Threatening Saraki, Dogara A Suicide Mission, Osinbajo Says

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said it will be a suicide mission for him to threaten Senate President Bukola Saraki and speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

Teasing the audience at the opening of the conference of speakers and presiding officers of the Commonwealth in Abuja on Tuesday, Osinbajo said the combined sizes of the principal lawmakers cannot be compared to his.

The Acting President also accused the media of laying so much emphasis on the rift between the executive and legislative arms.

He cited a newspaper report, by one of the country’s national dailies, with the caption, ‘Acting President threatens leadership of the national assembly,’ as one example of how the media focuses so much on the rift between both arms of government.

“On a lighter note, I don’t know the experiences of presiding officers from other nations present here on the relationship between the executive and the legislature by the press and the social media,” he said.

“Here in Nigeria, what makes news is conflict between the executive and the legislature. The more dramatic it is, the more newsworthy it becomes.

“If you follow things in the media, you’ll be confronted by the exclusive and breaking news stories, reporting several different issues of conflicts between the executive and the legislature.

“I’ll pick just one. There’s one of our popular newspapers that had the caption: ‘Acting President threatens leadership of the national assembly.’

“Now, if you see the combined sizes of the senate president and the right honourable speaker compared to mine, it’ll be a suicidal to threaten either of them let alone the two of them.”