The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has explained his conspicuous absence at the Independence Day parade held at the Eagles Square in Abuja on Monday.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former military Heads of State, Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar led important government dignitaries to the event marking the 58th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from Britain.
But Saraki and his House of Representatives counterpart, Hon. Yakubu Dogara were absent at the event, further exposing the gradually expanding gulf between the executive and the legislature.
Saraki and Dogara were elected into the National Assembly on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 but recently defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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Saraki, who currently represents Kwara Central senatorial district, has also picked the presidential Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms of the PDP for a chance tov compete against Buhari in 2019.
Explaining his absence from the parade, Saraki said it was due to another important political assignment that kept him away from Abuja.
He said that apart from his moving around the country in a bid to secure the PDP’s presidential ticket, the governor primaries of his state held yesterday and he needed to be there.
Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu said, “The Senate President and a frontline presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP is currently not in Abuja, he is at the moment in his home state, Kwara.
‘’The governorship primary is holding today (yesterday) in Kwara and he must be present and after that, he will be holding a meeting with Kogi State delegates to the PDP National Convention. These are two very important assignments that require his attention.”