The Senate President Bukola Saraki on Monday spoke on why he did not embark on an earlier visit planned for Geneva, Switzerland. According to his media office, the trip which was slated for Sunday had to be cancelled due to a number of pressing domestic engagements. There had been speculations that Saraki may have aborted the trip in an effort to fight for his political survival, following an alleged plot to remove him from office.
But the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President, Yusuf Olaniyonu told reporters that Nigeria’s number one lawmaker had to stay back, especially to enable him attend the caucus meeting that had been called by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“If he had left yesterday (Sunday) he was to return to the country tomorrow (Tuesday). He would have missed the APC caucus meeting called by the leadership of the party.
“It would have been awkward, if the leadership including the President and the party’s national chairman, and others were seated and the Senate president is absent. It is the same media that would shout to town that the Senate president shuns APC leadership.
“If you also recall, he was in Lagos on Sunday for the wedding of one of his aides”, he said. Olaniyonu also stated that the trip to Switzerland was actually under consideration, and was not in the Senate President’s itinerary.
It is expected that the APC meeting would be looking at ways to unite the party which has been facing crisis as the 2019 elections approach.
It would be recalled that the ruling APC has been experiencing tumultuous times, and had embarked on efforts to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.
President Muhammadu Buhari in efforts to resolve the many troubles of the party appointed a former governor of Lagos State, Ahmed Tinubu to head a reconciliation team.
But even that had been fraught with issues as Tinubu had accused the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts.
Even while the president is yet to officially declare whether or not he would seek another term in office come 2019, many forces within his party, have set in motion plans to discourage him.
