Rebellion against Buhari gathers momentum as Nigerian senate president quits party
The Nigerian president suffered yet another blow as the senate president walked out of the ruling party less than a week after about 50 legislators joined the opposition movement
Abuja/Lagos — Nigeria’s leader Muhammadu Buhari suffered yet another blow as the senate president walked out of the ruling party less than a week after about 50 legislators joined the ranks of a swelling opposition movement ahead of elections in February. "It is a decision that has been inescapably imposed on me by certain elements and forces within the All Progressives Congress [APC] who have ensured that the minimum conditions for peace, co-operation, inclusion and a general sense of belonging did not exist," Bukola Saraki said Tuesday in a statement. "I leave all that behind me. Today, I start as I return to the party where I began my political journey, the People’s Democratic Party [PDP]." The senate president is the third highest-ranked politician, after the president and his deputy, in Nigeria. Buhari became the first opposition candidate since the end of military rule in 1999 to win power at the ballot box, in 2015. The APC, formed after several opposition parties merged, man...
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