Saraki: Senators Lambast APC

[Edoman]

Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, Senator Isah Hamma Misau and his counterpart in the Committee on Banking, Finance and other Financial Insitutions, Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim have advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leaders to desist from looking for scapegoats for the failure to fulfill their promises to the electorate by constantly blaming Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.


Misau and Rafiu, in a statement on Sunday, stated that APC leaders have continued to whine about what Saraki did or did not do to ensure the Buhari government failed without caring whether it was reasonable to believe that one single individual who had been continuously assailed by the government would at the same time be in a position to ground the government.

“APC leaders are being clever by half. They have spent most of the last 38 months harassing Saraki and sponsoring media attacks against him. Now that the man has been vindicated by the courts and he has decided to leave their party, they have devised another propaganda stunt to start heaping the blames of their failure to bring positive change to Nigeria on Saraki.


“For three years of the APC administration, former President Goodluck Jonathan was the scapegoat they blamed. Now that it dawned on them that nobody is listening to that tale by moonlight again, their propaganda machinery has shifted focus to Saraki as the new man to blame. These are characters who cannot take responsibility for their inability to provide good governance as they promised.

“Must these people blame somebody all the time? Were they elected to bring in positive change or to shift blames? It is irresponsible for people invested with popular mandate to always look for somebody to be held responsible for their failure to fulfill their promises and give expression to the mandate they were given.

“Instead of concentrating on how to use the next six months before the general elections to hasten the completion of infrastructure projects, enunciation of policies and initiation of programmes which can improve the standard of living of the people and ameliorate the consistent failure of the last three years, the APC is now led by demagogues who seem not to care if they bring the entire country down.


“The new leadership of the APC have continued to advertise the inability of the party to manage victory, their penchant for violence as a way of saving their faces and their lack of the much needed temperament to wield together a country with diverse culture, ethinicity and religion like Nigeria.

“When they continue to blame Saraki for their failure, was the man responsible for their failure to appoint ministers for the first five months of the administration when the economy was just straying without direction? Is he responsible for the constant demarketing of the economy in international circles by the President of the country? Is Saraki responsible for the refusal of the government to prosecute its members indicted of corrupt practices, thereby destroying its anti-corruption campaign?

“Is he responsible for the high level incompetence and lack of capacity which sign-post the activities of the government? Is Saraki responsible for condoning the inability of the security agencies to appropriately respond to the security challenges which are now pervasive across the country? Did Saraki set up the ‘government within government’ which has continued to ground the administration?

“We can go on and on to query the logic of this APC blame game. However, we need to warn them to stop this cheap antics and face the real task of governance. Nigerians did not elect them to be giving excuses. Very soon, they will have to give account to the people and nobody will listen to the constant thrash about Saraki this, Saraki that.

“If the best strategy the APC ideas team can come up with on how to pre-occupy Saraki and prevent him from rallying his fellow party members in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for victory in next year’s general election as well as prevent him from pursuing his legitimate ambition in the 2019 elections, then they need to return to the drawing board. Saraki is unfazed and he is not even bothered,” the Senators stated.

GIST VIA - https://nairatrend.com.ng/saraki-senators-lambast-apc/

[Edoman]

Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki, on Sunday reacted to a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Media Organisation, were the later cautioned and urged him to reconvene the Senate to attend to urgent national issues.

The organisation accused Saraki of postponing the resumption of the Senate, despite the ongoing issue in the country, especially the INEC budget and approval for foreign loans tied to several critical infrastructures.

Recall also that the organisation through its chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke opined that Saraki is the one laying siege on the whole country by using his position to undermine the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

But reacting on the issue, Saraki through his special assistant on new media, Olu Onemola said that the organisation’s statement was a careful and deliberate example of conscientious ignorance on full display.

Read the full statement below:

“It is necessary to begin this response to the Buhari Media Organization by reminding us of the aforementioned fact. This is because their statement is a careful and deliberate example of conscientious ignorance on full display.

By now, the Nigerian people are aware that the Executive branch could have submitted INEC’s 2019 Election budget at the time it submitted the 2018 appropriations proposal last year. Furthermore, the Executive had from January till June this year to submit the budget request.

However, due to a lack of foresight, or the usual display of tardiness or an attempt to ensure that due process would not be followed — the INEC budget request was submitted by the Executive branch only a few days before the statutory National Assembly annual recess.

Regardless of this unforced error on the part of the Executive, the National Assembly has continued its work on this budget. As it stands: the relevant Senate & House Committees have held individual budgetary hearings with the INEC Chairman & all his Commissioners on this budget.

The @NGRSenate and @HouseNGR have also held follow-up Joint Committee meetings to carefully scrutinize the provisions of the budget. Furthermore, the Joint Committees are now scheduled to meet on Monday when they are expected to come up with a Committee report.

This Report will then be given to the Appropriations Committee, which will spell out how to source the President’s virement request through the concerned MDAs. Any person or organization that is conversant with legislative due process would know this.

It is only after the Appropriations Committee has worked on the budget details that a plenary sitting is required to adopt the final report.

The Senate President, the Senate and the entire National Assembly, are committed to ensuring that the 2019 elections receive all necessary funding. However, this should not be at the expense of due process and stated guidelines.

Groups like the Buhari Media Organization that try to scapegoat the Senate President for the failure of the Executive to submit INEC’s 2019 election budget on time, know that the National Assembly has been working on this request through its Committees.

Nigerians want to know why President Buhari withheld his assent on the first Electoral Act passed by the National Assembly to help legalize the various innovations that are needed for free and fair elections. These are the questions @BuhariMediaORG should ask their principal.

@BuhariMediaORG should ask their principal the following questions:

“What is he afraid of in the very progressive proposals contained in the Electoral Bill?”

“Why does he want to frustrate the 2019 election by not signing the much-needed enabling laws into effect?”

For the record, it is necessary to state that the Buhari Media Organization (@BuhariMediaORG), in its failed attempt to mislead the public, has been crying more than the bereaved.

During this process, INEC, that will utilize the funds and conduct the proposed elections has stated that it is confident and comfortable with the thorough and transparent response exhibited by the National Assembly.

Finally, it is necessary to once again emphasize that the public will continue to see through all attempts to mislead them with empty political grandstanding that is detrimental to the adherence to due process that the National Assembly’s leadership is committed to upholding.”


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/08/saraki-blows-hot-fires-back-at-buhari-media-organisation/amp/