The Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, yesterday, finally met with the National Working Committee (NWC) of his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), under the chairmanship of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, 18 months after the Senate leadership’s controversial emergence.
The parties at the end of yesterday’s meeting, broke their silence on the rumoured cracks in the party, admitting that there were some “glitches.”
Senator Saraki said at the end of the meeting that both parties had told themselves the hard truths with the hopes of restarting a harmonious working relationship between the party and the Senate leadership.
On his part, the APC national chairman expressed optimism that the meeting would address the “glitches” that were the case before now.
Saraki arrived at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja at about 2:05pm, accompanied by the Senate leader, Ali Ndume; his deputy, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, and the chief whip, Prof Olusola Adeyeye.
The meeting started at about 2:21pm and lasted only seven minutes before journalists were excused. It ended two and a half hours after.
Earlier, Chief Oyegun had explained that the meeting became necessary in order “to discuss house-keeping issues.”
He noted that though the meeting was late in coming, it was better late than never, as it would afford the two sides the opportunity to discuss issues that had hitherto adversely affected the relationship between the party and the Senate.
The national chairman added that the seeming gap in communication between the party and its representatives in government was more as a result of the nature of the amalgamating parties which all came to the merger with their various issues.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Saraki said: “First of all, formally, we both bared our minds. We told ourselves hard truths, but at the end of the day, we accepted that certain things were not done. But we accepted to move forward, work closely with the party for the interest of building the party.
“Because of Nigerians that believe in us, we need to work closely together and we are hopeful that a new chapter is being opened today and we are committed to the hopes and aspirations we gave Nigerians who came out to vote (for us) a year and a half ago.”
For his part, Odigie-Oyegun admitted that there are still rough edges to be smoothened out, but that both sides were ready to do the needful in the interest of the nation.
“We are determined and we concluded that we must work closely together to address some of the glitches that still exist, the relationship between the National Assembly and the executive. We want to assure the general public that they will see results that will lift their spirits in the next few weeks and months to follow,” he said.
When asked whether the meeting marked the end of the frosty relationship between the party and the Senate leadership as presently constituted, Oyegun said: “It means that an end is in sight. We have started the process, but there are issues to be resolved and there is no question at all that we are a family, and when things have gone wrong, we accept that things have gone wrong and we are determined to right those wrongs.”
It will be recalled that against the APC’s wish, Saraki became the president of the 8th Senate after he was nominated by only 57 senators, mostly of the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Curiously, on the said day of the election, 51 senators of the ruling APC were absent at the inauguration.
They had assembled at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja for a scheduled meeting between leaders of the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari and members of the National Assembly elected on the party’s platform.
The party leaders and some elected senators and members of the House of Representatives were at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, waiting for President Buhari when news filtered in that the Senate had been inaugurated and that Saraki had emerged unopposed.
Since then, there had been a frosty relationship between the party and the Senate leadership, a situation not helped by the fact that Saraki’s deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, is of the opposition PDP.
Source:Leadership
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Politics