The Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki and his sister Gbemisola, have again parted ways politically, with the latter announcing that she remains a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki and his sister Gbemisola, have again parted ways politically, with the latter announcing that she remains a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Gbemisola in a prompt response to the defection of the Senate President, issued a statement on Tuesday night, urging her supporters to stay put in the ruling party, adding that she will deploy all her political organisations to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari wins Kwara State in the next election.
“I maintain my unwavering support for President Muhammadu Buhari, now and for his re-election in 2019, and for the success of our party, the APC in Kwara State and across the federation.
“All members of my political organisations including GRS Movement (GRSM); GRS Foundation (GRSF); GRS Friends on Facebook (GRSFOF); Paramount Women Forum (PWF) and GRS Grassroots Youth Movement (GRS-GYM) will begin to implement the first phase of our “Get-Out-The-Vote for PMB and APC.
“Politics is a public service to the people and we ought to conduct it with dignity, peace and love for our fellow citizens. May Allah grant us direction, guidance and restraint in our utterances and conduct”, she said in the statement made available to IGBERE TV
Gbemisola’s message to her supporters Tuesday night further fuels speculation that she will be contesting for the Kwara Central Senatorial seat, currently occupied by her brother. It also points to her unwillingness to support the Senate President should he run for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential ticket as currently being speculated. Gbemisola was her brother’s predecessor in the Senate, but left the Red Chamber to contest for governorship, with the backing of her late father, Dr. Olusola Saraki, under the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria in 2011.
Recall that the Senate President and the governor of Kwara State Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, both dumped the APC a in a power move on Tuesday , preempting calls for his expulsion from the state chapter of the party by some aggrieved members. Saraki and Ahmed’s defection was preceded by that of all Kwara members of the National Assembly.
With Gbemisola’s decision to remain in the APC, which she joined in April 2015, leading to the notion that she and the Senate President were fully reconciled, it seems the siblings are set for another round of political jostling, reminiscent of the 2011 Kwara governorship election.
The Senate President had explained why finally left the APC in a personally signed statement, saying, he had been alienated in the ruling party. This is even as he expressed disappointment that the anti-corruption war was being used in populist fashion to incite the people against members of the National Assembly.
“While I take full responsibility for this decision, I will like to emphasise that it is a decision that has been inescapably imposed on me by certain elements and forces within the APC who have ensured that the minimum conditions for peace, cooperation, inclusion and a general sense of belonging did not exist.
“They have done everything to ensure that the basic rules of party administration, which should promote harmonious relations among the various elements within the party were blatantly disregarded. All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined. And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion.
“The experience of my people and associates in the past three years is that they have suffered alienation and have been treated as outsiders in their own party. Thus, many have become disaffected and disenchanted. At the same time, opportunities to seek redress and correct these anomalies were deliberately blocked as a government-within-a-government had formed an impregnable wall and left in the cold, everyone else who was not recognized as “one of us. This is why my people, like all self-respecting people would do, I decided to seek accommodation elsewhere”, the Senate President stated.
