My Dear Senate President Saraki,
Greetings his Excellency; all protocols observed and I implore you to permit me go straight to the ubiquitous reason why I decided to pen down this open letter. As a person versed in the politics of the fourth republic most especially the current dispensation dating back to 2015, I have watched from day one how you rode to become the number three citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I encountered on various traditional and social media where the news is awash that President Buhari is beckoning on you to remain in the All Progressive Congress (APC). I remained oblivious to most of the news until I saw a headline on ThisDay, “Don’t Defect, Buhari Urges Saraki”. That was when I was triggered to write you this open letter.
I would not want to remind you how you emerged as Senate President of Nigeria against the wishes of APC stalwarts and Buhari. The country was kept in suspense when you maneuvered your way into the National Assembly, tales have it that you spent the night in your car in the premises against the wishes of the powers that be like yourself, your adversaries who underrated you. The pact you made with PDP scuttled the plan of the ACN-APC and CPC-APCfactions who were bent on ensuring that nPDP-APC faction was used and dumped. While those factions were having a meeting at Yar’Adua center with Buhari on the Senate leadership election day, there was a parliamentary revolution ongoing simultaneously in which you emerged the Senate president. The opposition teamed up with your faction of the ruling party to elect you. That parliamentary coup was only a figment of the imagination of political mathematicians who were proposing such difficult political arithmetic prior. I was one of those. But we never expected such permutations of which the odds were highly against to triumph. In football parlance, that would have been like Iceland winning the world cup. However, you pulled a leg over, a Leicester City unbelievable EPL cup champion stunt. You trumped Buhari’s arrogance and false sense of influence.
As soon as your emergence became a reality, the two main factions of APC that opposed your Senate presidency, unleashed all their arsenals against your leadership. They were out to humiliate you. And they did. They dragged you down to the CCB/CCT and ensured that you were docked for the world to see our Senate President ridiculed and thereafter you spent the most part of 2015–2018, the last three years going to court to defend frivolous charges.As a cat with nine lives, you were acquitted by the Supreme Court on false declaration of assets after 3 tortuous years. After your supreme court victory, you opined that the presidency have spent the last three years fighting political enemies of which you were and is still the main target. Do not take your victory for granted. The battle is still raging but in a different form. From open declaration of war to what we can now refer to as ‘cold war’. Buhari in all pomposity labeled the Senate ‘a den of thieves and looters’. That is a big dent on the image of the parliament of Nigeria and a direct affront on your person because to him, you are the Senate leader of thieves while he is ‘saint’ Buhari.
In all the persecution, you remained dogged and have made history as the leader of the first senate of the fourth republic to amass so much bills passed into law such as the PIGB bill, CAMA and others too numerous to mention. In the light of the political turmoil which has enveloped APC in which the nPDP have morphed into rAPC, the presidency has started to fete your excellency calling on you not to defect. This is a man that you once begged for his presence even as the third most powerful political office holder in Nigeria. This is a man that ensured you never acted as president even when the president and VP were not in the country. They made sure they never handed over to you. They never trustedyou. They still don’t trust you.
May I remind you that those who promoted #AbolishTheSenate movement are the same people who are asking you not to leave the APC. When it dawned on them that you would survive the court,they resorted to such antics to discredit the Senate. Today those that have a hatred for the Senate are the radical and fanatical supporters of Buhari, Tinubu and APC. They believe that the Senate is the problem of Nigeria because you are not the preferred choice of President Buhari. They do not have any iota of love for you. They only need to you shore up political capital, which has eroded given the disastrous past three years of Buhari’s presidency.
I do not question your intelligence or leadership, but you may end up the most foolish high profile leader in Nigeria if you cave in to the demands of the two main opposing factions of your party. If you yield and don’t return to the senate, even if you return and you don’t win the senate presidency again — I assure you they would ensure you don’t emerge Senate President next year even if you are in APC- I can bet with all my penny that you will most likely spend all your days juggling from EFCC to DSS cells till 2023. You will be committing a political suicide more grievous than H.E Atiku Abubakar’s sacrifice for President Obasanjo to seek re-election in 2003. You know how Atiku and Obasanjo became sworn enemies until recently when they put their political differences aside to face a common adversary Buhari.
His Excellency, I do not want to bore you with a long litany, but you will agree with me that it will be in your best interest to move quickly and join the PDP with rAPC in lieu of 2019 elections. This is the most pragmatic political decision you will make in your life till date and for posterity and the good of Nigeria. I do not need to remind you that President Buhari has fallen short of expectation. Do not out of political expediency remainin APC. That will amount to shooting yourself in the foot and jeopardising your political future. I will stop because I know you do not have the luxury of time to read long epistles. I believe you will make the best decision.
God bless the Senate President.
God bless Nigeria
ThankGod Ukachukwu (@tksilicon on twitter)
ThankGod Ukachukwu is an Abuja based ICT enthusiasts and techpreneur. He is interested in politics, investments, renewable Energy and moonlights as an Artist Manager/A&R. He is also interested in cryptocurrency He currently runs @hotnaijavibez.
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