Buhari ‘Pushed’ Me Out Of APC – Saraki

By James Orji

Bukola Saraki, the immediate past Nigeria Senate President says the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari government to deliver what it promised Nigerians pushed him out of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The former Kwara state governor was among the People’s Democratic Party, PDP stalwarts that dumped the then ruling party for the APC few months into the general election in 2015.

The election threw up Buhari as president as the APC also swept to power in states hitherto controlled by PDP. Saraki who later became Senate President had a stormy relationship with the presidency through out his tenure as the Chairman of the National Assembly, NASS.

He has since returned to the PDP after he lost the election to return to the Senate and his home state lost to the APC during the 2019 elections.

But while speaking on Saturday during a Twitter Spaces discussion hosted by Rinu Oduala, a rights activist Saraki said he was disappointed with the Buhari government which promised Nigerians so much and failed to deliver.

He explained that he supported President Buhari in 2015 hoping that he would turn the country around.

According to him, “my view in 2015, honestly, was that there was an issue of security and the level of corruption at that time and the issue of integrity, ability to lead the country with honesty and good intentions; a lot of us felt that there was going to be a change,” he said.

“There was nothing personally one was gaining out of it. It wasn’t that one was doing it out of any personal gain at all.

“You could see that when I realised that what we hoped to achieve and deliver for Nigerians was not happening, we parted ways.

“I think that that was an acceptance for me to say that this was not what we bargained for. That is the truth, I am speaking from the heart about what happened.

“We had great hopes and intentions. It did not happen. I, unlike others, said ‘look this is not what I promised Nigerians, and I can’t continue’, and we parted ways, and that is the truth about that”.

The former Senate President who also spoke on the cats and dog relationship the NASS under him had with the presidency, said the reason was because he failed to comprise the independence of the legislature.

He said, “all I went through for four years is because I was standing for the independence of the national assembly.

“We made sacrifices for the national assembly. If you look at appointments, we stood our ground for the appointments that we felt were right or wrong. That is standing for the independence of the national assembly”.