Posted on: 05:10 Sun, 24 Apr 2016



The Senate President, Bukola has
revealed that his alleged false asset
declaration trial does not at the
tribunal, saying he would continue
to fight on in search for justice.

Saraki made the declaration in an
open letter in response to Dele
Momodu’s ”Candid Letter” to him.

Excerpt of the letter here presented
My dear brother Dele, let me
thank you most sincerely for your
article last weekend, “My Candid
Letter to Saraki.” I take
everything you said in that article
to heart and I must commend you
for your candidness indeed and
the sincerity of your intentions.

As you said in your article, you
are someone I have known more
by reputation than by any
personal relationship, until
recently when we struck up some
personal acquaintance based on
our shared political interests,
especially during the last
presidential election. However, I
understand why you had to sound
so defensive for knowing me at
all and had to publicly map the
boundaries of our relationship.

We have got to that point in our
country when we no longer
believe that anyone could stand
for anything based on principles
and convictions alone. Moreover,
in the growing culture of media
crucifixion and presumed guilt; it
is rare to find a voice like yours
that calls for fairness and justice.

I would have simply sent you a
text message or call you up for
your candid advice to me, which I
take seriously. But I feel the need
to make some clarifications on
some of the issues you raised. One
of them was that in seeking to be
Senate President, I struck a deal
with the PDP and made it possible
for one of them to be the Deputy
Senate President. I know this is
the dominant narrative out there,
but it is far from the truth.

I did not do any deal with the
PDP. I did not have to because
even before the PDP Senators as a
group took the decision to support
my candidature on the eve of the
inauguration of the 8th Senate, 22
PDP Senators had already written
a letter supporting me. What I did
not envisage was a situation
where some members of my party
would not be in the chambers
that day, especially when the
clerk had already received a
proclamation from the President
authorizing the inauguration of
the Senate. Pray, if a team
refused to turn up for a scheduled
match and was consequently
walked over, would it be fair to
blame the team that turned up
and claimed victory? I believe
those that made it possible for
PDP to claim the DSP position
were those who decided to hold a
meeting with APC senators
elsewhere at the time they ought
to be in the chambers. What the
PDP Senators did was to take
advantage of their numerical
strength at the material time.

They simply lined up behind
Senator Ike Ikweremadu while
those of us from APC voted for
Senator Ali Ndume. It was a game
of numbers, and we were
hopelessly outnumbered. If the
PDP had nominated their own
candidate for the Senate
Presidency position that day, they
would have won. It was as simple
as that.

Secondly, I don’t know if you
were aware that in the build up
to Senate inauguration, the
National Working Committee of
the APC sent two signals. The first
signal specified how leadership
positions in the National
Assembly have been zoned. While
we were trying to give effect to
this decision, the second signal
came, which contained names of
people to which these zoned
position had been allocated. What
was not acknowledged was that
the President of the Senate is not
an executive president. He is
primarily one of 109 senators.

Therefore, I cannot decide by
myself who gets what in the
Senate. Therefore, when they said
I defied party directive in the
choice of principal officers, they
are invariably ascribing to me the
power that I did not have.

My dear brother, most people talk
about the Senate Presidency
position, but this was not my only
offence. I have also been accused
of helping to frustrate some
people’s opportunity to emerge as
President Muhammadu Buhari’s
running mate. But I have no
problem with anybody. My
concern was that it would not be
politically smart of us to run with
a Muslim-Muslim ticket. I doubt if
we would have won the election if
we had done this, especially after
the PDP had successfully framed
us a Muslim party. I felt we were
no longer in 1993. Perhaps, more
than ever before, Nigerians are
more sensitive to issues of
religious balancing. This, my
brother, was my original sin.

What they say to themselves,
among other things, was that if he
could conspire against our
ambition, then he must not
realize his own ambition as well.

For me however, I have no
regrets about this. I only stood for
what I believed was in the best
interest of the party and in the
best interest of Nigeria.