By Niyi Akinnaso
His
followers back home in Ilorin say it openly, that for Bukola Saraki,
Senate presidency is merely a stepping-stone; the ultimate goal remains
Aso Villa!
– Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, Vanguard, July 9, 2015
It’s like one of our members from the
Peoples Democratic Party … they still have the PDP sentiments, and they
are using it to achieve their objectives … They may be successful in
the short term, but it’s going to ruin them in the long term … This is
because once one is adjudged unreliable, nobody will trust such an
individual with higher authority.
– Chief Audu Ogbeh, commenting on the antics of Senator Bukola Saraki’s election as the Senate President.
It is generally believed that the
mutinous and beleaguered President of the Senate, Abubakar Bukola
Saraki, is not simply a power monger, he is also a power grabber. He has
been known to display both traits at the slightest opportunity. His
ultimate goal, it is believed, is to become the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. No one knows this better than his local supporters
back home in Ilorin as the first opening quote suggests. However, if
Ogbeh’s comment is anything to go by, and anyone who knows Ogbeh well
knows that he is not flippant with words, Saraki’s ultimate ambition may
elude him, precisely for the
reasons stated in the second opening
quote.
Ever
since former President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as a special
assistant on budget issues in 2000, Saraki had set his eyes on the
highest political job in the land. Accordingly, he has climbed or
attempted to climb every ladder that came his way, rightly or wrongly.
His chief strategy, many observers have noted, is to cut corners;
sidetrack rules, regulations, and procedures; or defy appropriate
authority in order to achieve his goal. He is known to have scuttled his
own sister’s political ambition in order to boost his own. Three
examples of the Saraki strategy will suffice.
One, as soon as he became the Governor of
Kwara State in 2003, Saraki moved the state’s funds from the state’s
own bank, Trade Bank (now defunct), to his family’s failing bank, of
which he was once Executive Director, namely, Societie Generale Bank
(also now defunct). He might as well have moved the funds to his own
residence, like Bakin Zuwo, a former Governor of Kano State, who was
eventually sentenced to 300 years in prison for his action. It took the
concerted effort of many a notable citizen of Kwara State and beyond to
convince Saraki to get the funds returned to the state’s bank. Imagine
entrusting the nation’s resources in the hands of such a self-centered
politician.
Two, in June 2015, after nights of
surreptitious meetings with co-accomplices, largely members of the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Saraki defied his party’s leaders
and the vast majority of his fellow senators in the All Progressives
Congress, to contest the position of President of the Senate, knowing
full well that fellow APC senators were going to meet with President
Muhammadu Buhari at a different location, and that he himself should
have been there.
At first, the full import of Saraki’s
“coup” against his own party and its leaders was not fully realised by
many observers. I, for one, was initially angry at the APC leaders for
giving Saraki room for plotting and successfully carrying out a coup
against them. Accordingly, in “APC and power management 101” (The Punch,
June 16, 2015), I chastised them for failing to manage power and the
coalition they worked so hard to build, focusing on the implications of
the Senate election snafu for the APC’s change agenda and President
Buhari’s authority.
However, as events unfolded, it became
clearer that Saraki was a defiant rebel, who was determined to have his
way by hook or by crook. Having let go of his winning the election
through a coup, APC leaders decided to step in on the election of the
other Senate leaders. Saraki sidetracked protocol by refusing to read,
on the floor of Senate, the party leaders’ letter, containing a list of
their nominees to positions which are normally party positions. He went
ahead to put his own men into those positions. The brazenness of
Saraki’s action is put into sharper relief by that of the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who was elected in similar
circumstances but gave in to the party’s requests on other elections,
although only after prolonged negotiations. The corner-cutting Saraki
simply did not give room for such negotiations.
What is worse, it was alleged that the
procedural rules guiding the conduct of Saraki’s election were forged.
According to Emmanuel Aziken, Vanguard’s Political Editor, a 13-page report of the Police investigations obtained by Vanguard “affirmed that the amendment of the rules was not according to the laid down rules of the Senate”.
Accordingly, the report recommended,
among others, that “This practice where some group of senators amends
the Rules of the Senate without following legal procedures is not only
criminal but portends danger for our growing democracy and should be
discouraged” (Vanguard, July 27, 2015). To further sully
Saraki’s already sullied victory, the police report on the forgery of
the Senate rules is now lost in the labyrinth of the Nigerian factor, of
which Saraki is master, but which President Buhari is determined to
change.
The Nigerian factor or, better still, the
Saraki factor, is believed to be behind the third example of Saraki’s
strategy of ascending to, or retaining, power. It is the botched probe
of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim
Lamorde, which is suspected to have been orchestrated by Saraki
himself. Coming at a time when the EFCC embarked on probing into various
corruption allegations, including that of Saraki’s own wife, Toyin
Saraki, many observers, including the vast majority of fellow senators,
believe that the probe was ill-timed; that the petition was not properly
channelled; that Saraki, as Senate President, sidetracked the Senate’s
laid down procedures in setting up the probe; and that the petitioner,
George Uboh, is a close ally of Saraki, who, like Saraki’s wife, is
under investigation by the EFCC. Uboh for one is standing trial before
Justice J, Aladetoyinbo of the FCT High Court on three counts of fraud
(FRN v George Uboh CR/12/09), for allegedly converting properties
belonging to the Police Equipment Fund to personal use;
The botched probe of the EFCC boss is a
further demonstration of Saraki’s highhandedness. Not only is the probe
intended to serve Saraki’s self-interest, it has the serious implication
of derailing the anti-corruption agenda of President Buhari and the
APC.
It is against the above backgrounds that
Saraki’s future foray into presidential politics should be assessed.
Without a doubt, he is well educated and politically groomed, having
been a two-term governor, chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and
now President of the Senate. The problem is that he is not trustworthy
and loves to cut corners, by sidetracking laid down procedures. Besides,
Saraki is said to have accumulated stupendous wealth, in excess of his
legitimate earnings, including palatial mansions especially in the
United Kingdom, which is considered out of sync with President Buhari’s
anti-corruption agenda. This can only further estrange him from
President Buhari and the APC leadership, whose wishes he has so
stubbornly flouted.
Nevertheless, it is high time the APC
leadership, especially President Buhari and the APC National Leader,
Bola Tinubu, stopped Saraki from causing further division within the
Senate, thus impeding the progress of their party. He should be granted
the audience he is widely reported to have been seeking and told in
clear terms to toe the party line or else …(I leave that to the
leaders).
Ref: http://www.punchng.com/opinion/viewpoint/will-bukola-saraki-ever-be-nigerias-president/
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