Ex-Senate President, Ebute, Asks Saraki to Resign

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

A former Senate President, Senator Ameh Ebute, has called on the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to immediately resign, saying Nigerians cannot continue to tolerate his leadership liability.

He said the leadership of the Senate has blatantly abused the democratic tenets, adding that the Senate under Saraki’s watch has imported despicable autocracy and despotism into parliamentary engagements.

Ebute, a Senate President during the third republic, in an open letter to Saraki and made available to journalists on Friday, said Nigerians have watched with utter amazement how he has redefined leadership of the legislature in the negative sense.

He also lamented that the Senate president has succeeded in turning the Red Chamber into a combat theatre by protecting the abominable and despising the truth.

Ebute stated: “Your leadership of the Senate has shown an absolute proclivity to vindictiveness and witch-hunting of colleagues who share views opposed to your disposition. Such members are goaded to the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee peopled by your acolytes, who have accepted the loathsome job of serving as your hatchet men. They unduly or unlawfully punish dissenting voices for the audacity of holding an opinion contrary to your thinking.

“The suspension of Senators Ali Ndume and Omo-Agege are some of the few examples of your aberrational leadership of the Senate and the National Assembly. You have turned the Red Chambers into a combat theatre, protecting the abominable, but despising truth. This is the extent of your moral deficit, which has disqualified you from belonging or even leading an assemblage of honourable men and women.

“Sir, in my humble opinion, you are barren of every essential ingredient and honour to continue to preside over any parliament anywhere in the world. The abysmal performance of the Senate under your watch, the padding of national budget or the simmering regime of corruption your leadership has allowed to creep into the Senate strips you of any qualification to be a member of Nigeria’s National Assembly.

“Nigerians have tolerated your leadership deficit enough and time has come for you to have a rethink and do the needful.

“We are tired of your scandalous outings at every point. It is either, you are fingered in armed robbery today, or some illicit monies are traced to your account abroad, which are matters the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not approve of any public office holder.

“Therefore, at the behest of all men of good conscience and lovers of Nigeria, I am advising you to do the needful. Please, withdraw your membership of the National Assembly by resigning your position. And the time to act appropriately is now. It is the collective desire of all Nigerians to see their country progress. We cannot continue to stomach or tolerate a leadership liability like you anymore.”