12 Jul 2015

President Buhari Refuses To Meet With Saraki


President Muhammadu Buhari has again resisted fresh moves by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to meet with him formally. An official in the Presidency who confided in Punch said the President and the Senate President had only seen once at APC meeting since his emergence as senate president.

The inside source said all efforts by Senator Saraki to have a private meeting with the president, after APC’s National Executive Council meeting, have been rebuffed by President Buhari.

The reliable source said the president of the Senate had at different times reached out to people to help him persuade Buhari to grant him audience, but Buhari is very angry.

Saraki had defied the APC to snatch the position of the Senate President under controversial circumstance in June. The APC had endorsed Senator Ahmed Lawan as its candidate for the senate presidency.

The government official who spoke to Punch said, “The truth is that the President is still displeased with what transpired in the National Assembly, especially the Senate.

“Their encounter during the APC National Executive Council meeting, when they shook hands, was the first meeting between President Buhari and Saraki since he emerged as the President of the Senate.

“We are aware that Saraki has been going about begging people to assist him to plead with the President to meet with him. That was one of the reasons why he visited former President Obasanjo.

“I can tell you that the President is very pained by what happened. He felt that since he had been transparent with the party, everybody should play that way. But since Saraki took that path, the President was and he is still pained.”