Saraki gets more support to be Senate president

Senator Bukola Saraki’s ambition to become the next Senate President has again received a boost as he has been described as the most detribalized legislator, with the most administrative experience over other contenders for the position.
Senator Peter Nwaoboshi made this known while speaking with the journalist in the sideline during a one-day retreat for lawmakers-elect on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), held in Port Harcourt, on Monday.

Meanwhile, one of the contenders in the race for speakership of the eighth House of Representatives, Hon. Yussuf Suleiman Lasun has announced his withdrawal from the race, saying he is backing the candidacy of Femi Gbajabiamila.

Curiously, Chairman House Services and Welfare Committee and frontline speakership aspirant for the incoming 8th Assembly House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara at the weekend picked Hon. Lasun Yussuf as the deputy speaker candidate.

Nwaoboshi, who represents Delta North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, also described Senator Saraki as a principled and firm lawmaker who cannot be dictated to anyhow.

“We must quit playing with mundane things. At this point in our national history and in the bid to further entrench the ethos of democracy, as it concerns the Principle of Separation of Power, we all agreed that
competent and capable hands must be elected or put in position of authority.

“In that respect, Senator Saraki is the most qualified to occupy the seat of the Senate President. He is a detribalised Nigerian. He was once a chairman of the
Nigerian Governors Forum and in that position, he was able to hold the various governors from different politicalparties together.

“He is not somebody that anybody can just pick up and dictate to. This means he will not allow any external force to dictate to us in the Senate. He has done it before, even in Kwara State.

“If you remember, there was a time the younger sister wanted to run for the governorship seat but Saraki put his feet down and said, ‘no. For the sake of justice and equity, I will not be in support of that’.

“Yes, he might have stepped on the toes of his father and later reconciled with him. But the fact is that he is a man who is able to stand on his own. We don’t want a legislature that will be controlled from the outside.

“Of course, when he sits in the midst of former governors, they will also give him respect, himself having being a former governor. Nowadays, the governors everywhere seems to want to hijack the structure of the party and every other things. But no governors will look at him with contempt because he was there for eight years”, he said.

Senator Nwaoboshi, in his support of the Saraki candidacy for the seat presently occupied by Senator David Mark, also argued that the pedigree and contributions of other contestants to national development must also come into bear.

“You have to look at the people we learnt he is contesting with. We have to ask what has been their position on some burning national issues. For example, what is their disposition to the people in the South-South? What is their disposition to other religions across the country?

“What we want is somebody who is a true Nigerian; somebody who is capable and competent and of course, we want somebody who can stand and defend the independence of the legislature”, he said.

When reminded that Senator Saraki may have the problem of integrity to contend with, as he was said to have some alleged unsettled corruption cases against, Nwaoboshi said anybody can be accused of any anything but such a person was presumed not guilty until proved otherwise by a competent court of law.