The political career of Dr. Bukola Saraki is quite rich. He has been a presidential aide, governor, chairman of Governors’ Forum and now a Senator. Deputy Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes on the career of the politician who has succeeded his father as head of the ‘Saraki political dynasty’ in Kwara State.
At 50, life goes on for Abubakar ‘Bukola Saraki, medical doctor, two-time governor of Kwara State and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. For him, the past five decades have paled into a glorious past. Yet, the acknowledged political leader of Kwara in post-Olusola Saraki era, faces a future pregnant with possibilities. He has inherited a solid political structure bequeathed by the eminent politician. As the head of the political dynasty, he has shown an uncanny capacity for sustaining mass followership. His visionary leadership style, courage and pragmatism are enduring assets. But, what has earned him political loyalty in Kwara is his service to the people. As predicted by observers, Saraki has filled the vacuum created by the demise of the celebrated grassroots politician.
From childhood, the medical doctor-turned politician has been a promising character. At school, he had shone with a rare brilliance. Although he was born with silver spoon in his mouth, he was not indulged by his affluent father. Also, the younger Saraki did not neglect the path of self-development. He practised his profession with passion and recorded manifold success. In politics, he built on the solid foundation laid by the late Oloye. To observers, the name ‘Saraki’ was only an added advantage, both in private and public life, for Oloye’s beloved son.
Unlike other privileged colleagues, Saraki started his political career from the top. As a presidential aide, he lived to expectation. His intellect, creative ingenuity, sense of industry and focus made him to stand out from the crowd of special assistants and senior special assistants in the Obasanjo Administration. Key Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders who closely observed him aptly described him as a man of the future. When the critical moment of opportunity came, he fulfilled his destiny. As governor for eight years, he presided over a model administration and erected lasting legacies. It is ironic that what is not common in the State of Harmony is harmony. Politics in the state has been shaped by poverty, ethnicity and religion. For that eight years when he was in the saddle, the opposition did not relent in their criticism of his administration for many reasons. But many Kwarans agreed that Saraki lived up to expectation in terms of performance.
The Governors Forum which he led became a potent force in the ruling PDP and ultimately, the country. Towards the end of his second term, he eyed the presidency. Although he missed the ticket, it did not translate into a political eclipse. Up to now, the home front is intact. An important challenge that confronted the former governor and the political machinery that nurtured and catapulted him to power was succession. There were many politicians from the ruling and opposition parties itching to succeed him. Indeed, intra-party scramble for power shook the political dynasty and the tension, for the first time, could not be mitigated by the gerontocratic wisdom of the patriarch, Oloye Saraki, who was the main issue in Kwara politics for 45 years. The elderstatesman, his governor-son and senator-daughter were embroiled in controversy and crisis of succession. The rest is now history.
Senator Saraki shared the same fate with his late father. But much difficulties were not on his path to political victory and fame. The elder Saraki passed through political vicissitudes, rising from the slippery political ground at every fall. His son, many believe, emerged later to reap the fruits of his father’s political labour. Like the departed political kingpin, he had wanted to serve in the highest office. When reality dawned on him that it was a futile ambition, he took the senatorial route, like his father. Up to now, the towering stature of the Second Republic Senate Leader has dwarfed his successors in subsequent dispensations. The National Party of Nigeria (NPN) caucus, the Second Republic highest decision making political and governmental machinery, was incomplete without the indomitable Turaki and later, Waziri, of Ilorin.
As a senator, Senator Saraki mirrors his father, mentor and role model. The senator from Kwara Central District has endowed his seat in the Upper Chamber with visibility. His strength lies in his power of ideas, experience, exposure and logic. Although a first timer on the ranked floor, he is not a baby senator and bench warmer. Indisputably, he is also not afraid to ruffle feathers. As legislator, the urban and cosmopolitan politician has dazed many with his fighting spirit, resilience and populist tendencies. It is a paradox. Having erected his legislative career on a conservative platform, he veered off by adorning the cap of a progressive actor. He became an anti-corruption crusader. Reactions to his principled position on prudence an d transparency in national governance were varied. While party colleagues attempted to label him as another emerging internal opposition leader, ordinary Nigerians hailed his defence of truth, fair play and justice in the decadent society.
At a critical time when colleagues were aloof to public plight, Saraki filled the consciousness of the people by pitching his tent with Nigerians. He dared the powerful cabals, insisting that the enemies of the country who suffocated the land with the subsidy scam must not go unpunished. Harassed by the power that be, he nevertheless, survived the onslaught by the mega fraudsters. Today, it is said of the Kwara senator that the end has justified the means.
Saraki’s charm has endured, owing to his political disposition. Even, when his father rooted for his sister, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, he was cautious. Although he knew that PDP would have probably won the governorship with her as candidate, he objected. His close associates said that he differed on moral ground, with an intent to remove the misperception that Kwara and Kwara government have become Saraki’s fiefdom. In his view, power shift to another zone was desirable to give the district a sense of belonging. In addition, wanted to cleverly avert a hard journey to victory for PDP.
With fondness, many Kwarans have retained the memory of Bukola Saraki years in Government House. Thus, his successor, who was part of the administration, has no reason to derail from his transformational programmes in education, health, agriculture and provision of other social amenities. His father had started finding solution to the acute water crisis in the state from sixties. To his consternation, the problem had not abated when he assumed the reins. Therefore, he inherited the unfinished business of resuscitating the dried pipes. He revatalised education by providing more educational structures. When he started his agricultural programme, critics descended on the administration for inviting Zimbabwean farmers to hijack peoples’ land. The programme turned out to be income and employment yielding for the state.
In the Senate where he currently represents Kwara Central, he has made his mark. Whereas there are Senators who are described as sleeping lawmakers, Saraki has been very active. He will be remembered as the man who triggered the uproar on the unsustainable subsidy regime. He has also cried out on the state of the environment in different parts of the country, especially the ecology of the oil producing states. He has traversed the entire Nigeria territory following the unprecedented flood that ravaged many of the states in the course of this year.
Saraki was born on December 19, 1962. He attended King’s College, Lagos, from 1973-1978, and Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, London from 1979-1981 for his High School Certificate (HSC) programme. He then studied at the London Hospital Medical College of the University of London from 1982 to 1987, when he obtained his M.B.B.S (London). He worked as a Medical Officer at Rush Green Hospital, Essex, from 1988-1989. He was a Director of Societe Generale Bank (Nig) Ltd from 1990-2000. He was appointed Special Assistant to the President on Budget in 2000. Ceremonially, he also serves as a tribal nobleman of high rank in his capacity as the Turaki of the Ilorin Emirate.
There is no politician without his dark period. In April this year, the police sent a letter to Saraki asking him to assist their investigation of a case of “conspiracy, forgery and stealing N21,000,000,000 belonging to Joy Petroleum Ltd.” A Federal High Court in Abuja heard a request by Saraki for an injunction preventing the police from arresting him “to protect his dignity and prevent further harassment”. At the hearing, the counsel for the police alleged that Saraki had influenced purchase of stocks by the Ministry of Finance of Kwara State in companies that included Joy Petroleum, of which Saraki was the promoter. His wife was linked to the transaction as was Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, former Commissioner of Finance. The High Court adjourned the hearing until 22 May 2012.
On April 28, 2012, the police Special Fraud Unit said they had issued an arrest warrant for Saraki, whom they wanted to question about “a case of suspected fraudulent conversion of depositors’ funds through questionable waivers of loans and other facilities of about N9.76 billion granted by the management of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc.” It was alleged that the waived loans from the bank were used for his personal profit while he was governor of Kwara State. Saraki said he was willing to appear before the police. On May 3, 2012 the senator was questioned by the police for two hours. His associates said the allegations were politically motivated.
With the opposition in Kwara working hard everyday, the question many are asking is: will Saraki be able to hold the state’s politics as firmly as his father did?
