SARAKI FINALLY DUMPS APC FOR PDP

I wish to inform Nigerians that, after extensive consultations, I have decided to take my leave of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

This is not a decision that I have made lightly. If anything at all, I have tarried for so long and did all that was humanly possible, even in the face of great provocation, ridicule and flagrant persecution, to give opportunity for peace, reconciliation and harmonious existence.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Perhaps, more significantly, I am mindful of the fact that I carry on my shoulder a great responsibility for thousands of my supporters, political associates and friends, who have trusted in my leadership and have attached their political fortunes to mine.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

It is after extensive consultation that we have come to this difficult but inevitable decision to pitch our political tent elsewhere; where we could enjoy greater sense of belonging and where the interests of the greatest number of our Nigerians would be best served.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

It is after extensive consultation that we have come to this difficult but inevitable decision to pitch our political tent elsewhere; where we could enjoy greater sense of belonging and where the interests of the greatest number of our Nigerians would be best served.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

They have done everything to ensure that the basic rules of party administration, which should promote harmonious relations among the various elements within the party were blatantly disregarded.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

All entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

The experience of my people and associates in the past three years is that they have suffered alienation and have been treated as outsiders in their own party. Thus, many have become disaffected and disenchanted.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

At the same time, opportunities to seek redress and correct these anomalies were deliberately blocked as a government-within-a-government had formed an impregnable wall and left in the cold, everyone else who was not recognized as “one of us”.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

This is why my people, like all self-respecting people would do, decided to seek accommodation elsewhere.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

I have had the privilege to lead the Nigerian legislature in the past three years as the President of the Senate and the Chairman of the National Assembly.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

The framers of our constitution envisage a degree of benign tension among the three arms of government if the principle of checks and balances must continue to serve as the building block of our democracy.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

In my role as the head of the legislature, and a leader of the party, I have ensured that this necessary tension did not escalate at any time in such a way that it could encumber Executive function or correspondingly, undermine the independence of the legislature.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

I have made great efforts in the overall interest of the country, and in spite of my personal predicament, to manage situations that would otherwise have resulted in unsavoury consequences for the government. My colleagues in the Senate will bear testimony to this. pic.twitter.com/2UhhWpEnN3

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

However, what we have seen is a situation whereby every dissent from the legislature was framed as an affront on the executive or as part of an agenda to undermine the government itself.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

The populist notion of anti-corruption became a ready weapon for silencing any form of dissent and for framing even principled objection as “corruption fighting back”.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Persistent onslaught against the legislature and open incitement of the people against their own representatives became a default argument in defence of any short-coming of the government in a manner that betrays all too easily, a certain contempt for the Constitution itself… pic.twitter.com/jnYciEC1y6

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Unfortunately, the self-serving gulf that has been created between the leadership of the two critical arms of government based on distrust and mutual suspicion has made any form of constructive engagement impossible.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Therefore, anything short of a slavish surrender in a way that reduces the legislature to a mere rubber stamp would not have been sufficient in procuring the kind of rapprochement that was desired in the interest of all.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

I have no doubt in my mind, that to surrender this way is to be complicit in the subversion of the institution that remains the very bastion of our democracy.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

I am a democrat. And I believe that anyone who lays even the most basic claim to being a democrat will not accept peace on those terms; which seeks to compromise the very basis of our existence as the parliament of the people.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

The recent weeks have witnessed a rather unusual attempt to engage with some of these most critical issues at stake.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Unfortunately, the discord has been allowed to fester unaddressed for too long, with dire consequences for the ultimate objective of delivering the common good and achieving peace and unity in our country.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Any hope of reconciliation at this point was therefore very slim indeed. Most of the horses had bolted from the stable.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

The new party chairman has swung into action and did his best alongside some of the Governors of APC and His Excellency, the Vice President. I thank them for all their great efforts to save the day and achieve reconciliation.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Even though I thought these efforts were coming late in the day, but seeing the genuine commitment of these gentlemen, I began to think that perhaps it was still possible to reconsider the situation.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

However, as I have realized all along, there are some others in the party leadership hierarchy, who did not think dialogue was the way forward and therefore chose to play the fifth columnists.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

For me, I leave all that behind me. Today, I start as I return to the party where I began my political journey, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

For me, I leave all that behind me. Today, I start as I return to the party where I began my political journey, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

When we left the PDP to join the then nascent coalition of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, we left in a quest for justice, equity and inclusion; the fundamental principles on which the PDP was originally built but which it had deviated from.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

We were attracted to the APC by its promise of change. We fought hard along with others and defeated the PDP. In retrospect, it is now evident that the PDP has learnt more from its defeat than the APC has learnt from its victory.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

I am excited by the new efforts, which seeks to build the reborn PDP on the core principles of promoting democratic values; internal democracy; accountability; inclusion and national competitiveness; genuine commitment to restructuring and devolution of powers… pic.twitter.com/TNBz96BKzz

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

What we have all agreed is that a deep commitment to these ideals were not only a demonstration of our patriotism but also a matter of enlightened self-interest.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

What the experience of the last three years have taught us is that the most important task that we face as a country is how to reunite our people. Never before had so many people in so many parts of our country felt so alienated from their Nigerianness.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Therefore, we understand that the greatest task before us is to reunite the county and give everyone a sense of belonging regardless of region or religion.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

Every Nigerian must have an instinctive confidence that he or she will be treated with justice and equity in any part of the country regardless of the language they speak or how they worship God.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018

This is the great task that trumps all. Unless we are able to achieve this, all other claim to progress, would remain unsustainable. This is the task that I am committing myself to and I believe that it is in this PDP, that I will have the opportunity to play my part.

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 31, 2018