The Senate yesterday again witnessed another shocker as the Senate President , Bukola Saraki announced the choice of the Senate majority party ; the All Progressives Congress ( APC) , to change her leadership by removing Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) replacing him with Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) as the new Senate Leader.
The Senate President, announcing this just before the end of the Senate plenary, ( first sitting of the year 2017) explained that this was a fallout of the caucus meeting which APC senators held on Monday ahead of resumption for the new year to negotiate the need to change the Senate Leader.
Dramatic as it was, the announcement was made just as the former Senate Leader , Senator Ali Ndume stepped out of the chambers to say his prayers as he later explained.
However, a source close to the Senate leadership who craves anonymity told The Tide that the removal of Ndume is not unconnected with the travails of the Senate President Bukola Saraki since his election as the Senate President against the party’s choice of Ahmed Lawan .
Saraki who on refusal to effect the removal of both the Deputy Senate President , Ike Ekweremadu and the announcement of the Ndume’s replacement by Ahmed Lawan had been at war with the Party leadership which exposed him to the ongoing CCT trial and other travails .
The source went on to explain that even at a point when Saraki wanted to succumb to the party’s pressure to enable him regain his ‘ freedom’ , Sen Ndume refused bluntly to step down and that very suggestion of the Senate President had since affected his relationship with Ndume, leading to loss of trust between the two.
According to the source, every move by the former Senate Leader had been monitored to hold him to reasonable errors and consequently, the recent ‘love affairs’ between the former Senate Leader and the Presidency was used as a booby trap that yielded the long expected package.
Importantly , Ndume’s frequent private meetings with President Buhari did not go down well with the Senate President, Ndume’s position on the recent rejection of the EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu as he told pressmen that the Senate didn’t reject Magu and the Senate’s call for the resignation of the SGF, Babachir Lawal were equally embrassing to his colleagues in the Senate and disappointing to his friends on the same camp of the Senate caucus. To them Ndume only meant that the long Senate resolutions are mere wishes. His open confrontation with Senator Dino Melaye on December 13, 2016, over his stand on the Senate resolutions finally nailed the coffin.
The Tide gathered that even as Ndume chose to dine with the Presidency which earlier stamped the APC’s recommendation for his removal, his colleagues who are not comfortable with the position of the Presidency on Senate issues feel Ndume has become the link man in the Senate to the Presidency against their interest as they assume he informs the Presidency of all the official activities and important decisions of the Senate.
To compound it all , the Senate President, who has been seeking any available opportunity to reconcile with the Presidency and APC leadership, whom he had defied to become the Senate President, through his associates in the Senate initiated reconciliation moves with the party and other aggrieved APC senators, which can only work if he dumps Ndume and swears in see Senator Ahmed Lawan as replacement .
The source also disclosed that the Ndume’s issues were discussed and ratified at a midnight meeting of the APC caucus on Monday with the caucus believing that it will give stability to the office of the Senate President as he bows to the Party Leadership.
However, briefing journalists after the plenary on the change in leadership of the party in the Senate, Ndume said he was shocked by the sudden development.
He said as Senate Leader, he led the business of the Senate from the beginning of the session yesterday before he went to pray at about 12:45pm, only to be confronted with the sudden development by journalists.
His words “Let me say I do not have much to say because actually I was leading the business of the Senate and when it was like quarter to 1 O’clock as usual, I asked my Deputy to sit in for me while I go to pray. On coming back, I discovered that the session is over and one of your colleagues approached me and said leader what happened and I said what happened? and he said there has been announcement in the change of leadership, I said I didn’t know.
“At this point, that is the position. I didn’t know that there was change of leadership because I was not there I went for prayers and I didn’t know what actually happened and I cannot say much now. But there is a process, and I am not aware of any meeting where the decision was taken”, he said.
Spokesperson of the Senate , Aliyu Abdulahi Sabi clarifying issues on this, to journalists, said “I am speaking for the Senate and of course, as you can hear from the announcement it was a letter from the APC caucus. I am not the spokesman of the APC caucus but I am a member of APC and I am here to speak for the Senate so it will be very difficult for me and I don’t want to find myself in saying who sent you.
“For the other one, I am not the spokesperson of the caucus. So the announcement is made and of course, the Senate made the announcement and the announcement is self explanatory. Another leader was announced and as far as I am concerned it is an announcement that somebody is announced as the new leader of the majority because it is the majority leader”.
Meanwhile, following the planned closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the Senate, yesterday, said the diversion of flights to Kaduna Airport as an alternative route would pose a major security risk to the lives and properties of Nigerians.
In a sponsored motion by Senator Hope Uzodinma, representing Imo West Senatorial District, which was co-sponsored by five others, the Senate contended that operations could go on simultaneously with repairs because of insecurity in Kaduna State.
Uzodinma was emphatic that the nation cannot wait to witness the consequences of insecurity, if government makes good its planned shutdown of Abuja for Kaduna Airport.
“We are aware of the logistics and security challenges the diversion of Abuja bound flights to Kaduna will throw up, including endangering of the lives and properties of international and local air travellers who will be forced to travel by land from Kaduna to Abuja,” Uzodinma submitted.
Senator Sam Anyanwu, on his part, observed that kidnapping of high profile citizens has assumed a dangerous dimension in and around Kaduna State, hence, the Federal Government should stop the plan.
He added that the Federal Government cannot finish repairs within three months as envisaged.
Also speaking, Senator Kabiru Gaya suggested that temporary run ways should be created without completely shutting down the airport so as not to create economic challenges for some airlines.
Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) described the decision as a national embarrassment, saying that to have an airport shut down because a section of the international wing was being repaired was a huge shame.
But in support of Federal Government’s decision, Senator Shehu Sani maintained that it was unfortunate that Nigerian politicians were afraid of problems they created, saying, Kaduna remains safe for all Nigerians.
In his prayers, Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki asked the minister of aviation and other stakeholders to appear before the Senate Committee on Aviation within two days for its report to be reverted to the Senate in two weeks’ time.

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi, Abuja