The last edition of Sunday PUNCH reported that the President had repeatedly refused to meet Saraki for discussions. Although the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, was said to have declined comments on the matter, the report quoted sources within the party as saying that the President was still upset about the events of June 9, 2015 which saw Saraki emerge as the Senate President against the desires of the party. How does a leader massage such emotions when a nation haemorrhages away? Monday’s edition of The PUNCH also quoted senators loyal to Saraki as hinting that the failure of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastacia Nwaobia, to honour a legislative invitation might be linked to the Senate’s relationship with the Presidency. Nwaobia was alleged to have refused to attend to the Senate without approval from her supervisors. While these allegations may be dismissed as speculative, I do not recall any official correspondence between the President and the National Assembly since the inauguration of the assembly about five weeks ago. His grouse apparently is that Saraki and Dagara emerged leaders of the Senate in defiance of the APC which preferred the duo of Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila. But this sustained bellyache confuses the mind. Recall that immediately Saraki and Dogara wangled their ways into these positions, Buhari registered his preference for the will of the party but went ahead to declare that their election followed the constitution. But lately, the President seems to have recanted by his equivocal declaration that the will of the party must prevail at the National Executive Council meeting of the party last week. Does the prevalence of party supremacy mean Saraki and Dogara must quit their positions or what? That the crisis of confidence in the APC has escalated this far is also an indictment on the leadership of the President. Good enough he declared his lack of interest in who emerged as the leaders of the national assembly from the outset but his position puts him in good stead to have called the contending factions to order before the issue got out of hand on June 9. As desirable as it is therefore, the concept of party supremacy is not always analogous with justice and fairness. As a result, a leader needs all his faculties in dealing with the clash of interests that political parties always contend with. He also must realise that the longer this crisis festers, the less prospect for a lasting truce. The bruises and cracks will get deeper and the party would be permanently wounded. As much as one tries to make sense out of Buhari’s loyalty to his party, which accounts for the cold shoulder that he is giving to the leadership of the legislature however, it is expedient to remind the President that he was not elected to govern the APC and that Nigerians are in a hurry to begin to reap the dividend of their investment in his election. Clearly, Buhari cannot deliver without the active collaboration of the legislature, which although is constitutionally independent, is also in some supervisory role to the executive arm. More than the routine of the confirmation of appointments, the President will soon discover that he needs a measure of healthy romance with the legislature for the accomplishment of the tasks which he has set for himself. His fight against corruption, restoring the dignity of our institutions, tackling insecurity, reversing the comatose economy and making lives better for Nigerians would depend on how cohesive his relationship with the national assembly is. Nigerians are suffering, institutions are ineffective and life is becoming increasingly meaningless in the country, arresting the tides of these party squabbles and getting everyone on board with him rest solely on President Buhari. And Nigerians wait on him.
Today
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