Buhari Was Misled to Stay off Senate, Reps Leadership Battle

Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, the senator representing Ondo North Senatorial District, in this interview with Punch's Sunday Aborisade, defends the position of his party, the APC in the National Assembly crisis:

President Buhari has made it clear that he would work with leaders of the National Assembly. As some people have said, don’t you also think his aloofness could haunt his administration?

There is no doubt about that. As the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, elected on the platform of the APC, is the leader of the party. So he cannot afford to be neutral. Those who are managing his policy must have misled him. I think by now, the President must have realised that there is a problem somewhere and if he doesn’t take appropriate actions to remedy what has started, it will cause serious problems for his administration.

Why did your group insist that the remaining principal officers be nominated by the party when the Like Minds were saying that the zonal caucuses should decide who would lead them?

I am a member of Unity Forum, so I align with reasons advanced for our position. The party is supreme.

What then is responsible for this seemingly negative perception towards Tinubu?

I think people are just afraid of his rising profile as a national leader; hence they are prepared to gang up against him. Some have even gone to the extent of demystifying him. One thing I have noticed about him is that he is a man destined to be the hero of our generation. This is because he is a man who continues to rise the more people try to pull him down. The more they try, the more they fail.

Saraki said it would be difficult for him to work with his rivals, especially if anyone of them emerged as the Senate Leader. Don’t you agree with his reasoning?

The Senate Leader is not working with the Senate President; he is working for us, whereas the Senate President is working for the entire senate. So, I don’t think it is right for the senate president to say that he cannot work with his rivals.

- after all ex-Speaker Tambuwal respected PDP and announce his rival Mulikat Adeola as House Leader.