Nigeria’s former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, claimed he was persecuted by the executive branch of government solely because he supported the National Assembly’s independence.
On Saturday, he said this at a Twitter space discussion moderated by Rinu Oduala, a #EndSARS campaigner.
Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State and president of the eighth Senate, said he supported the National Assembly’s independence, bragging that his tenure was the best in its history.
He made the remark in response to Aisha Yesufu, an activist and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign, who said that Saraki’s eighth national assembly was the worst until the arrival of the 9th Senate.
Yesufu read out the messages she sent to the former Senate President’s Twitter account, as well as the reactions she received.
With regard to the #OpenNASS movement on openness, transparency, and accountability of the national assembly, she claims that the eighth legislature under Saraki did not stand for the Nigerian people.
She said that the Nigerian Senate under Saraki was not independent of the executive, claiming that during the eighth session, the Nigerian President was withdrawing funds from the Excess Crude Account without the approval of the Senate, and that nothing was done about it.
She stated that it is far easier for politicians to speak about what can be done when they are not in government than it is for them to actually accomplish it while they are in office.
Saraki dismissed Yesufu’s assertions, saying the 8th Senate was “transparent,” in response to the activist’s remark.
The former governor of Kwara State claimed he was “persecuted” for supporting the National Assembly’s independence.
The former Senate president stated on the #OpenNASS campaign that the National Assembly under his leadership made the budget a public document.
“When she talked about #OpenNASS, you can go and check the records, before the eighth national assembly, there was no time before then that the budget of the national assembly was a public document.
“We made it public for the first time in the history of the national assembly, that is one of our achievements. The time she was talking about was maybe at the beginning of the process.
“Not only that, The budget process for the first time had public hearings, it has never happened in the history of this country.
“In the history of the national assembly, go and check, loans that were being requested by governors were being asked questions. We say ‘tell us what these specific loans are for’. It has never happened, it is not happening now. Is it?
“When you talked about ‘curry’ favour. One of the things we went through is because we were not currying favour. All the personal prosecutions I went through was because I did not curry favour.
“All I went through for four years is because I was standing for the independence of the national assembly.
“We made sacrifices for the national assembly. If you go and look at appointments, we stood our ground for the appointments that we felt were right or wrong. That is standing for the independence of the national assembly.
”Today, the most important bill in the health sector where we allocated 1% of CRF for health insurance had never been done before. It was the 8th national assembly. Take all the national assemblies together, add all the bills they’ve passed, till today, we have passed the most bills since the history of the national assembly. I will defend those records any day because I’m proud of what we have been able to do.”
Last month, Saraki declared his intention to run for president in 2023 on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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