Saraki on the touch of institutional integrity of Akpabio, by Ken Harries

It is often said: “There is no morality in politics”. In other words, in politics, everything is fine. Unfortunately, many people who found themselves in positions of authority have adopted this line of thought, thus profaning the sacredness of the leadership, which is ordered by God. But to the president of the tenth Senate and president of the National Assembly, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Gcon, “Leadership cannot simply get along. The leadership must face the moral challenge of the day”. These are the words of the revered gospeller, political and refined leader, Jesse Jackson.

At the celebration of the Day of Democracy of 12 June 2025, the eighth president of the Senate Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki, rarely made the leadership of the tenth Senate led by the President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio. Saraki, in an article entitled “The National Assembly and the Democracy of Nigeria in the last 26 years”, thanked Akpabio for restoring his portrait in the Senate Gallery after four years of his absence.

We are all aware of the lost love that existed between Saraki and his successor, Senator Ahmad Lawan, who passed in cunning in 2015 to emerge as president of the Senate against the wishes of the All Progressive Congress sentence (APC) at the time. As a result, the National Assembly led by Saraki maintained a cat and dog relationship during his mandate with the manager led by the then president Muhammadu Buhari.

So when Senator Lawan eventually became the president of the Senate during the ninth assembly, the no love lost between him and Senator Lawan was rekindled. Senator Saraki had therefore been swept away by the National Assembly courtesy of the “Othoge Revolution” in Kwara’s policy, which so far controlled by the Saraki dynasty. At that moment, the APC had put his home in order and had regular navigation to elect his main officers, while artists of the caliber of Saraki, who had deserted the Democratic Party of the opposition people (PDP), lost their offer of return to the Senate.

One of the actions taken by Lawan’s leadership was to break down the official portrait of Saraki from which the portraits of other presidents of the Senate are mounted in the Senate gallery at the National Assembly, possibly to avenge the “injustice” Saraki and his group have put him out. During the four years of the presidency of the Senate of Lawan, Saraki’s portrait was missing in the gallery.

But a man known for institutional integrity and the game of “politics without bitterness” changed the narrative, which made Senator Saraki celebrate and, for once, recognizing the eclectic and transformational leadership of the uncommon president of the Senate, the senator Godswill Akpabio. In addition to praising his senator “good friend” Akpabio for having reassembled his portrait among his colleagues, he appreciated the tenth national assembly, led by Akpabio, for his courage to invite him to present an article to the joint session of the National Assembly.

According to Saraki, “if he had been at another moment, they would have looked at the president’s body language and my invitation would have been missing. Just like my portrait.”

The former president of the Senate observed that “just as my portrait was missing for four years in the Senate gallery created for all the former officers, it was only recently introduced. I thank my good friend, senator Godswill Akpabio, for this.”

But of course, this is not the character of the leadership of Senator Akpabio. He is a stimulating, inclusive, rational, human and compassionate leader. And like a former president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, once said: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, so more and become more, you are a leader”. Senator Godswill Akpabio is truly a leader because it exudes all these qualities.

Restore the portrait of Senator Saraki and even go on to invite him as part of those to make presentations to the celebration of the democracy day is indicative of the fact that the president of the Senate Akpabio is a receptive to the criticism and tolerant to the opposition, no matter how much Citriolo can be. He does not believe in taking a pound of meat when the opportunity presents himself, nor does he use his exalted position to pay the opponents in his coin.

In the wake of the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Auduaghan from the Senate, Senator Saraki, despite being a former president of the Senate, has never spared the president of the Senate Akpabio any benefit of the doubt but joined the fray, condemning and condemning Akpabio without trial. But Akpabio, a man imbued with institutional integrity and respect for the right of individual opinion, has never allowed this that does not have his sense of judgment in the relative to those who supported the law in his head in launching estimates on him.

The president of the Senate Akpabio is like Mahatma Gandhi, who said: “I suppose that once the leadership meant muscles, but today it means going to get along with people”. He is the most sociable leader we have around today. He knows how to revive any environment or opportunities in which he finds himself. It refers excellently with anyone approaching. A deit and un seicalized leader, the doors of Akpabio are open to human beings of all shades; It does not discriminate, just as it shares with everyone and various.

Today the leadership in Parliament has redefined, involving the executive in a target and intentionally without arguing or fighting; Representing people through implementable laws that are promoting development and affected by kindness and human compassion. This is the spirit of a leader whose main concern is to bring smiles on the faces of the common man and not pain or sadness.

■ Ken Harries is a development strategist with headquarters in the United States.

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