Reprieve may be coming the way of Senate President Bukola Saraki in respect of his travails at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), following moves by some leaders of the party who were said to have been impressed at his handling of the screening and confirmation of ministers nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Indications emerged on Saturday that some top chieftains of the party had taken it upon themselves to fast-track a peace deal between Buhari and Saraki, following what the party chiefs called a good outing for Saraki during the confirmation process.
The sources noted that the party chieftains were expecting Saraki to hit back at the party and use his supporters in the APC as well as senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to scuttle the chances of key nominees in the senate.
But it was gathered that the sources, including some governors and other party chiefs, were impressed that Saraki got all the 36 nominees cleared by the Senate.
A source in the party told Sunday Tribune that the party chiefs were impressed that Saraki got the Senate to clear all the nominees, despite some real bottlenecks laid on the path of some of them.
“You can see that even in the days when the PDP had overwhelming majority, it was not always certain of getting all the ministerial nominees through the Senate. Most times, the Senate, even with an overwhelming majority of PDP members used to reject nominees of PDP presidents. But with a slim majority in the current Senate, the Senate President secured clearance for all our nominees. This is a good omen,” a leader of the party said.
The party chiefs also said that in the process of securing confirmation for all the nominees, Saraki also helped the APC secure its most-needed unity in the Senate, thus ensuring that the majority secured by the party was put to good use.
“It was the unity among APC senators that ensured the confirmation of Chief Rotimi Amaechi. If the division had remained, we won’t be able to achieve that, because all the PDP senators needed was just a few dissenting voices from the APC,” another source said.
It was, however, gathered that based on what they see as a disposition to work with the president, the APC chiefs have decided to take up discussions with President Buhari to reciprocate Saraki’s good gestures by ensuring the implementation of the political option already put in place by a committee being coordinated by the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.
“I have it on good authority that leaders of the party are insisting that one good turn deserves another and that they will work on Buhari in the new week to ensure that the party reciprocates the gestures shown by Saraki. The man has given indication that whatever the APC policies are, they can rely on the Senate as an ally,” another source stated.
The political solution being worked on by the Oyegun/Dogara committee at the instance of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, was said to have recommended a change in the leadership position of the majority party in the Senate.
If the position is implemented, the incumbent Senate Majority Leader, Ali Ndume; his deputy, Bala Ibn Na’allah and the Deputy Majority Whip, Francis Alimikhena might lose their seats in favour of those initially recommended by the APC, including Senator Ahmad Lawan (Senate Leader); Senator George Akume (Deputy Leader) and Senator Abu Ibrahim (Deputy Majority Whip).
While other leaders of the APC in the Senate were said to be ready to accept the proposal, it was learnt that discussions were still on with Ndume, who was said to have rebuffed the proposal at the first instance.
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