I was in the national assembly by 4am the day I emerged Senate President- Bukola Saraki

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki has narrated how he emerged the Senate President of the 8th national assembly. Recall that Saraki was not the choice of his then party, the APC, to be the Senate President. He was however elected the Senate President by Senators supporting him after Senators backing the choice of the party (Senator Ahmad Lawan) were absent during the inauguration of the 8th national assembly.

Narrating what happened on that day, Bukola Saraki said, “We planned, we worked hard and we also want to push the issue of the independence of the legislative arm of government. There was no doubt I was the Senators choice, whether it was the level of competence or reach or being also the part where I come from, and the fact that, I’m accessible to the Senators and they felt they had a sense of belonging that I would be part of them.

Then as we got close to the election, some people decided no, we are not going to let him emerge. All efforts were done to stop the election from holding. Lock the national assembly up, don’t allow them to come in, don’t allow me to get in. So we knew that.

While they were still planning, I was already in the national assembly early in the morning ready for the inauguration. I didn’t sleep overnight at the national assembly.

We were determined that the choice of our members of the Senators will come to pass. I think as early as 4am in the morning, we were there.”

(News Hub Creator)