President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to critically look in to the issues raised in the letter written to him by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and call him to a round table for progress and positive change in the country.
Abubakar Kawu Baraje, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kwara State, stated this in an interview with journalists in Ilorin, shortly after a prayer session to commemorate his 67th Birthday.
According to him, looking at the trend of former President Obasanjo to politics in the country, he might have had reason for such letter.
“This is not the first time or second time. He wrote such letter in 1983 when Shagari was in power. He also wrote to former President Goodluck Jonathan. So, if he is coming around with another letter, I think that is his own way of sending some signals to the government in power either positive or negative,” he said.
Baraje, a one-time acting National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said: “As a politician and somebody who believes in Obasanjo, to me, what happened during his own time is not what matters. When you are holding the lamp, you cannot see your immediate environment but when other people are holding lamp, you see what they cannot see.
“And I think what Obasanjo has seen both in the past and now judging by events, some of the issues raised in the letter has come and gone to pass. So, if anybody wrote that kind of letter by a personality like Obasanjo, that person should take it serious and should not take it as words of a sycophant.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should look vividly in to that letter and call Obasanjo to a round table and say look, what have you seen? You supported me before I got here. So, he should discuss with him. It is not about segregation, this country belongs to all of us and if anybody has anything to do or contribute to the progress and positive change of the country that person should go ahead,” he added.
Speaking on alleged plot against President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, Baraje asked those hatching the plot to tread with caution as any attempt to remove Saraki as the Senate President would fail.
He recalled that a group within the Senate, who vehemently resisted Saraki leadership at inception, had aligned and stood solidly behind him.
Baraje maintained that the President of the Senate was brilliant and full of hope and dream for Nigeria, warning that such lofty hope should not be destroyed for the sake of politics.
Baraje said: “Many of us helped to build APC. I’m one of them, he (Saraki) was and still one of them. We are still building the party. I think the party has not made a statement about the so called threat to impeach him. We only learnt from the news that we read and from hearsays. And I think very sincerely, there must be ground before you impeach somebody like him, and they (Senators) have their own rules and regulations and we all have constitutions that guide impeachment.
“If the President of the Senate is seen to have violated such rules, why not. But sincerely as of today and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think any Senate President in the past, in the immediate-past or long past, has held the Senate like Bukola Saraki has been holding it. He has been seen to be a team player, he has been seen to be leader that carries the Senate along and he has been seen to be somebody, who can endure, give and sacrifice for this nation.
“Remember that he got to that position like a war, as if he was fighting a war. Today, even those people, who opposed him, are the most fanatical people, who are his supporters today. So, what reason do you want to say you have to want to impeach such a person?
“I’m aware there are a lot of gimmicks, but the worst one that would boomerang against anybody who is planning anything, is to say they want to impeach Bukola Saraki. That Senate is solid as I have never seen. I believe it would keep bouncing. There are other ways that the gimmicks are going, let us all keep watching. We can only wish Nigeria well.
“But I only hope and pray that Nigerians will not be destroyers of their hope. Bukola Saraki is young that is what I mean by hope; he has age in his support; he is brilliant; he knows Nigeria; he has dream for Nigeria. If today, we now stand to say we want to destroy such people, then that is why I said I hope and pray that Nigeria will not destroy its own future”.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
