We won’t interfere in senate crisis — Northern elders

Elders of the North have said they would not heed any call on them to wade into the Senate crisis.

The elders, under the auspices of the Northern Elders Forum, said although they regard Senate President Bukola Saraki’s election as constitutional even though it was against the interest of the ruling party, they would not interfere in the matter between President Muhammadu Buhari and Saraki.

Also, a Second Republic lawmaker and Convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, stated that such intervention would be “very difficult.”

He said many leaders in the North had lost their credibility to be able to persuade President Buhari on the matter.

Saraki had opposed the choice candidate of the APC for Senate presidency, Senator Ahmad Lawan.

On the inauguration of the National Assembly on June 9, when most APC senators were having a meeting with the leadership of the party, Saraki had in alliance with opposition and minority Peoples Democratic Party emerged unopposed as the Senate President.

He had also named other principal officers of the Senate against the list given to him by the APC.

President Buhari, who is said to be angry with Saraki over his anti-party conduct, has rebuffed several attempts by the senate president and his emissaries to meet with the President.

Speaking on the matter in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, a former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University and Secretary of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said while the forum was satisfied with the election of Saraki as the Senate President, its members would not be involved in his personal relationship with the President.

He said, “Leaders like I would want the law, wherever it is, to take its cause. I don’t see how northern elders can be involved in what is strictly a legal matter.

“I don’t see how the northern elders can get themselves entangled in the political behaviour of the National Assembly or the relationship between the National Assembly and the President.

“All we are saying is that constitutional provisions that govern this relationship should apply. And we do not get into personal matters. The issue seems to have been personalised and we don’t get involved in personalised matters.”

Also speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH in a separate interview on Saturday, Muhammed said would not speak for the North, but as a northerner who knew much about the region and its history and politics

He said, “No northern leader, including some of the hypocrites who poise themselves as northern leaders when in fact they represent nobody, can make such an undertaking to Bukola Saraki.”