Nigeria at 58: Saraki reveals why he snubbed Independence Day parade

Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has given reasons he was absent at the 58th Independence Anniversary celebrations in Abuja on Monday.

Two former Heads of State, Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar, alongside Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, were among the dignitaries that witnessed the Independence parade with President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Eagle Square.

However, Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, were conspicuously missing.

In a statement signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Saraki said he was out of Abuja attending to other important political assignments

“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,” Olaniyonu said.

Saraki and Dogara recently decamped from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).