Northern leaders reconcile Buhari, Saraki

• Sultan, Gambari, Aisha, Emirs facilitate truce
By CYPRIAN AJAH, Abuja

PROMINENT northern leaders, particularly Fulani elders, have moved in to end the deepening rift between President Muhammadu Buhari and the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Abubakar Saraki, both of the All Progressives Congress (APC).The sour relations began since the inauguration of the National Assembly on July 9.
The elders, including Prof. Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, Emir of Ilorin and former U.N. permanent representative and Under Secretary-General, Sultan of Sokoto Abubakar Sa’ad II, and others.
They have constituted a high-power delegation persuading President Buhari to shift his ground and acknowledge the election of Saraki as Senate President by majority members of the Senate since the process complied with constitutional provisions.
A source, who was often in the convoy of the Senate President but only witness some of the meetings, revealed to the National Dailythe mediation was initiated by Sulu Gambariwho was said to have made strong overtures to the Sultan of Sokoto and other Emirs complaining of the ill-treatment meted to Saraki.
While the northern leaders were working the peace processon the one hand, the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, was said to be working behind the scene to make her husband change his attitude towards the Senate President, a Fulani believed to be targeted by political forces ready to ridicule the Ilorin Emirate.
Our source revealed that Mrs Buhari, while mounting pressure on her husband, declared her resolve to work with the wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki. It was on the basis the President’s wife delegated Saraki’s wife to represent her at the 2015 United Nations General Assembly First Spouses Eventwhich held on September 28.
At the UN meeting, Mrs. Saraki delivered a goodwill message on behalf of Mrs.Buhari to the Organisation of African First Ladies Against AIDS/HIV. She highlighted Nigeria’s progress in achieving MDG 6, which seeks to combat HIV, AIDS, malaria, polio, and other diseases.
The northern leaders were said to have come to the conviction that the much touted party supremacy, for which Sarakiis facing persecution, is a decoy to entrench the individual supremacy of a party leader from the southwest.
Our source further disclosed that the leaders are shocked that the attack on Saraki is a stratagem meant to cause undue conflicts in the APC, especially to make people think Buhari is not capable of providing leadership in the party.
They concluded that using the Code of Conduct Tribunal at the instance of the Code of Conduct Bureau will be counter-productive for the Buhari administration.
The northern leaders were said to have assessed the popular support given to Saraki in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, pointing out that the Senate President has high political capital that can either stabilize the Buhari administration or cause sufficient devastation for it, an option the north cannot contemplate now.
Moreover, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Right Honourable Yakubu Dogara, also played a crucial role in the mediation. Even before members of the Lower Chamber formally requested Dogara to intervene, he was said to have appealed to the President, after consultations with some northern leaders, to accept Saraki’s leadership of the Senate and allow for cordial relations between the two arms of government.
In spite of all these effort, Buhari, the newspaper gathered, was still sticking to his gun, almost refusing to transmit the list of ministerial nominees to the Senate. But the intensified mediation of the northern leaders made him change his mind. He later sent the list through two of his principal officers in the dying minutes of September 30.
The effort might be yielding some fruit going by thelittle interaction between President Buahri and Senate Saraki during the 55th Independence Anniversary on October 1, and the larger meeting between the two and Dogara
Our source said that the northern leaders vowed to sustain the mediation until all the controversial issues raised against Saraki by the APC leaders, including the case at the CCT, are resolved.
They resolved not to compromise the unity of the north because of personal interest of political leaders from outside the zone wanting to dominate the party structures.
The source noted the elders arrived at a consensus—-that they will jealously guard against the late President Umar Yar’Adua experience, which could make them lose power to the south again.
The president was said to have given them his word that he will not do anything that will negatively affect Saraki’s political career but insisted that he will not interfere with any issue relating to legal proceedings, including the case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
He also assured the peacemakers of his commitment to harmonious relations between his office and the National Assembly.