Saraki made this known in a statement sent to Pulse. He said “I wish to inform Nigerians that, after extensive consultations, I have decided to take my leave of the All Progressives Congress (APC).” There have been calls for the Senate President to leave the ruling party following the mass defection of lawmakers from the ruling party in the National Assembly recently. Saraki's resignation is coming after the Kwara state executives of the APC reportedly loyal to him were sacked by the party's National Working Committee (NWC). Kwara Governor also dumps APC Shortly after the Senate President's announcement, the Kwara state Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed also issued a statement saying that he has left the ruling party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Saraki moved from the PDP to the APC in the run-up to the 2015 general elections. Here is the Senate President's full statement below: I wish to inform Nigerians that, after extensive consultations, I have decided to take my leave of the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is not a decision that I have made lightly. If anything at all, I have tarried for so long and did all that was humanly possible, even in the face of great provocation, ridicule and flagrant persecution, to give opportunity for peace, reconciliation and harmonious existence. Perhaps, more significantly, I am mindful of the fact that I carry on my shoulder a great responsibility for thousands of my supporters, political associates and friends, who have trusted in my leadership and have attached their political fortunes to mine. However, it is after an extensive consultation with all the important stakeholders that we have come to this difficult but inevitable decision to pitch our political tent elsewhere; where we could enjoy greater sense of belonging and where the interests of the greatest number of our Nigerians would be best served. While I take full responsibility for this decision, I will like to emphasise that it is a decision that has been inescapably imposed on me by certain elements and forces within the APC who have ensured that the minimum conditions for peace, cooperation, inclusion and a general sense of belonging did not exist. They have done everything to ensure that the basic rules of party administration, which should promote harmonious relations among the various elements within the party were blatantly disregarded. All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined. And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion. The experience of my people and associates in the past three years is that they have suffered alienation and have been treated as outsiders in their own party. Thus, many have become disaffected and disenchanted. At the same time, opportunities to seek redress and correct these anomalies were deliberately blocked as a government-within-a-government had formed an impregnable wall and left in the cold, everyone else who was not recognized as “one of us”. This is why my people, like all self-respecting people would do, decided to seek accommodation elsewhere. I have had the privilege to lead the Nigerian legislature in the past three years as the President of the Senate and the Chairman of the National Assembly. The framers of our constitution envisage a degree of benign tension among the three arms of government if the principle of checks and balances must continue to serve as the building block of our democracy. In my role as the head of the legislature, and a leader of the party, I have ensured that this necessary tension did not escalate at any time in such a way that it could encumber Executive function or correspondingly, undermine the independence of the legislature. Over the years, I have made great efforts in the overall interest of the country, and in spite of my personal predicament, to manage situations that would otherwise have resulted in unsavoury consequences for the government and the administration. My colleagues in the Senate will bear testimony to this. However, what we have seen is a situation whereby every dissent from the legislature was framed as an affront on the executive or as part of an agenda to undermine the government itself. The populist notion of anti-corruption became a ready weapon for silencing any form of dissent and for framing even principled objection as “corruption fighting back”. Persistent onslaught against the legislature and open incitement of the people against their own representatives became a default argument in defence of any short-coming of the government in a manner that betrays all too easily, a certain contempt for the Constitution itself or even the democracy that it is meant to serve. Unfortunately, the self-serving gulf that has been created between the leadership of the two critical arms of government based on distrust and mutual suspicion has made any form of constructive engagement impossible. Therefore, anything short of a slavish surrender in a way that reduces the legislature to a mere rubber stamp would not have been sufficient in procuring the kind of rapprochement that was desired in the interest of all. But I have no doubt in my mind, that to surrender this way is to be complicit in the subversion of the institution that remains the very bastion of our democracy. I am a democrat. And I believe that anyone who lays even the most basic claim to being a democrat will not accept peace on those terms; which seeks to compromise the very basis of our existence as the parliament of the people. The recent weeks have witnessed a rather unusual attempts to engage with some of these most critical issues at stake. Unfortunately, the discord has been allowed to fester unaddressed for too long, with dire consequences for the ultimate objective of delivering the common good and achieving peace and unity in our country. Any hope of reconciliation at this point was therefore very slim indeed. Most of the horses had bolted from the stable.<doc-sep>By Alexis Akwagyiram LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's Senate president on Tuesday became the latest senior politician to leave the ruling party, dealing a new blow to President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of an election next year. Bukola Saraki, the country's third most senior politician, defected to rejoin the People's Democratic Party (PDP), becoming the most high-profile figure to leave the All Progressives Congress (APC). Last week, 16 lawmakers in the upper house left the APC, as did 32 in the lower house and this month an APC faction said it no longer backed Buhari. The loss of influential figures and divisions in the party peels support from Buhari within powerful patronage networks and among voters ahead of the election scheduled for February 2019. "After extensive consultations I have decided to take my leave of the All Progressives Congress (APC)," Saraki said in a statement. "Today, I start as I return to the party where I began my political journey, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)." The PDP welcomed Saraki from the APC alongside Ahmed Abdulfatah, governor of Saraki's home state of Kwara in central Nigeria. The country's ambassador to South Africa, Ahmed Ibeto, also defected to the PDP after resigning his post, the PDP said. A spokesman for Buhari said the APC would comment later. The opposition PDP said on Twitter Saraki had "dumped the failed and dysfunctional" APC. The PDP was in power from the start of civilian rule in 1999 until Buhari took office in 2015. The APC coalition united to unseat Buhari's predecessor Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 but it is now divided between Buhari loyalists and those who say they have been targeted by him. Saraki's supporters said he had for years been targeted by the presidency. He has been dogged by accusations of misconduct and investigations since taking the post in 2015 with the support of opposition lawmakers but has not been convicted. Saraki's defection was expected, said Antony Goldman of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, saying that defections to the APC helped Buhari to defeat Jonathan. "The challenge now for the opposition will be to overcome factional differences and personal ambitions and find, at this relatively late stage, a credible candidate to challenge President Buhari next February," he said. Nigeria's main opposition parties earlier in July agreed to form an alliance to field a joint candidate to contest the election. Buhari said in April he would seek another term and he looks set to receive party approval. Party primaries to choose presidential candidates run from Aug. 18 to Oct. 7. Divisions in the APC emerged since its conference in June when new party leaders were elected and others saw their hopes of party advancement dashed. All but two of the 16 senators who left the APC last week joined the opposition PDP. As a result, the APC has lost its Senate majority. (Additional reporting by Paul Carsten, Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)<doc-sep>The ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) is now a minority party in the Nigerian Senate as 15 Senators today announce their defection to opposition parties. The Senate President, Bukola Saraki after making the announcement this morning adjourned the sitting till September 2018 when the Senate will resume from recess. The Senators who have announced their defection to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are: Dino Melaye – Kogi West Barnabas Gemade – Benue North-East Ibrahim Danbaba – Sokoto South Shaaba Lafiagi – Kwara North Mohammed Shitu – Jigawa North-East Rafiu Ibrahim – Kwara South Suleiman Hunkuyi – Kaduna North Isah Misau – Bauchi Central Soji Akanbi – Oyo South Usman Nafada – Gombe North Rabiu Kwankwaso – Kano-Central Suleiman Nazif – Bauchi North Lanre Tejuosho – Ogun Central ADC: Monsurat Sunmonu – Oyo Central Abdulaziz Nyako – Adamawa Central This morning, officers of the Nigerian Police Force(NPF) and Department of State Security(DSS) laid siege in front of residences of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu allegedly in a bid to prevent them from making it to Nigeria’s National Assembly complex. According to Sahara Reporters, the Senate President was able to make it to the Senate house and take charge of plenary after driving himself into the National Assembly complex in a private vehicle. With this move, the PDP now has a majority of senators in the upper chambers. Missing on the list of Senators who have dumped the ruling APC is Senator Shehu Sani who has been critical of the manner in which the APC was run. This new development will have huge ramifications for Nigeria’s politics towards next year’s presidential elections in Nigeria. With the main opposition party PDP now having the majority of Nigeria’s senate, moves to impeach Nigeria’s president Buhari reemerge after the Senate resumes in September. Alternately, this mass defection would also be a boost for PDP towards next year’s presidential election. Nigeria’s senate president Bukola Saraki would have to defect to PDP too, especially because they are now the majority party in the Senate, or he would be replaced as Senate president.<doc-sep>The Daily Beast NBCSeth Meyers on Wednesday reacted to the recent news that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has convened a grand jury to consider issuing indictments in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business dealings.Meyers began by drawing a throughline from this case to all the other figures in Trump’s orbit who ended up in trouble with the law.“It’s just basic logic that if you’re surrounded at all times by that many criminals, there’s a solid chance you’re also a criminal,” Meyers said. He then likened Trump’s situation to that of the frontman of a band denying that he’s actually in a band.Still, Meyers said he wouldn’t be surprised if the ex-president emerges relatively unscathed.“Trump always manages to wriggle out of a jam,” the late-night host said. “He’s like the David Blaine of crime. If he ever goes to trial, he’ll just regurgitate a frog that has ‘Not Guilty’ written on its back. If the feds ever come for him, he’ll hide out in a glass box over the [River] Thames.”But if Trump himself may end up OK, that might not be the case for his family.Meyers said he would “totally believe” it if this investigation caused Trump to throw those close to him under the bus. “You think he named his eldest son after himself for sentimental reasons?” Meyers asked. “He did it so there would be a second Donald Trump to pin the blame on.”Commentators have also been discussing the likelihood that Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg will flip on Trump.“I’m guessing when you work for Trump, you start thinking about flipping as soon as you get the gig,” Meyers said. “It’s like when you’re in the middle of a job interview at Little Caesars and you’re already fantasizing about how you’re going to quit.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.<doc-sep>
Saraki first announced his decision to leave the APC via a Tweet on the evening of Tuesday. In a statement personally signed by him, Saraki described his exit from the ruling APC as a “difficult decision” he arrived at after extensive consultations with stakeholders. lists five reasons why he left the APC for the PDP. 1. No peace in the APC Saraki alleged that certain forces within the APC prevented true reconciliation of aggrieved members in the ruling party. “While I take full responsibility for this decision, I will like to emphasise that it is a decision that has been inescapably imposed on me by certain elements and forces within the APC who have ensured that the minimum conditions for peace, cooperation, inclusion and a general sense of belonging did not exist,” Saraki announced. “They have done everything to ensure that the basic rules of party administration, which should promote harmonious relations among the various elements within the party were blatantly disregarded. All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined. “And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion.” 2. Three years in the APC has not been rosy. The Senate President accused 'some elements within the APC' of making the party uncomfortable for him and his associates. Recall that Saraki had battled the Federal Government at the Code of Conduct Tribunal within same period. He recently won his case of asset declaration at the Supreme Court. “The experience of my people and associates in the past three years is that they have suffered alienation and have been treated as outsiders in their own party,” Saraki said. “Thus, many have become disaffected and disenchanted. At the same time, opportunities to seek redress and correct these anomalies were deliberately blocked as a government-within-a-government had formed an impregnable wall and left in the cold, everyone else who was not recognized as ‘one of us’. This is why my people, like all self-respecting people would do, decided to seek accommodation elsewhere,” he added. 3. Executive/Legislature friction Saraki noted that the anti-corruption war was being used by the Executive to “silence some members of the Legislature.” “The framers of our constitution envisage a degree of benign tension among the three arms of government if the principle of checks and balances must continue to serve as the building block of our democracy,” Saraki said. “In my role as the head of the legislature, and a leader of the party, I have ensured that this necessary tension did not escalate at any time in such a way that it could encumber Executive function or correspondingly, undermine the independence of the legislature. “Over the years, I have made great efforts in the overall interest of the country, and in spite of my personal predicament, to manage situations that would otherwise have resulted in unsavoury consequences for the government and the administration. My colleagues in the Senate will bear testimony to this. “However, what we have seen is a situation whereby every dissent from the legislature was framed as an affront on the executive or as part of an agenda to undermine the government itself. The populist notion of anti-corruption became a ready weapon for silencing any form of dissent and for framing even principled objection as ‘corruption fighting back’. “Persistent onslaught against the legislature and open incitement of the people against their own representatives became a default argument in defence of any short-coming of the government in a manner that betrays all too easily, a certain contempt for the Constitution itself or even the democracy that it is meant to serve. “Unfortunately, the self-serving gulf that has been created between the leadership of the two critical arms of government based on distrust and mutual suspicion has made any form of constructive engagement impossible. Therefore, anything short of a slavish surrender in a way that reduces the legislature to a mere rubber stamp would not have been sufficient in procuring the kind of rapprochement that was desired in the interest of all. “But I have no doubt in my mind, that to surrender this way is to be complicit in the subversion of the institution that remains the very bastion of our democracy. I am a democrat.