20 states, while PDP won nine. Ever since the APC recorded victory in the polls at various levels, the party has been having issues on how to manage its successes. Soon after, ambitions began to clash with interests in the party. The power brokers and stakeholders in the APC are bickering on the sharing formula for the spoils from the ruling party’s victory. Those who are watching the internal crisis in the APC believe the signs that the party is a congregation of strange bedfellows are coming out. They hinge their conviction on the fact that several parties and individuals that moved into the party during its formation seem to have interests different from that of the proponents of the party’s creation. Those who are rebelling against the leadership of the APC and the interests of the party, as some analysts have observed, have something in common – most of them cut their political teeth in the PDP. These analysts have called attention to the formation of the ruling party and how those who would not share in the party’s “change” vision ‘sneaked’ into the system. Four major parties had merged to form the APC. They were the Action Congress of Nigeria; the Congress for Progressive Change; the All Nigeria Peoples Party; and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance. A breakaway faction of some aggrieved PDP leaders known as the New PDP had also merged into the party. In the New PDP were five serving governors — Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara). Prominent individuals in this group were former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former PDP National Chairman, Abubakar Baraje; former Governor of Kwara State and ex-Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and several others. This group, some of whose members founded the PDP, had rebelled against the then ruling party, citing alleged injustices meted out on them. For several months, the New PDP ran a parallel executive with the PDP. This faction rivalled the mainstream of the party until it eventually joined the APC. Apart from the five major blocks (ACN, ANPP, CPC, APGA and New PDP), several politicians had also defected from the PDP to the APC en masse before and after the 2013 registration of the party. Several defections to the APC were also recorded towards the 2015 general elections. These groups, analysts said, have formed caucuses in the APC and are pursuing different political goals rather than melt into the party to have a unified vision. Some of those who left the PDP for the APC, either with the New PDP or as individuals, are now lawmakers in the National Assembly. Members of the New PDP caucus had been protesting against alleged unfavourable sharing formula adopted by the leadership of the APC for slots. These slots include those for elective offices in the 2015 elections and political appointments after the polls. The ruling party had said it would not adopt zoning formula, which was propounded by the PDP to share government positions among the six geopolitical zones of the country. Consequently, certain appointments and positions will not automatically go to certain zones, making the process unpredictable. Based on its policy, the APC refused to zone the slots for the National Assembly leadership. Amid growing tension in the party over the presidency of the Senate and speakership of the House of Representatives, it conducted mock elections for aspirants on June 6. Thereafter, the APC announced Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as winners of the primary and its sole candidates for Senate presidency and House speakership, respectively. But in what many analysts have described as a political coup, Saraki and YakubuDogara, who were eyeing the Senate presidency and House speakership seats, respectively, opposed their party and its choice candidates. They went ahead to form alliance with members of the opposition in the upper and lower chambers to defeat the choice candidates of their own party (the APC) in the National Assembly leadership elections held on June 9. More dramatic was the election in the upper chamber of the legislature, where Saraki emerged President of the Senate. While his fellow senators in the APC converged on the International Conference Centre, Abuja, for a meeting with the party leadership, the eighth National Assembly was inaugurated and he was elected unopposed as the Senate President in the election that followed. Not done, Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP was made the Deputy Senate President, the office he occupied in the seventh Senate. The development shocked the national leadership of the APC, which rejected the election and leadership of Saraki and Lawan, threatening to sanction the duo and their supporters in due course. The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on June 12, said the party had accepted Saraki as the President of the Senate, saying, “He has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it.” Even though the APC had said it would work with Saraki, President Buhari and senior officials of APC are reportedly peeved with what the Senate President did in company with his supporters. Apparently a move to pacify those aggrieved, Saraki had paid a well-publicised visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly to seek the intervention of the ex-PDP Board of Trustees chairman in the crisis. Sources said Saraki wanted Obasanjo to pacify the APC leaders on his behalf but the ex-President’s intervention failed to yield the desired results. Some observers believe Saraki must have chosen Obasanjo due to the advisory roles the latter has been playing in the APC. Despite the ongoing peace moves, Saraki again, moved against his party by installing principal officers in the National Assembly other than those pencilled by the party. On Thursday, Saraki gave the APC another shocker when he reeled out names of principal officers of the Senate, as chosen using his prescribed modality. While the Senate President wanted the geopolitical zone caucuses to make nominations, the party had insisted on making the choices. Saraki, as plenary resumed, read out the letters addressed to him by the APC Senate caucuses from the North-East, North-West and South- South. He said the North-East nominated Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader; North-West adopted Senator BalaIbnNa’Allah as Deputy Leader; South-South adopted Senator France Alimikhena as Deputy Chief Whip. The office of the Chief Whip remains vacant as the South-West caucus expected to nominate its candidate is said to have pitched its tent with the party’s leadership. Notwithstanding the protests from the pro-Lawan group, three of the four principal officers assumed office. Saraki asked the Sergeant–at– Arms to lead the three principal officers to their respective seats and assume office immediately. The pro-Saraki group in the Senate had vowed to resist moves by the APC leaders to impose occupants of the remaining principal officers in the Senate from the pro-Lawan senators under the auspices of the Senate Unity Forum. The Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee had met with the pro-Saraki and pro- Lawan groups on Monday, the first time the two factions would meet face to face, which observers saw as the first real opportunity for the leaders of the two opposing groups to reach a truce. Unfortunately, the meeting was deadlocked. The arrowheads in the battle attended the meeting but none of the two sides was ready to shift grounds. On Tuesday, an argument between two APC lawmakers, Senators Kabiru Marafa and Tayo Alasoadura degenerated into fisticuffs, which stalemated a last-minute attempt by the party’s caucus in the Senate to select the principal officers. Saraki had convened the meeting to unite the Like Minds Senators and the Senate Unity Forum. Apparently to forestall the Thursday stalemate, Odigie-Oyegun had written Saraki and Dogara on Tuesday to present the party’s choices for the principal offices in the Senate and the House. In the letter to Dogara, the party presented Gbajabiamila (South-West) as the House Leader; Ado Doguwa (North-West) as Deputy Leader; Mohammed Monguno (North-East) as Chief Whip; and Pally Iriase as Deputy Chief Whip. In the letter to Saraki, the party presented Lawan (North-East) as Majority Leader; George Akume (North-Central) as Deputy Majority Leader; Prof. Sola Adeyeye (South-West) as Chief Whip; and Abu Ibrahim (North-West) as Deputy Chief Whip. The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Yusuf Lasun (Osun State), who moved against his party to get the position, and Gbajabiamila, who was later chosen by the party for Majority Leader after he lost the speakership seat, are both from the South-West. There had been reports that the move to have occupants of two principal offices from the same zone was opposed by some lawmakers backing Gbajabiamila from the North. But a member of the House of Representatives, Nasiru Daura, who represents Zango/Baure Federal Constituency of Katsina State, on Thursday, after the exchange of blows in the lower chamber, described the claim as “absolute rubbish.” He said, “Precedents were set in the 6th and 7th Assemblies where a single zone, the North-West, produced two and three Principal Officers, respectively.” The APC governors had also waded into the crisis. Eight of them — Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Tanko al-Makura (Nasarawa), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abubakar Sani-Bello (Niger), Senator Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa) — had stormed the party’s national secretariat on Tuesday to meet with the national chairman of the party over the crisis. Later on Tuesday, APC governors met with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, where they expressed their concern over the ongoing leadership crisis in the National Assembly. They decided to invite senators from their respective states and prevail on them on the need to respect party supremacy on any matter. However, Saraki and Dogara had played a fast one on the governors before they could make such moves. As Nigerians await President Buhari to begin the country’s reconstruction work in earnest, political pundits have said the prolonged APC crisis, especially in the National Assembly, may become the clog in the wheel of the new administration if not properly handled. The situation became more worrisome when indications emerged that two power blocs within the APC are now engaged in a fierce battle for the soul of the party. One bloc is reportedly being led by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu; the other is being led by Atiku. The power tussle, it was learnt, led to the crisis in the National Assembly. Latest developments have shown that the crisis may divide the APC governors anytime soon. Both Atiku and Tinubu are said to desire maximum control over the party’s structure. The duo are also said to have pushed for their candidates to emerge principal officers of the National Assembly, since that would automatically qualify their candidates to become members of the party’s National Executive Committee, which is the highest decision arm of the party. The current NWC of the APC is allegedly loyal to Tinubu. Meanwhile, Atiku has exonerated himself from those hatching the plan to hijack the party and the National Assembly for their political ambitions in the 2019 elections. In a veiled reference to a section of the APC, the former vice-president said it was dangerous for any individual or group within the ruling party to turn into an opposition, even before the constitution of Buhari’s government. According to him, in politics, it is a mistake to expect fixed outcomes. This statement, analysts believe, has indicated where he stands on the unexpected outcome of the National Assembly leadership polls. In a press statement released by his media office in Abuja last Sunday, he noted that the recent outcomes of the National Assembly leadership election, contrary to insinuations, were products of “interplay of politics which is itself in constant motion.” The situation is likely to become messier in the nearest future. A reliable source in the PDP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, had told SUNDAY PUNCH that some prominent politicians in the APC had begun talks with the PDP in view of the 2019 presidential election. “In the APC, we have people who have signified their interest in the 2019 presidential election. They will come when the time is appropriate and we will accommodate them,” the source said. Advising the APC on what to do on its present predicament, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Abuja, Professor Dauda Saleh, said the APC must learn to uphold the supremacy of the party and have “a rallying ideology” that would bring all its members together. He said, “The way it is now, it is like a salad bowl, with every group insisting on maintaining its colour. It is not yet a melting pot for the different groups that joined the party. There is the need to create an enabling ideology that members will rally round and see themselves as one family. Failure to do so, the party will be in disarray. “To be frank, the first rallying point was for them to capture political power. And now that they have captured political power, they are finding it difficult to hold on. They should appreciate that unless there is party discipline; unless there is fairness and equity, things will not go well. “Reading between the lines, one will see that there are people in the APC that want to dominate the party and, from all indications, people are revolting against that perceived attempt by the individuals to hijack the party by planting their loyalists in strategic positions.” The political scientist pointed out that these issues explained why the APC was facing internal crisis so early. He also admitted that it would be difficult, at this time, for the ruling party to persuade those who joined it for personal political goals into accepting the manifesto of the party. The electorate seem to be bearing the brunt of the APC crisis. For instance, the national chairman of the party, on June 15, hinted that the ongoing crisis in the National Assembly may be partly responsible for the delay in the presentation of Buhari’s ministerial list to the legislature. The President has yet to form his cabinet after about one month of his administration. This development, some Nigerians believe, is not in the best interest of the electorate who are waiting for the new administration to deliver its campaign promises. Odigie-Oyegun said, “All other things will have to wait. This is because, if for instance, the President says he wants to present his list of ministerial nominees to the Senate, we don’t want a situation whereby the Senate will be divided. We are trying to sort that out; it is our number one priority. We are happy that we are arriving at amicable settlement of the situation; this one cannot wait for long. It has to be immediate.” Due to the rage that followed the Saraki ‘coup’ on June 9, the Senate President had asked the National Assembly to go on recess till Tuesday (June 23), apparently as a way of managing the brouhaha over the new leadership. Similarly on Thursday, after the fracas in the House of Representatives, the Assembly proceeded on another recess till July 21, perhaps to allow the tension to cool down and for fence mending. Political analysts have drawn a correlation between the dramatis personae of the schism in the National Assembly and their political antecedents. In December 2013, 37 members of the House dumped the PDP for the APC. Most prominent among them were chairmen of various committees like Zakari Mohammed from Kwara State (House Committee on Media and Public Affairs); Dakuku Peterside, Rivers (Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream)); Ali Ahmad, Kwara (Committee on Justice); Aminu Shagari, Sokoto (Committee on Judiciary); and Yakubu Dogara, Bauchi (Committee on House Services). In January 2014, just a month after, Saraki, representingKwara-Central Senatorial District, led 10 other senators to defect from the PDP to the APC. With him were Umaru Dahiru, Sokoto-South; Magnus Abe, Rivers-South-East; Wilson Ake, Rivers-West; Bindawa Jibrilla, Adamawa-North; Mohammed Danjuma-Goje, Gombe-Central; Aisha al-Hassan, Taraba-North; Mohammed Ali- Ndume, Borno-South; Mohammed Lafiaji, Kwara- North; Abdulahi Adamu, Nasarawa-West; Ibrahim Gobir, Sokoto-East. Ndume had served two terms in the House of Representatives on the platform of the ANPP from 2003 to 2011 to represent Chibok/Damboa/ Gwoza Federal Constituency of Borno State. He was the Minority Leader of the House. He later dumped the ANPP for the PDP in 2010 and was elected to the Senate on its platform in 2011 to represent Borno-South. In January 2014, he defected from the PDP to the APC, on which platform he was re-elected senator in 2015. Dogara, who represents Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa- Balewa Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, was a PDP member of the House since 2007 until he was re-elected on the platform of the APC in 2015. In the case of Dino Melaye, prior to the 2011 elections, he dumped the PDP for the ANPP in protest against the party’s choice of candidate for the Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency of Kogi State for the House of Representatives. He later became a lawmaker in the ANPP, which metamorphosed into APC. Obviously, the PDP has benefitted from the imbroglio in the APC – with its member, Ekweremadu becoming the number two man in an APC-dominated Senate. The opposition party is poised to taking more opportunities from the ruling party’s problems. The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Abdullahi Jalo, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the PDP succeeded in governing the country for 16 years because it had leaders that could tell members “don’t do it and they will not do it; do it and they will do it.” He said such control was not obtainable in the APC. He said, “APC has a lot of ambitious people; people like (former Governor of Kano State, Rabi’u) Kwankwaso and the rest. Where a party is an amalgamation of so many parties, each party will come with its own way of doing things. Where a party is formed by an amalgamation of parties, it does not take long before it will collapse. Everybody is a know-all; everybody claims that ‘yes, I am independent.’ “Already, the advantage has started (to come). It is from the crisis we were able to get the Deputy Senate President. The law says you (lawmakers) can elect your leader not on the basis of party. The law does not say the majority must lead the Assembly. Anybody can lead. So, we have started reaping our benefits.” Copyright PUNCH.