Ex-Police Affairs minister urges Saraki to bow to party’s supremacy

FOLLOWING the tension in the ruling party over the ordeal of Senate President Bukola Saraki, a former Minister of Police Affairs and founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Yakubu Lame, has advised Saraki to bow to party’s supremacy to give peace a chance.

Lame, who gave the advice while speaking with newsmen in his house in Bauchi, described the crisis between the National Assembly and the ruling party as a distraction that must not be allowed to continue.

He said: “My position is that this is a very unfortunate development never expected. It is being resolved in the House of Representatives and I am sure it would be resolved in the Senate.

We came into government to provide leadership to challenges in governance. We see what is happening in the National Assembly as a distraction and we must do all we can to eradicate that distraction so that we can together, as a political family, provide leadership for Nigeria. We are working day and night to ensure that we achieve that.

Don’t forget that APC was formed with a lot of challenges and as some of these challenges were anticipatory, so their solutions will have to be critically examined. I am telling you that this is a crisis that we understand and are equal to the task of solving. We believe we have won an election and we believe the Nigerian people voted for us so we should be able to pursue our programmes. We should be able to implement the programmes that will salvage our country from the dangers that corruption and insensitivity have placed this country. This is our agenda and this is what we are doing.”

On the reports that the pro-Senator Lawal group is making plans to impeach Saraki, the elder statesman viewed the Senate President’s impeachment move as part of the problems that APC must look at and find solution to.

Lame, a Bauchi State governorship aspirant on the platform of the party in the last general election, said: “There are many ways to solve political problems. I believe certain things have gone wrong in the crisis of the National Assembly and I believe we should find a solution. If indeed Saraki went into alliance with the opposition to become the Senate President, it is wrong. You cannot go into alliance with a political party that we fought to get power from because that will strangulate the party.

We came into government to provide leadership to challenges in governance. We see what is happening in the National Assembly as a distraction and we must do all we can to eradicate that distraction so that we can together, as a political family, provide leadership for Nigeria. We are working day and night to ensure that we achieve that.

It is becoming very clear that we need all that we can to make us work. We need to be united to pursue the mandate of the APC, that is to salvage Nigerians. We must not allow this distraction to dominate our conversation. I feel terribly bad. I am a party man. I am a foundation member of this government and I feel terribly disturbed that we have allowed the situation to reach the level it has reached.
Whoever is involved must be made to understand that certain things have gone wrong and we are not going to tolerate them as a party.”