National affairs commentator, Jimi Disu was on Classic FM for his usual Front Page News analysis, a review of newspaper stories and said the following on Wednesday, June 10 edition:
On the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President when some APC members including Senators-elect were at the International Conference Center for a purported meeting with President Buhari:
“…It was said that Buhari didn’t call the meeting, then who did? These are the questions but I don’t want to delve much into it. How can an election be fixed for 10 am and on the same day a message flies in that a meeting with the President will hold at 9 am and there was no news about the rescheduling of the election? I think that Saraki read the whole thing well and outwitted them. I read a reaction that says APC rejects Saraki- Dogara’s victory.
The ultimate leader of the party is the President. He has recognized Saraki and Dogara. So who are the APC that are rejecting their victory? The Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has congratulated them. I once told you that these various groups have gone back to the trenches.
Lai Mohammed’s statement described Saraki’s style treacherous
That is a tough one. It is treachery. But sometimes in politics, that is the name of the game. It is not a decent thing to have done but in politics, to a large extent, this is good.
House of Representative tussle
Hon. Gbajabiamila was there. The truth is that the APC is not a tidy arrangement. That is what it is. Immediately they got victory, everybody went back to the trenches, they went back to their various groups. And the ultimate target of all these was The Jagaba. The groups within the APC who want to whittle down his influence and I also said it last week and even yesterday that he has gotten to a level when the ovation is loudest in his political ambition. I believe he should have taken a quiet back step in all these. For example, he was responsible for what happened to Hon. Gbajabiamila.
Ten members from the House of Representatives yesterday were interviewed on television and all their basic point was they did not want a speaker who would be controlled from one man’s sitting room. And we all understand what that means. . . Now Buhari has a Senate President he can do business with, he has a House of Representative Speaker he can do business with, he has House of Representative members he can do business with, people who will not be on his neck.
There is something called perception and the distance between perception and reality is very close. The President should feel much better. Tinubu’s influence is what is causing all these and I don’t think he(Tinubu) has handled it quite well. Saraki and Dogara are both APC members. Elections were conducted to pick a Speaker and the President of the Senate in the National Assembly not in the party. If the party wants a candidate, they should tidy up their act.
Will Senator Bukola Saraki last on the seat?
Tambuwal did exactly the same thing and he lasted four years. Saraki is a fantastic politician in terms of depth moves.
Chief Bode George’s comment.
Chief Bode George, a former Deputy Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party PDP said that with the National Assembly election Tinubu’s political career was over. The former deputy chairman also added that Tinubu should have stopped after he successfully nominated Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the Vice President and picking a Yoruba person as Speaker would backfire.
Jimi Disu’s reaction to this: “I know that Chief Bode George will gloat over a thing like this and I think if Asiwaju considers this statement and other developments, he might also do a rethink about his strategy and come up with something else. I mean Tinubu should take a back step and let other things revolve. I do not like the godfather element and monuments in politics. I believe in fair and square but you cannot ignore his political contributions.
Reduction of Ministries from 19 to 13 by the Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El Rufia
El Rufia just yesterday(Tuesday) told the Emirs that he will no longer allocate fertilizers to them. You all know what the fertilizer is. And this is a cheering news and he has also cut his salary by 50%. The Governor said this was intended to cut cost of governance and improve services. I also heard that any Commissioner who wants to appoint SSA or Aid should get a clearance from him. He seems to be well focused.
Fuel crisis
I don’t know when we will get over this fuel crisis but I hear that some part of the East is almost a total shut down as far as fuel is concerned. I just wish we knew the intention of this government by now. The week is almost running to an end and we are still where we were two weeks back.
Back to APC
There is a division in the APC party. The President is leader of any party that produces the President. That is the norm. In every state for example, the governor is the leader of the party in that state . There is always a party chairman but the governor is the leader of the party in every state where the party is in control. At Federal level, the President is or should be the leader of the party. That is the tradition, I am not talking constitution now.
If Buhari has accepted the leadership of the National Assembly which other party leadership are we saying has dissented? … I hope the APC arrangement doesn’t fall apart because the cracks are widening. I know a couple of people who are close to this gentleman (Tinubu) who have told him he needs to be careful. Because there is a fear of him, people know what he (Tinubu) can do if he is allowed to use his influence. In any situation of every human endeavour, one must learn when to back down. He was the governor for eight years, and governor for another eight years and another eight years probably. Nobody wants to be at the mercy of another person in today’s modern politics. The world has changed. The days of godfather have gone. Everybody wants their wish done and recognized. But you must recognise his great contributions.
On education vis a vis unemployment
He said “there are two sides to unemployment in Nigeria. We have lots of unemployed people and also unemployable graduates. Therefore, creating more universities without enhancing the ones in existence, without setting standards is worsening unemployment. We need to de-emphasize what I call “paper qualification”. We need to move from the belief that every child must be a graduate. Kids should have different styles of skills. That is why we do not have trained mechanics and the rest.”
– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/apc-members-have-returned-to-the-trenches-jimi-disu/#sthash.QPWlj37N.dpuf
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