Tell Nigerians Your Achievements in 38 Months, Two PDP Senators Challenge APC

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Two members of the National Assembly, Senators Rafiu Ibrahim and Isah Misau, have asked the leadership of the All Progressive Congress to give its stewardship since the party assumed power on May 29, 2015.

The two lawmakers also said blaming Senate President Bukola Saraki for the government’s failure had made him the current issue in the nation’s politics.

The two Peoples Democratic Party senators in a joint statement on Wednesday queried whether the APC was being fair to Nigeria by focusing on the Senate President and making him the subject of all discussions instead of showing Nigerians its scorecard in the last 38 months that it had been in power.

According to them, “this is the first time in the history of the country that the ruling party will leave the issue of its achievements and start blaming its failure on just one individual, no matter who the individual is. It is also the first time a ruling party will plan to hoodwink Nigerians by saying everything wrong under its watch is due to the action and inaction of one man.

They posited that all the national leaders of the APC on daily basis continued to abuse Saraki over their party’s non-performance.

“APC has devoted all the time and knowledge of their national chairman, national leader, publicity secretary, four senators and two presidential aides to the daily abuse of Saraki, such that it appears as if Saraki is the only politician in Nigeria today. They have made Saraki the issue in Nigerian politics today. If these individuals devote the energy they are exerting on Saraki to finding solutions to the security problem, economic crisis and collapse of infrastructure, among them, they will come out with some action plan, except they are only skillful in mischief making.”

The duo stated that the aim of the APC leaders was to distract the attention of the Senate President from pursuing his political ambition come 2019.

“We can see through this plot. The plan is to get Saraki so engrossed in the battle for survival in the Senate and the pummeling from the APC cabal such that he will have no time to pursue his aspiration for 2019. However, this is a short time strategy. It will not work. That is why the man remains unfazed by the antics”.

The two Senators, who until July 14 when they defected to PDP along with 12 other Senators were APC members, wondered why the Senate President was being blamed for all the collective decisions of the Senate since June, 2015

“We are surprised that all the decisions that the Senate took as an institution is now blamed on Saraki. Are we also going to give the credit of all the achievements of the Senate to Saraki as well? The laws that have been signed by the President and which led to the World Bank improving the rating of Nigeria in the Ease of Doing Business Report, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bills which broke the jinx of over 14 years on the law, the progressive constitution amendment bills, the five anti-corruption laws, and many others, as well as the fact that the 8th Senate has done better than the previous ones in terms of number of bills passed, the petitions successfully treated and the various interventions: will all these be credited to Saraki and not the entire Senate?

According to them “why blame a man for what an institution lawfully did. Is this not dishonest? Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan, who moved the motion for our adjournment till September 25 and the Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who seconded the motion are in APC, yet they kept quiet when all the falsehood are being peddled now that Saraki “unilaterally and hurriedly adjourn the Senate”. These Senators kept quiet about their roles simply because they want to be good boys. When the motion for adjournment was carried by voice vote, no dissenting voice was heard.

The Senators further said “many people who are grandstanding now do not care how history will record their roles. How can those who play key roles in the Senate now turn round and be blaming everything on one man?”

The duo also expressed their readiness to engage the APC Senators if they foment trouble when the Senate resumes saying “we warn the APC that they will meet a match in those of us in PDP if they try to foment trouble in the Senate whenever we resume”.