Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has advised President Mohammadu Buhari to involve opposition parties, international friends and other stakeholders in finding lasting solution to insecurity and other socioeconomic challenges confronting the country.
While calling for concerted effort to put to an end the myriads of problems facing Nigeria, Saraki said the country’s security challenges were beyond the capacity of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to single-handedly resolve.
The ex-Senate President stated this, yesterday, while speaking to journalists after a meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
He charged political leaders to shelve their ambitions and selfish interests and come to a round table to discuss and find solution the country’s challenges.
“These are issues that cross party lines and what is required now is for government to provide leadership in bringing all stakeholders together. I think what is important for us now, as I keep on repeating, is that these are issues that should involve everybody. I think that when we talk about kidnapping, when we talk about sense of belonging, these are issues that cut across part lines and what is required now is for government to provide leadership in bringing all stakeholders together. Let us discuss and see how we can address some of these issues.”
Saraki, who is Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reconciliation and Strategic Committee, had arrived Obasanjo’s Pent House residence, inside the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta at about 12:12p.m in the company of former governors, Ibrahim Dankwanbo,Gombe; Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Osun; Liyel Imoke, Cross River; Ibrahim Shehu Sema, Katsina) and former Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Mulikat Akande Adeola. The team immediately went into a meeting with the former President.
Speaking on the meeting with Obasanjo, Saraki said: “We told him (Obasanjo) what we are trying to do – to reposition the party. We told him how important it is – the project Nigeria, and he told us his commitment to Nigeria, that he will never shirk away from that responsibility to have a better Nigeria. Of course, like we all know, he (Obasanjo) is not partisan at the moment, his focus in on Nigeria, not on party and that he repeated to us.”
He also denied the report on the planned removal of PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, describing it as “a mere propaganda.”
Saraki, however, expressed the optimism that the PDP would soon resolve its crisis.
“I think that we are making some progress, there are people who were not ready to sit on the same table to discuss, we have been able to achieve that. We have given more time for ourselves in trying to do that and we are hopeful that in this month of March, we will begin to see a lot of progress, that will unite the party and with that unity will be also be able to bring in more membership to our party.”
