Born into an aristocratic family, Bukola Saraki rose to fame under the auspices of the ebullient political mastery of late Olusola Saraki, the political coloniser of Kwara State during his life time. Though the memories of the real Saraki can be disjointedly evaluated, but in the measure of evil and good, he maintained an equilibrium until he was displaced by his villain son. In average Nigerian’s usual display of ingratiate, during harmonisation on the political front, instead of admitting absence of true progressive ideologies in our political parties, the misunderstood concept ” no permanent friendship or enmity in politics ” have been the source of wrong political orientation among misguided political players, if not, sane minds keep wondering the act of ingratitude, by beneficiaries of the abused system, when suddenly turned rivals with their benefactors, in the type of “so ore do egbe” terming friendship to contemporary.
Between 2000 and 2002, Dr Bukola Saraki was a Special Assistant to President Obasanjo on budget affairs, a position facilitated for him by Vice President Atiku Abubakar and it was from that position that he was fraudulently assisted by Atiku Abubakar through “Federal Might” to displace the true voices of good people of Kwara State that gave their mandate to Late Muhammadu Lawal at the 2003 Governorship Election. A lot of deceit have been displayed by the followers of Saraki who painted the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the Governor of Kwara State in 2003 as the true reflection of the wishes of the electorates and the farce has remained that, Olusola Saraki acted a script to bring his son to power, nay, there were several intricacies, it was an era where Atiku Abubakar supervised over forceful hijacking of mandate from opposition parties to the favour of PDP in 2003 – Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara and Kogi were the victims.
Inheriting the political dynasty after forcing his father into an emergency political retirement in 2011 when he enforced the emergence of his stooge as the Governor of Kwara State from 2011 till date, the people of Kwara State have continued to suffer series of deprivation under the strange grip of Senator Bukola Saraki whose penchant for disrespect of correctional figures and detest for dissenting voices, he has always acted like a lord supreme above any politician in Nigeria. He has never appreciated the Grace God, yet, he desires more Grace and never thankful, always boastful of his political sophistication above everyone in Nigeria, he desired to be the most superior not looking back that he never achieved any political success through his personal best, rather through external forces at his disposal in the past. When a man failed to lean to the African adage that says, ” it’s someone’s worth you may not understand, but you must know your worth”, he ascribed his political attainments to his intelligence and perfect mastery of the act of political manoeuvering.
Knowing your worth is a guide to measure a fulfilling desire, when you covet what’s beyond your reach, you are prone to misadventure, which explains the deserving failure of Senator Bukola Saraki in his dubiously packaged #GrowNigeria Campaign, which crashed at the just concluded PDP Presidential Primaries, where the chief political demagogue and manipulator of politics just defeated him. His real motives for returning to his vomits after wrecking havoc on the ruling party was displayed in his #GrowNigeria Campaign.
He served as Governor of Kwara State under the platform of PDP and today he is the national leader of the party, after his failed bid to hijack the leadership of the party that gave him a political lifeline in 2015. Ordinary, had he not joined the moving train of the All Progressive Congress in 2015, he would have been in the class of Former Governors Aliyu Babangida of Niger State and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State currently enjoying political oblivion. Instead of admitting his luck since his borrowed name has been working for him, he has been gallivanting around claiming intelligence and political sophistication, what a crash mentality.
Kwara State residents are suffering series of social deprivation due to milking dry of State resources by Senator Bukola Saraki. Collapsed road in most communities and towns, poor welfare package for civil servants, promotion of insecurity through empowerment of louts at the expense of social crusaders and promotion of poverty. If not lack of conscience, rather, taking advantage of the insensitivity of commoners, how can a man, whose State is among the poorly developed in terms of infrastructural development and economic servitude, exhibit such gut to cajole unsuspecting members of the public with a fake campaign sloganeering, I wonder what it would have been, if he has not been paid in his coin of usual betrayal, coming distant third in a contest he bragged of winning, it indicates that he is to be a mere tool in PDP. How can one analyse a loss at party primaries by a national leader of the party in a contest where only party members were delegates, what a fantastic recompense.
When a figurine desire disgrace, it request for a bath at the river. Now that he has suffered defeat for the first time in his entire lifetime, those he has been oppressing without pity, are waiting for him back in Kwara State, to suffer the real disgrace of his lifetime and it will be irredeemable. To Senator Bukola Saraki, charity does not begin at home. He gallivanted the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, exploited all his contacts to seek supports of party delegates, expending unquantifiable amount of money in the process. To take advantage over his contenders, he lobbied to lead PDP Campaign Council in the recently conducted Osun Governorship Election and promised to shelve his Presidential ambition if PDP lost in the Osun Election. Behold, PDP lost and the man with borrowed garment of honour, reneged on his openly professed promise, he contested and lost woefully, despite all the bragging. After spending minimum of $1000 dollars per delegate, all he could score was 317 votes out of 3,700 available votes, what an unintelligent venture.
An opportunist with rare privilege turned himself to an expert in mischief, now that what he seriously covet covertly, (which made him to oppose the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, which made him dubiously emerged as Senate President without majority of members in session, which made him frustrate the anti corruption crusade of this administration, which made him to decamp from APC to PDP to become the leader of the failing party) has now permanently eludes him, his opposition in Kwara State whose resources he has continually feed upon seems poised to #GrowKwara for real and not the fake #GrowNigeria campaign he launched, to distract the populace from his looming travails and trials as reflected in recent fraud case of Paris refund linked to him. Now “wey the person wey sabi road don turn loser”, boys should be ready to mount the stage to dislodge him from Kwara State.
A very crafty and cunning person with the aim and target of impoverishment in disguise with his obvious capitalist tendencies, – State of affairs of the people of KWARA is a case study. End of lies and deceit, like the death of a donkey. One can now digest the lyrics of ace singer – Odolaye Aremu very well ” Owo to di ejo mo omo ahun lowo, onise Olorun Ilorin, Asiwaju Eda Ibadan, Muhammdu Eko yio gbowo ohun lowo e” Meaning; they shall be duped of their dubiously acquired wealth. If not lack of shame, Gbenga Makanjuola who is Bukola Saraki’s top aide and Chief of Staff is cooling his head in Ikoyi Confinement for standing front for his principal on a fraud count charge involving the wealth of the people of KWARA, yet the principal still presented himself to aspire to be Nigeria President. Bukola Saraki is an unrepentant rogue. As expected of a shameless politician without honour, it has been predicted he will follow the line of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who lost the 2014 APC Presidential Primaries only to return to Kano State to contest for Senatorial Election.
The most painful aspect of the inglorious reign of Bukola Saraki is his comparison with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by his bootlicking supporters always disturbing the media space with the warped logic of charisma. Since his exit as Governor of Lagos State in 2007, Asiwaju has produced two worthy successors envied nation wide, he has not chased personal aggrandisement and dedicated twelve good years to opposition politics before leading the opposition figures and party to national prominence in 2015, how can the duo be compared on the same pedestal?
Rogues are usually more convincing in terms of presentation, that’s why, fraudsters don’t easily get caught in this clime of the world. Nigerians love sugarcoated dupes that can criticise to get recognition, if not, why will a personality with much negative appellations at the home front becomes a choice leader for some educated folks, anyway, that shows the depth of thought and consciousness provided by our standard of education. In his quest for political office in 2002, he was named Abubakar in the contest against his opponent, his earlier posters for the governorship race back then, had the name “Mutalib” printed boldly on them, which was quickly changed to “Abubakar” the biological name of his father, many terms this to spirituality to posses the prowess of his father, whether right or wrong, he has been very ruthless in his use of power far mean than his father in under developing Kwara State. With the name, he has been victorious at all elections until now that he has dropped from fame to shame, maybe those spiritualists of 2002 can reverse his star back to bear “Mutalib” for him to return to a humble Bukola Saraki he was before acquiring the name ” Abubakar “.
In a discuss years back, someone mentioned that it was Atiku Abubakar that inspired the father to toll the line of name change, but never knew he shouldn’t have contested with the Abubakar which former President Olusegun Obasanjo described as a man that believed in soothsayers, how I wish this is some sought of fabrications or fallacy, but alas, the shame ahead of Bukola Saraki might be too difficult for him to bear, if he continue with his political arrogance.
Comrade AbdulRahman Agboola
President, Greener Nigeria Movement
E-mail: waledgreatking@yahoo.com
08029809000
