Echoes of the political unease between Senate President Bukola Saraki and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu echoed Tuesday in the Senate.
This time like other occasions, wife of the APC leader, Sen. Remi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central), received the cold shoulders of Senator Saraki.
The mild drama occurred on the floor of the Senate during the debate of a motion tagged “Nigerians involvement in illicit global drugs trade and increase in domestic drug abuse by Nigerian youth” which was sponsored by Senator Gbenga Ashafa (APC, Lagos East).
Senator Tinubu had made an additional prayer to the motion and had urged her colleagues to mandate the federal government to set up drug rehabilitation centres in every state of the federation.
No lawmaker however seconded her additional prayer.
The Senate president was about to entertain more contributions from other lawmakers, when Senator Tinubu interrupted him.
She quipped: “Mr. President, why is my additional prayer not accommodated? Why is it not being considered Mr. President?”
Responding, Saraki said no lawmaker seconded the amendment, hence, he had to move on.
Tinubu remained on her feet when Saraki ignored her and moved ahead to entertain other contributions. “We have gone past that. Let us move on,” the senate president said.
ORDERPAPER.NG reports that this is the third time since the inauguration of the 8th Senate that a mild drama would play out between Saraki and Mrs Tinubu.
The first drama occurred on the 9th of June, 2015 during the inauguration of the Senate, when Senator Tinubu declined to exchange a handshake with Saraki after his controversial emergence as Senate President.
Mr. Tinubu and other APC leaders had supported Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the party’s candidate for the senate presidency but were trumped by Saraki’s political game plan.
Saraki and Tinubu have continued on both divides of the political spectrum ever since in spite of a meeting last week of top leaders of the ruling party to broker peace .
The second incidence between Senators Saraki and Tinubu occurred on the 18th of November, 2015, a day after an alleged attempt was made on the life of the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
Senator Tinubu was contributing to a motion, when she left her seat and temporarily occupied Ekweremadu’s reserved chair. The action elicited negative reactions from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers. Apparently displeased, Saraki declined to accommodate her contributions while she was still ‘occupying’ the seat. ORDERPAPER
