Rift Between Saraki and Jonathan Began Under Yar’Adua — Bolaji Abdullahi

Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary of theAfrican Democratic Congress (ADC), says the strained relationship betweenformer Senate President Bukola Saraki and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan beganduring the presidency of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. During the public presentation of his new book, TheLoyalist, in Abuja on Tuesday, Abdullahi had said he was sacked as a ministerby Jonathan because he did not abuse Saraki during a campaign in Kwara state. In chapter nine of the book, Abdullahi recalled how Saraki,then chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), enjoyed close access tothe late Yar’Adua, while Jonathan, who was the vice-president, was largelysidelined. He said it was “easy for Jonathan to feel that Saraki andhis fellow governors, cavorting with Yar’Adua, looked down on him as that‘deputy governor’ even though he was now the number two citizen in thecountry”. Abdullahi said Yar’Adua was aware of Jonathan’s unease andasked Saraki to meet him to “smooth things over”. He said, although Saraki complied, “civility tends tooverride candour, and everything was generally papered over”. According to the former minister of sports, after Yar’Adua’sdeath and Jonathan’s emergence as president, there was a belief within hiscircle that Saraki helped frustrate Jonathan’s emergence as acting president. He said the Jonathan’s circle believed that Saraki aidedYar’Adua’s retention of power “even as he lay dying in a Saudi hospital”. Abdullahi, however, said the perception was misplaced,noting that Saraki’s NGF proposed the “Doctrine of Necessity” adopted by thenational assembly to enable Jonathan’s ascension. “I actually heard about the term ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ forthe first time when Governor Saraki called from Abuja asking me to draft astatement to propose it to the National Assembly,” he said. He said Jonathan nonetheless appeared convinced that Sarakiplanned to undermine him after he was sworn in as president. Abdullahi links the suspicion to a declaration by VincentOgbulafor, then national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), thatthe presidency would remain in the north in 2011. He said Saraki participated in a northern consensusarrangement that would have pitched a northern candidate against Jonathan atthe party primaries. Abdullahi said that although Saraki later lost out to AtikuAbubakar in the consensus process and reportedly supported Jonathan, this “didnothing to assure the president of Saraki’s good intentions towards him”. He said the tensions deepened during the fuel subsidy crisisof early 2012. According to Abdullahi, the Jonathan presidency believedSaraki instigated the crisis through his October 2011 motion in the senateseeking a probe into fuel subsidy payments. He said the subsidy removal and the protests that followed“shook the Jonathan government to its very foundations”. Abdullahi said the crisis was widely believed to be “thesingle most significant event that contributed to Jonathan’s unprecedenteddefeat in the 2015 general elections”. He said Saraki and Jonathan later met after the crisissubsided, at a time when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)had begun probing Saraki and his family. According to Abdullahi, Saraki asked Jonathan why the EFCCwas being used to harass him if the president desired a cordial relationship. He said Jonathan denied involvement and promised toinvestigate, describing the meeting as an attempt at reconciliation.

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