I remember a great man once said, “democracy is the hope of a confused world.”

But this can only be a reality when the processes of governance are based on the broad spectrum of the general interests and in tandem with the constitutional provisions without any iota of desperation for positions or power at all cost.

My own concern about the on going senate rift is not the fact that Sen. Olusola Bukola Saraki emerged as the senate president, but the shoddy manners and arrangements that heralded his emergence.

Sen. Saraki as an individual Nigerian and a senator elected on the platform of APC has every right to contest for any post of his choice within the senate provided that he is qualified. In fact, he has been one of my preferred Nigerian politicians since he vehemently rejected his late father’s dynastic decision to adopt his younger sister Gbemisola as his successor in Kwara State.

But the stark reality is that, even though Saraki was not satisfied with his ruling party’s decision to conduct primary, the commonsense should have it that respect begets respect: at least when the Mr. President scheduled a meeting at 9:am on the 9th of June to harmonize the differences among the APC senators elect and fashion out the way forward, his order should have been respected being the GCFR of Nigeria instead of carrying out a kangaroo inaugural exercise that disenfranchised over 50 colleagues who went to honoured the president’s invitation from exercising their constitution rights.

From the national integrity point of view: the Mr. President’s neutrality on the outcome of the senate shoddy election of the principal officers and his promise to work with them was sequel to his earlier decision not to interfere with the legislative elections but this cannot in any way obliterate the stigma that this amusing incident has caused on the integrity of both APC as the ruling party and Nigeria as nation.

There is a popular saying that says, “a man can ignore his ignorance in the secret but his ignorance can never ignore him in the public.”

Now that Saraka and his cohort have fooled the whole Nigerians and robbed the APC of its hard won victory for change in connivance with the opposition party (PDP), and the President Muhammadu Buhari pretended as if all is well, ignoring the grave implications on the national integrity and gross disloyalty of these brigands against his ruling party.

Having listened to various public reactions to this issue which has begun to erode the Nigerians trust for change that APC pledged to introduce in order to rescue the good people of this nation from the grip of the clueless PDP.

It has become imperative for both Mr. President and national leadership of APC to take necessary and prompt actions to save the wreaking chip of this nation from any avoidable disaster.

1. The Mr. President must as a matter of necessity take immediate sanction on the clerk of the senate for failure to carry out his order to extend the inauguration till after meeting with APC senators elect.
2. The Mr. President must make a press statement to correct the misdemeanor of Saraki’s led group for disregarding his order in order to prevent similar occurrence in future.
3. The Mr. President must be apt enough to normalize the anomalies within the senate in order to protect our democracy.
4. The National leadership of APC must mete out the appropriate sanctions on these renegades for their acts of disloyalty, betrayal, inordinate ambition and unholy alliance with the opposition party in order to protect the integrity of the this progressive party.

Once these are achieved, we can be rest assured that the change Nigerians laboured for is finally here.

God bless Nigeria!

Aluta continua, Victoria Acerta

Comrade Ogundana Gbenga (Activist).