In a bid to stop the Inspector General of Police from exposing the fraud in the Senate Rules for 2015, those who benefited from the exercise are finally reaching out.
In fact, according to Punch, contrary to his public posturing of defiance, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had started reaching out to some of the aggrieved leaders of the All Progressives Congress.
Saraki is the main gladiator in the clash of egos and wills that followed the Senate leadership election on June 9 and subsequent appointment of principal officers.
Saraki had earlier visited President Olusegun Obasanjo to help beg President Muhammadu Buhari.
He also reportedly met with the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, on the same matter. During the week, some emissaries sent by Saraki met with President Buhari and sought forgiveness for the Senate President for acting contrary to the dictates of the party.
The emissaries included Senate Leader Ali Ndume, Senator Kabiru Gaya, Senator Adamu Aliero, Senator Danjuma Goje, and Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
A report in a national daily on Saturday also said the emissaries apologised to the President for the individual roles they played in the crisis.
However, sources in the party told PUNCH that the emissaries also had a brief to meet with APC national leader and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu.
Many within the party see the crisis as a battle of wills with Buhari, Tinubu and some party leaders on one side of the ring and Senate President Saraki and his backers on the other side. One of the prominent APC leaders that is believed to have backed Saraki is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
But Saraki, of recent, had made strenuous efforts to meet and appeal to Tinubu to sheathe his sword.
Saraki’s olive branch to Tinubu may mark a turning point in the crisis as the Senate President, before now, had insisted that he would not ‘beg’ the APC leader.
But it appears Saraki might have changed his position when all his efforts to get President Buhari to forgive him for his defiance to the party are yet to be successful.
APC officials who spoke to Punch, shed light on Saraki’s attempts to reach out to the APC national leader. They said that one attempt occurred three weeks ago while the other took place on Thursday in Abuja.
“Three weeks ago he tried to get across to Tinubu through one of his aides. Of course, the aide couldn’t have arranged the meeting. Tinubu’s disposition to the matter is well known,” the source said.
The APC national leader, sources said, had told some of Saraki’s emissaries in the past that the senate leadership should toe the party line.
“It is a surprise that he is reaching out to Tinubu. Saraki has no respect for Tinubu. He is contemptuous of him. During meetings he refers to him contemptuously as 'Bola'," the source said.
The source may have alluded to the cultural norm in Tinubu and Saraki’s Yoruba ethnic group where an elder is not addressed by his first name. Tinubu is 63 while Saraki is 52.
“Tinubu’s take is that the senate should toe the party line. It is not a personal problem at all. If it were a personal problem, the President won’t be reacting the same way,” a source close to Tinubu added.
