‘Nigeria can’t be owned by anyone,’ Governor responds to Saraki, Dogara victory

Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has congratulated the new leaders of the National Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara on their emergence as Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker respectively.

Fayose also stated that the duo's victory shows that “Nigeria can’t be owned by anyone”.

This was contained in a statement released on Tuesday, June 9, 2015, by the governor’s media aide, Lere Olayinka.

It reads:

“With what happened at the National Assembly today, those who believed that they can turn Nigeria to their personal estate must have realized the futility of their efforts and the beneficiaries of this collective resolve by Nigerians must make sure that they do not fail the country.”

“In particular, the emergence of Hon Yakubu Dogara as the House of Representatives Speaker is a lesson of life that what goes round will definitely comes round. Today, Nigerians demonstrated to the entire world that our country has come of age democratically.”

“Also, President Muhammadu Buhari, by not interfering in the process through which the National Assembly leadership emerged today, further demonstrated that as he said in his inaugural speech, he is indeed for everybody, and he is for nobody.”

“What happened at the National Assembly today has rekindled my hope in the Nigerian nation and my abiding faith in the supremacy of the people over those whose major interest is to assume the sole-ownership of the country. It also shows that it is not in all cases that the soul of this nation can be bought off the shelf with stupendous wealth.”

Saraki and Dogara were elected into the offices despite being excluded by their party, All Progressives Congress (APC) after it conducted mock elections to choose candidates.