President Muhammadu Buhari has shown superior maturity in the aftermath of the National Assembly election which saw his party, the APC, lose as its anointed candidates for both Senate and House lostto candidates endorsed by the opposition PDP. He has further extended a breakfast invitation to the new leaders. But the leadership of APC and the party’s self-appointed national leader, Bola Tinubu, are grieving over the outcome of the election.
An earlier statement issued by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) Femi Adesina said the president would rather prefer that the process of electing the national assembly leaders follows the process initiated by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, the President noted that a constitutional process has somewhat occurred.
“President Buhari had said in an earlier statement that he did not have any preferred candidate for the Senate and the House of Representatives, and that he was willing to work with whoever the lawmakers elected.
“That sentiment still stands.
“Though he would have preferred the new leaders to have emerged through the process established by the party”. the statement explained
Adesina stressed that “the stability of our constitutional order and overall interest of the common man were uppermost on the President’s mind, as far as the National Assembly elections were concerned.”
The President called on all the elected representatives of the people to focus on the enormous task of bringing enduring positive change to the lives of Nigerians.
Meantime, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as totally unacceptable and the highest level of indiscipline and treachery the conduct of Tuesday’s inauguration of the National Assembly that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
In a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC argued ”Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker.
The party, Alhaji Mohammed said duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of Senate President, Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all Senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives, contending that all National Assembly members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party were bound by that decision.
”The party is supreme and its interest is superior to that of its individual members,” the statement declared.
APC alerted: ”Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to reestablish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary sanctions to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration. ”
It decried a situation in which some people, based on nothing but inordinate ambition and lack of discipline and loyalty, will enter into an unholy alliance with the very same people whom the party and indeed the entire country worked hard to replace and sell out the hard won victory of the Party.
”There can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party,” the party said, vowing to resolve the matter using all constitutional and legal means available to it.
Meanwhile, the APC has asked all its loyal Senators-elect to please report to the Senate to be sworn-in so as to discharge their constitutional duties.
