{"id":66033,"date":"2025-05-19T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T14:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=66033"},"modified":"2025-05-20T05:36:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T05:36:50","slug":"i-refused-to-cut-deals-buhari-fought-back-saraki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/19\/i-refused-to-cut-deals-buhari-fought-back-saraki\/","title":{"rendered":"Saraki Accuses Buhari of Sabotaging 8th Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has accused ex-President Muhammadu Buhari of deliberately undermining the 8th National Assembly, saying his refusal to \u201ccut deals\u201d led to relentless executive attacks on the legislature.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the 2025 Reunion Gala of King\u2019s College Old Boys in Houston, Texas, Saraki said the Buhari administration blackmailed and harassed the Senate throughout his tenure, stalling progressive laws and initiatives meant to improve the lives of Nigerians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Senate under my leadership was bullied, silenced and blocked from making progress,\u201d Saraki stated. \u201cThe Presidency wanted compliance, not cooperation. But I chose integrity over compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saraki, who served as Senate President from 2015 to 2019, lamented the lack of public outcry during the ordeal. \u201cWe were treated like orphans. The people, including the elite, looked away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He insisted that Nigeria\u2019s problem lies not just in its leadership, but also in its followership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur democracy suffers because we are building strong personalities rather than strong institutions,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>Urging Nigerians to rise against misgovernance, Saraki challenged citizens to stop staying silent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must speak up when wrong policies are introduced, when bad candidates are forced on us, and when mediocrity becomes the standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saraki\u2019s tenure was widely seen as turbulent, marked by legal battles and political resistance from the executive, particularly after his defection to the opposition in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has accused ex-President Muhammadu Buhari of deliberately undermining the 8th National Assembly, saying his refusal to \u201ccut deals\u201d led to relentless executive attacks on the legislature. Speaking at the 2025 Reunion Gala of King\u2019s College Old Boys in Houston, Texas, Saraki said the Buhari administration blackmailed and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":66034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66033"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66057,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66033\/revisions\/66057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}