Interview

How Saraki’s impeachment was averted – Baraje

The interview was not meant to be explosive but at the end of the session with journalists in Ilorin shortly after the graduation ceremony of his solely financed Islamic Education Centre on Thursday, the former acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje dug deep to reveal untold and intriguing details yet to be told by anybody about the role of some national leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), top security chiefs, presidential forces and the high wire intrigues of how the deal to make Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the President of the 8th Senate was struck with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He also talked about the latest impeachment of Saraki by the APC was averted among other issues in the polity especially as regards next year general election. Excerpts.

The President of the Senate has signified his interest to contest next year’s presidential election; do you think that is proper?

I don’t understand what people meant by whether his interest in the race is proper. Everybody in the country is qualified to run for the office of the President once the requirement is meant. And in any case, Dr Bukola Saraki has been trying his luck to be the president of the country since 2011 if we remember but he withdrew for the then President Goodluck Jonathan. In 2015, he was the first candidate to withdraw for the present president Muhammadu Buhari. For somebody that has nursed that ambition, what is wrong coming out now the third time, Buhari came out four times and nobody ask whether it was right or wrong. I am totally in support of the move and iwill go to ay length to give him my support because whatever the country needs now is in him. He remained the only candidate that will unit Nigeria which is getting further divided apart daily now. And unless we get a candidate that will unite the country, then it is going to be a very serious jeopardy and if he appears to be the candidate, I will support him and being the Senate President does not stop him, he is constitutionally qualified and this is the time we will strongly support him as we have hitherto done for others.
There have been impeachment threats against the person of Dr Bukola Saraki which has led to hot exchange of words between him and the national chairman of the party, comrade Adams Oshiomhole, what do you make of all these?
I am not a senator but a party leader and politician which entails that I read and be informed before I talk. I constantly read the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria whenever there is any controversy on any issue because I have it on my phone. Particularly on this issue of impeachment, the constitution made me to understand that only the senators can elect and impeach their president and the sequence of impeachment are there which is carried out by 2/3 of the entire 109 senators, not those sitting at any given time. You see, it is unfortunate, for some of us, our background is not to talk too much but to rather listen much and talk less. There are so many things that has been said on this issue of impeachment that is insulting the sensibility of Nigerians especially to those of us who can read and write. How can people just come out and say they are going to impeach the Senate President as if there are no laws and we are in a banana republic? It is the most unfortunate thing and I ask what kind of Nigerians they are talking to when the chairman of the party would talk like that. Some of us have the experiences of leading political parties and issues like this have come up and we know how we handled it, it needs a lot of maturity, exposure and cool-headedness.
“It is not by Gestapo approach. In any case, the senators are making Nigerians realise through their body language that as far as they are concerned they are not ready to impeach their president. Any sensible leader should have understood that language that the senators are not going the way some people want to go; which is the way of causing confusion between the executive and the legislature. The present situation exists between the executive and the legislature as worse as it is today was created by some people who do not want the two arms to work together because they will never gain out of it. If this people still claim they love Nigerian I wonder why they still talk and behave as such. It can never take us anywhere. When people just talk, some of us just smile because we know Nigerians are not docile or gullible and they are educated and know who is saying the truth. And why we kept quiet and didn’t respond is because we love Nigeria and we are in the party with the masses that are suffering the whole of this quagmire. The only panacea to resolve this quagmire is honesty of purpose and love for the down trodden, sincerity and rule of law, not impunity.

You have been linked to many political parties of late like the nPDP and r-APC, which party do you belong to?

Well on that, my formal declaration is coming up at a day arranged by my people. I am going to declare in my ward together with my people, that where my leader goes is where I go. I belong to the party that has made me and the party that has given me a lot …in the politics of this country. I belong to the PDP. I have attended their meeting about two months ago in Abuja and I believe that is indicative.

If Saraki is removed through Gestapo approach, what will be your reaction?

There have been about three major attempts now to remove the Senate President that the national and international community are aware of including several under the table attempts which all failed. The first was when he was out of the country and his Deputy was Presiding and some thugs in collaboration with the internal and external security of the National Assembly in broad day light walked into the Senate chamber and brazenly seize the mace. Even to the average Nigerians and electorates, it was very annoying and insulting . That was a singular act that showed a lot of desperation. The second was when his house and that of his deputy was blocked few weeks back by security operatives and the third was when the national assembly was barricaded by hooded security men who denied even staff from going in a failed attempt to remove Saraki in a Gestapo style. Only about nine of the 30 APC senators said they were not ready to remove Saraki because they participated in electing him and they have not seen anything wrong for them to remove him. That was what caused the delay. What they wanted to do was to occupy NASS by 6am, sit before the normal time and elect another president. If that had been done, that would have been the beginning of confusion in the country. There is nowhere in the constitution that says the party with majority should produce the senate president. What the law says is that the senators will produce their own president not the party. If that is incorrect let them bring it out for the world to see.”

But how Saraki become the Senate President cannot be removed from all these in the first place, do you think it was fair enough to have emerged that way?

I was the one who led the negotiation with the PDP senators and stakeholders the night before the election and I personally drove Saraki to the national Assembly complex in the wee hours of the day after discovering the PDP would have ousted the APC from the race. When Bukola Saraki stood in for election then to contest for the seat, we had 48 PDP senators in the chamber and only nine APC senators. If that day the PDP had insisted they would field a candidate for the Senate Presidency, of course they would have gotten it and that of the deputy because the constitution says only senators will elect their leader and not the party. But because of our own experience in politics, we went to the PDP the night before the election to campaign across parties for Saraki in APGA, PDP and others and those of them still alive will bear witness to what I’m saying. It was there they told us they (PDP) wanted to produce the Senate President but on seeing our team and after listening to us; they reluctantly agreed to drop their candidate who was David Mark. Some governors and senators persuaded the man to step down that they understand the capacity of our candidate and would not want to deny Nigerians his ability because of selfish interest. But they gave us a condition which was that they would produce the Deputy President and we should tell our people to also vote for them. Saraki said no; that it was a party affair but I was the one who said, ‘yes, we agree’. I said that because I knew very well that we needed the PDP to get the seat and if they were magnanimous enough to allow David Mark to step down who would have easily won, despite the pressure from some governors not to then. The others were wondering why I did that and when we got outside they were blaming me but I stood on the matter and said we would go and discuss with our party about the offer. This was around past 3am and we said all our senators should report that the PDP have agreed to vote for us but they want the seat of the deputy. I told our party, that we could avoid the deal by making sure that our senators were present and in the majority in the chamber during the election so that we could use that as excuse for the PDP. This is politics and Ekweremadu would not have been voted in because we had the number. But we didn’t know that our own party had other plans to take the seat away from Saraki and it was later I learnt that they had called to a meeting outside the chamber, to be allegedly addressed by President Buhari who was just coming in from Germany. It was as if God entrapped all of them at the international conference centre Abuja.

Was there any effort from you to see that the alleged meeting with the President was false?

It was now getting to around 4:00am and I called the closest aide (personal assistant) to the President to know what was happening and he told me that the President had gone upstairs to rest and would not be coming down till about 11am and he reeled out his schedule for the day which didn’t include the meeting. This was the last man to the President. I asked if he was not aware of the meeting the President had called with the senators and the man drew blank; he said he was not sure. I then called the Clerk of the Assembly and he said he was going to go ahead with the election that morning because he had not secured any order to the contrary.
I went back to Saraki and told him he can’t sleep. He asked where I am taking him to around 4:00am and I replied to the National Assembly, I drove him there and I was waiting there with him in the car. That was the day I saw clearly that there was a scheme by some people working underneath to achieve their own interest. Around 8am, an APC senator who I would not want to mention his name now called me from the chamber expressing worry that there are only five senators to 48 of the PDP and we might be voted out that we are in trouble. I instructed him to begin to call other APC senators wherever they are to report to the chamber and by 8:30am, the number increased to nine. I was also getting a little bit jittery. I phoned the conference centre and one of the party leaders from the South whose name I would not also mentioned confirmed they were there expecting the meeting to start that they didn’t see me. I asked if he got any instruction written or verbal that the President convened the meeting as a Deputy National chairman of the party. He said I should let him cross check the information? That was when he too woke up. I then called the clerk of the House who is vested with the authority to organise the election. He said he was going to go ahead with the election that morning by 10:00am because he had not secured any order to the contrary. The fourth person I called when I heard that some senators were being turned back at the National Assembly was the then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase who was even supervising the action at the complex. He said it was the president that gave the order and I asked him to do his job very well as force man to first get the clearance from the president for him not to lose his job and he thanked me. I overheard him on phone commanding his boys to leave the road afterwards because he did not put off his phone and by the time he checked, there was not such instruction from Mr President.

Who then gave the instruction for the meeting?

That is the question, who authorised that meeting? A party leader gave the instruction for that meeting because the president was not in the know and that was an act of felony wasn’t it. If we were not men of peace, we would have insisted on the probe of that action by whoever gave that instruction to the police. But because we are more matured we didn’t make any noise about it. So a lot of drama had been on and when you now make these several failed attempts, for morality sake, they should have known that Saraki’s emergency was ordained. But for those people who want to play God and fight God at the same time, we wish them luck. People should wait for me when I come out with my facts on the whole saga in a book.

Some critics have held that his defection to the PDP was a political suicide judging from recent election results in the country, how do you react to this?

Saraki considered a lot of things before decamping. For those of us who know him know that he consulted widely before taking a decision. In fact, he consulted up to a fault before decamping to the PDP. And for those who think his latest action amount to a political suicide, they should wait for 2019.

But do you see him picking the ticket?

In politics, every second is important and until the last moment, nobody can beat his chest to say I am going to get it. Anything that is politically blended is politically possible.

Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button