Senate President’s exit won’t affect APC – Lai Mohammed

chika ebuzor

August 1, 2018 5:56 PM

Saraki, on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, announced his departure from the ruling party.

The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has said that the exit of Senate President Bukola Saraki from the All Progressives Congress (APC) will not affect the party.

Saraki, on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, announced his departure from the ruling party.

According to Mohammed, the Senate President had been acting like a member of the opposition from the beginning.

The minister said it while speaking to journalists after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

Kwara APC will be stronger

He also said that the Kwara state chapter is being repositioned to deliver the state to President Buhari in 2019.

“The APC can only be stronger in Kwara. Realising this, the true APC members in the state have come together to strengthen the party, open its doors to new members and reposition it for the 2019 elections, with a view to delivering Kwara to President Muhammadu Buhari.

“This was what we did this past weekend, and you saw the way the people reacted.

“Yet, what happened at the weekend was not even a rally. It was a consultative stakeholders’ meeting. And it was a defining moment for the millions of Kwarans seeking political direction and emancipation.

“Thankfully, the national leadership of our party has hearkened to our demands by dissolving the executives and constituting a caretaker committee.

“That offers a fresh start for the APC in Kwara. No one tree, no matter how big, can make a forest. Every Kwaran is important in the emerging political dispensation in the state, and it is the realisation of this new dawn that has set the state agog for the APC,” he added.

Slowing down process of govt

Mohammed also said that the Senate President had been slowing down the process of government.

According to Punch, he said “If Senate President Bukola Saraki were not a member of the APC, the party and the government it leads could not have suffered more than they had already done, with regards to the delay in passing the budget, approving key appointments and so on.

“In other words, Saraki has behaved all along as a member of the opposition, deliberately slowing down the progress of the APC-led Federal Government.

“It is therefore neither a surprise nor a blow that he has defected.

ALSO READ: Saraki hails Oshiomhole, Osinbajo after dumping APC

“Perhaps, the only surprise is that when he eventually defected, it was a mere whimper!

“If we didn’t gain by having our member as Senate President, we stand to lose nothing by losing him.”

Meanwhile, Saraki said he had to leave the APC because all the governance principles required for peaceful running of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were deliberately violated and undermined.

The Senate President also alleged that President Buhari’s anti-corruption war is being used as a weapon to silence any form of dissent.

chika ebuzor