Nigeria's troubling political climate
November 13 2016 By Abiodun Giwa
Has Bola Tinubu lost the political battle against Bukola Saraki in their battle for contention?
This a question that immediately comes up, when reading in the Nigerian newspapers online that Nigeria's President Muhammad Buhari and the country's senate president appear to be getting closer.
And that the same President Buhari and his ruling party's chieftain, Tinubu, have become strange bed fellows.
Notably, Saraki had been on the face of fire, with the fears of getting jailed steering him on the face, over allegations that he and the senate deputy president, Ike Ekweremandu, had manipulated the senate rules to their own advantage and got elected senate president and deputy senate president respectively. Many observers have been wondering how the ruling party will allow disharmony to tear its rank and file apart over turf fight for the sharing of the National assembly offices.
And some people have said that the fight for the office of the senate president has been between the party's chieftain,Tinubu and Saraki. Information revealed that Tinubu wanted his own man as a senate president and that he had the support of the president, and that charging Saraki to court on trumped up allegations was one of the ways they thought they could overpower him and make him to surrender the position.
Already, one of the charges brought against the senate president and his deputy has been dropped amid continued Tinubu's loss of influence in the presidency. News reports also show that the Tinubu's group in the ruling party are up in arms and they are planning to abandon the ruling party, form a new alliance with the opposition party and that that may happen anytime before the new year.
There are already signs of meetings being held across the country between people who have been strange bedfellows in recent times to the consternation of curious observers, who have seen such development in the past resulting to the coming together of strange bedfellows and the emergence of the current ruling party and the election of the current president.
The question is about how long will poor Nigerians be made to be spectators this type of games of political madness, when their welfare is consigned to the sidelines? Less than one year in one office, the war over office sharing begins to tear them apart and now they seem destined for the oblivion and Nigerians still in need of a deliverer amid drastic fall in oil prices and lack of sufficient funds to run the government. And Nigerians are crying of economic strangulation and their leaders still have time to jockey for the protection of their personal interests!
As a result of the recent development showing that Nigeria is still an unsettling political climate, the wife of the president in a statement in BBC interview revealed that the presidency has been hijacked by two hidden political personalities who are close to the president and that just two men close to the president determine the running and the direction that the country is headed. The immediate response from the president is that his wife, Aisha, has no say in the matter, and that her place belongs to the kitchen, the room and the other room.
When these politicians, who are mostly strange bedfellows came together against Goodluck Jonathan, they said their mission was to save Nigeria. But curious observers said they were after protecting their personal interests. Who is wrong and who is right? Does Tinubu and his group really believe abandoning the ruling party to form a new association for the protection of Tinubu or the South West interest is in the best interest of Nigeria?
This a question that immediately comes up, when reading in the Nigerian newspapers online that Nigeria's President Muhammad Buhari and the country's senate president appear to be getting closer.
And that the same President Buhari and his ruling party's chieftain, Tinubu, have become strange bed fellows.
Notably, Saraki had been on the face of fire, with the fears of getting jailed steering him on the face, over allegations that he and the senate deputy president, Ike Ekweremandu, had manipulated the senate rules to their own advantage and got elected senate president and deputy senate president respectively. Many observers have been wondering how the ruling party will allow disharmony to tear its rank and file apart over turf fight for the sharing of the National assembly offices.
And some people have said that the fight for the office of the senate president has been between the party's chieftain,Tinubu and Saraki. Information revealed that Tinubu wanted his own man as a senate president and that he had the support of the president, and that charging Saraki to court on trumped up allegations was one of the ways they thought they could overpower him and make him to surrender the position.
Already, one of the charges brought against the senate president and his deputy has been dropped amid continued Tinubu's loss of influence in the presidency. News reports also show that the Tinubu's group in the ruling party are up in arms and they are planning to abandon the ruling party, form a new alliance with the opposition party and that that may happen anytime before the new year.
There are already signs of meetings being held across the country between people who have been strange bedfellows in recent times to the consternation of curious observers, who have seen such development in the past resulting to the coming together of strange bedfellows and the emergence of the current ruling party and the election of the current president.
The question is about how long will poor Nigerians be made to be spectators this type of games of political madness, when their welfare is consigned to the sidelines? Less than one year in one office, the war over office sharing begins to tear them apart and now they seem destined for the oblivion and Nigerians still in need of a deliverer amid drastic fall in oil prices and lack of sufficient funds to run the government. And Nigerians are crying of economic strangulation and their leaders still have time to jockey for the protection of their personal interests!
As a result of the recent development showing that Nigeria is still an unsettling political climate, the wife of the president in a statement in BBC interview revealed that the presidency has been hijacked by two hidden political personalities who are close to the president and that just two men close to the president determine the running and the direction that the country is headed. The immediate response from the president is that his wife, Aisha, has no say in the matter, and that her place belongs to the kitchen, the room and the other room.
When these politicians, who are mostly strange bedfellows came together against Goodluck Jonathan, they said their mission was to save Nigeria. But curious observers said they were after protecting their personal interests. Who is wrong and who is right? Does Tinubu and his group really believe abandoning the ruling party to form a new association for the protection of Tinubu or the South West interest is in the best interest of Nigeria?
