Saraki meets Obasanjo behind closed doors

Senate President Bukola Saraki on Friday paid a courtesy visit to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun state.

According Bamikole Omishore, Saraki’s media aide, “the courtesy visit to the elder statesman was in continuation of senate president’s tour of drawing from the wealth of experience and knowledge of elder statesmen across the nation on ways to move our dear nation forward”.

Those on the entourage of the senate president were Kawu Baraje, former acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Andy Uba, Sanni Yerima, Danjuma Goje and Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former governor of Osun state who defected from PDP to the All progressives Congress (APC).

It is the first time the senate president will be meeting Obasanjo since his controversial emergence as head of the upper legislative chamber.

Despite Omishore’s claim of Saraki trying to tap into the ex-president’s wealth of experience, the meeting has been linked with the cold war between Saraki and the APC hierarchy over the manner in which he emerged president of the senate.

On June 9 when the election of national assembly’s leaders held, majority of APC senators-elect were still at the International Conference Centre (ICC) for a supposed meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari when nomination of candidates for the post of senator kicked off. Saraki was the only nominated candidate and before senators-elect could rush to the senate, Saraki had already been elected president.

Buhari subsequently issued a release to say he would work with Saraki and Dogara, who was elected speaker of the federal house of representatives, but he did not specifically congratulate them. And while APC finally said last week that it had accepted the choice of Saraki as senate president, its leaders are still privately angry with their failure to enthrone the party’s candidates.

“Surely, Saraki’s visit is related with how he went against his party to get what he wanted,” an APC source told TheCable. “Now, he needs to mend fences with the same people he disobeyed, and he knows Obasanjo can help him achieve that.”