The former vice president settled the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu and the Senate President Bukola Saraki during his daughters’ wedding ceremony.
The Cable reported that the duo have been strange bed fellows immediately after the party emerged victorious in the last general election that ushered in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Their differences began after Saraki defied the leadership of the APC in his pursuit to lead the senate. Not until yesterday have they been on speaking terms and the last time they were seen together in public was during the build up to the general election.
The Senate president was quoted to have said: “Most Nigerians are aware that there has been no meeting or communication between me and Asiwaju Tinubu since I was elected Senate President.”
However, being guests of the ex-vice president, Saraki and Tinubu had no option other than to sit close to each other at the wedding ceremony of Atiku’s three daughters in Yola on Friday.
It was also reported that the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who like Saraki also declined to execute the directives of the party in naming the principle officers of the green chambers, was also at the ceremony.
It is said that prior to now, Tinubu did not give Saraki the opportunity to settle their differences whenever such presented itself. It was reported that the national leader last month ruled out any form of reconciliation with the two-time senator.
Tinubu in a statement was quoted to have said: “The manner by which Saraki captured his current seat travestied party discipline. It was a crass act of disloyalty showing that Saraki may have joined the APC on paper but has remained true to the malpractices and wrong aims of the reactionary PDP in his soul.”
The national leader also lambasted the Senate president when he was attempting to elude trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over false declaration of assets, saying: “Government officials are no longer believed by the citizens. When one has a public responsibility, the citizens look at it as if the source of wealth to steal and mismanage public funds and do things not included in the democratic norms and values.”
Tinubu after the Eid prayers in September told newsmen that: “It is not what I haven’t personally experienced. I have been through it. Go through it at once and have a nation that we will all be proud of. We have to live by example and by our words. We can be talking about it alone. We have to work it without any iota of blackmail.”
Saraki for his own part had continued to insist that his trial is nothing but a witch-hunt.
The Senate president in his speech on his first day at the CCT said: “I strongly believe that I am here because I am the senate president. I have come here to subject myself before this tribunal not because I am guilty … I am a firm believer of the rule of law.”
One cannot ascertain if the verbal war between the two leaders will be halted following this weekend’s function but all fingers are crossed as we look forward to a better relationship between them.
Meanwhile, Atiku recently expressed satisfaction with the verdict of the Taraba governorship election tribunal that was announced in Abuja on Saturday, November 7, which ushered in Aisha Alhassan of the APC.
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