Senator Saraki is currently facing charges of false declaration of assets during his tenure as Kwara State governor before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). If found guilty, he would almost certainly be removed as senate president but so far, he has refused to resign, claiming the charges are political.
Coming to office amid controversial circumstances when he struck a deal with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under which he guaranteed them the deputy senate president, Senator Saraki is not popular with the APC hierarchy. He claims that this unpopularity began when he opposed the party fielding a Muslim/Muslim ticket at the last presidential elections.
Responding publicly to the accusations against him for the first time, Senator Saraki wrote in a national daily, saying the position he took on the running mate issue was his original sin. He added that those whose ambitions were truncated by his position had been doing everything possible to frustrate him ever since.
“I have also been accused of helping to frustrate some people’s opportunity to emerge as President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate but I have no problem with anybody. My concern was that it would not be politically smart of us to run with a Muslim-Muslim ticket and I doubt if we would have won the election if we had done this, especially after the PDP had successfully framed us a Muslim party.
"I felt we were no longer in 1993 and perhaps, more than ever before, Nigerians are more sensitive to issues of religious balancing. What they say to themselves, among other things, was that if he could conspire against our ambition, then he must not realise his own ambition as well," Senator Saraki added.
In what is considered as taking a swipe at former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Senator Saraki said he has no regrets about his stance. He added that he only stood for what he believed was in the best interest of the party and in the best interest of Nigeria.
Senator Saraki said: “Let me make this point clearly, I do not expect to be shielded from prosecution because of my contribution to the APC if there was genuine basis for such action to be taken against me. However, I have every reason to expect not to be persecuted by the party that I contributed so much to build.
"Rather, I only expect to be treated like every loyal party member and accorded the right to freely aspire. Also, I did not do any deal with the PDP and did not have to because the PDP senators as a group took the decision to support my candidature on the eve of the inauguration of the eighth senate, with 22 of them already haven written a letter supporting me."
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