What’s clear is Saraki doesn’t mean well for Buhari’s government, Respondents say in reaction to alleged Senate President’s threat to shut down Buhari’s government in hours

The online and social media were Thursday evening awash with a comment credited to Senate President Bukola Saraki threatening that, “I will shut down Buhari’s government in 72 hours if the cabals in Aso Rock push me to the wall.”

The comment, which spread like wild fire mainly on the social media, held many spellbound as lips wagged whether or not a public officer of the status of the Senate President could utter such a statement that some described as tantamount to a coup d’état and treasonable felony.

An All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker in 11.47 minutes telephone conversation with The DEFENDER starting from 11.27 Thursday night refused to believe that Saraki could not have uttered such a statement as, according to him, the Senate President’s plans had always been about how to bring down the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Federal Government.

“Although I am not in Nigeria right now but I must be frank with you that Saraki’s plans are to bring down the Buhari government any day, any time.  There is no doubt about that.  What I can ask you to do about this comment that has been credited to him is to speak with either the spokesman of the Senate or the spokesman of the Senate President to ascertain whether he actually uttered such statement as huge as to say that he would shut down Buhari’s government in 72 hours.  If you can’t reach them yet, just continue to put question mark on it until they speak out,” said the lawmaker, who said it served President Buhari well that he was having the kind of anti-progress moves that Saraki is clearly known for presently.

He however enthused that now that things are working fine and that, despite, according to him, the efforts by Saraki and co to make President Muhammadu Buhari look incompetent in the eyes of the political class of the country, “the good relationship between the President and his Vice is great and we should leverage on that and move on.  I should just say that whoever wrote that speech of ‘I can work with anybody’ for Mr. President caused him the evil that Saraki is plotting against him today and I think it is high time that President sees that and rearrange himself against the odds they plan for him,” he said.

The Saraki’s comment was said to have been made on his behalf by spokesman of the Senate, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, in reaction to the letter written by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir Lawal, to the Senate Committee on the Humanitarian Crisis in North-East, stating that he would not appear before the committee because he had gone to court to challenge his invitation.

Saraki reportedly said that the Lawal’s letter implied that the Legislature could equally go to court to stop the entire government headed by President Muhamamdu Buhari, from working.

Recall, that the refusal of the SGF to appear before the Senate, came barely a few hours when the Customs Comptroller-General, Hammed Ali, had also declined to appear before the Senate, claiming that it would be subjudice for him to return to the Senate in uniform, since a Legal Practitioner had asked the Federal High Court, Abuja, to restrain the National Assembly from compelling him to wear uniform in the performance of his duties.

It had however been said that whatever the Senate was served with especially by Hameed Ali’s refusal to appear before the Bukola Saraki-led Senate was right as, according to many respondents, it should not have used the mundane, unimportant issue of wearing uniform as yardstick for the Customs Comtroller-General to come to the Red Chamber to defend his new policy on car importation.

According to the Senate Spokesman, as reported by many online platforms including www.nairaland.com, www.breaking.com and www.post-nigeria.com, Saraki said Nigeria’s democracy was heading towards total destruction, because of the refusal of the cabals in Aso Rock to honour Legislative summons.

Saraki said: “We are performing our constitutional mandate, and if anybody is going to court to stop us, then what it means is that we should all go to court and stop the entire government from working.

“That is exactly what we are saying; that if this (refusal to honour Legislative summons) continues to happen, then goodbye to democracy. It means I can even go to court to stop you from doing your work.

“We will see how that will continue to play out, and I think this is the end of democracy in Nigeria, if that continues to play out.”

The solution to crisis in the legislature especially in the Senate is for the predominantly APC lawmakers to rearrange themselves and stop allowing opposition PDP to dominate their vital leadership positions, a respondent said Thursday evening.

“Even if you look at the House of Representatives, you observe that many of the vital positions are given to PDP.  That is what is happening.  How then will they not give problem to the government of the day?” He asked.