Date: 2012-05-14

When the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police recently declared him wanted for alleged financial fraud, not quite a few Nigerians were bemused or agitated over what could have been the main motive behind such a move. However, the man in the eye of the storm, Senator Bukola Saraki, the immediate past governor of Kwara State, last Thursday, appeared at the Ikoyi, Lagos office of the SFU, after having initially appeared at the Abuja office, against the insistence of the police that he should appear in Lagos.

  Saraki, is being investigated over an alleged N9.97 billion fraud involving some companies and the former Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank). At the Lagos office, the Commissioner of Police in charge of the SFU, Mr Tunde Ogunshakin, said that the former governor is being investigated over a controversial waiver of N9.97 billion, representing about 82 per cent of the N11.97 billion indebtedness granted some companies in February 2010 by the board of the defunct Intercontinental Bank under the management of Mr Mahmood Lai, then the Managing Director.

  According to Ogunshakin, "The companies that jointly incurred this indebtedness were Joy Petroleum Limited, Skyview Properties Limited, Dicetrade and Limkers Nigeria Limited. The debts originated from several loans/facilities worth billions of naira granted the companies, which were allegedly promoted by Bukola Saraki between 2004 and 2009 when he was the governor of Kwara State." He went further to say that "Saraki has made statements and the matter will soon be charged to court."

Quite expectedly, the travails of the former Kwara State helmsman is generating ripples and reactions from several sections of the country. The consensus is that the issue of warrant of arrest and his being declared wanted by the police over the alleged fraud had some undertones. To some people, the man stirred the hornet's nest sometimes last year when he blew the lid open over the activities of some cabal in the nation's oil sector. To some others, Saraki's present ordeal is part of a concerted effort to nick in the bud his growing political influence, particularly as it concerns the 2015 presidential election.

It was Saraki, who in an interview about a year ago, made it clear that a lot of things needed to be done (or is it undone?) in the attempt at taking a clean break away from the pangs of poverty and underdevelopment. He specifically said then that much needed to be done at the centre in order to make the states and local governments function effectively and optimally. Still courting trouble, he later declared in August that the country had already overshot its budgetary provisions for subsidy on fuel importation by nearly 100 per cent and that the figure might be tripled before the end of 2011.

The former Kwara State governor, last October, moved a motion on the floor of the Senate for an investigation into the management of the fuel subsidy regime. Noting that the essence of the subsidy scheme was to make petroleum products available and cushion the market effects on the people, Saraki then said that it was unfortunate that the scheme was merely enriching some few individuals while millions of Nigerians groan in pains.

He then urged the Senate to set up a special committee to investigate the operation of the fuel subsidy scheme with a view to determine if it is still being run within the confines of the law and to find ways to make it much transparent, accountable, efficient, sustainable and operating within the ambit of the Appropriation Act. He also wanted the special committee to investigate and establish the structure of operations and financing of the scheme with a view to establishing if there are cases bothering on misappropriation, misallocation and infractions that aid or lead to abuse of the Appropriation Act.

This motion, for all intents and purposes, marked the beginning of the yet unending searchlight on the activities of the fuel subsidy cabal. The Senate, on October 13, adopted the motion and directed its committees on Petroleum (Downstream), Approriation and Finance to commence investigations into the operations of thee fuel subsidy scheme. Taking a cue from the initiative, the Ad-hoc Committee set up by the House of Representatives to investigate the implementation of the subsidy regime submitted its report and thus, a Pandora box was opened, revealing the depth of corruption and malfeance pervading the nation's oil sector.

Ironically, the Saraki initiative also signaled the beginning of his travails as those people, whose toes he had stepped upon, now appeared bent on extracting their pound of flesh from a man who is seeking to pour sand in their gaari. 

Editor, Daily Sun, Steve Nwosu, in his column, Frank Talk (Wednesday, May 9, 2012), categorically declared that Saraki is being persecuted by a cabal over his expose on their activities in respect of the fuel subsidy issue. He argued that the former governor is made a scapegoat by the members of the fuel subsidy cabal who are all out to frustrate the outcome of the report before the Lower Chamber.

Arguing that the matter at hand is a civil matter over a private business deal between two parties that went sour, Nwosu expressed the opinion that Saraki, in his quest for probity and sanity in the oil sector, stepped on some toes and they needed to cow him into submission. Hence, he said the need to revisit the bank debt issue in order to get back to the former governor for his role in blowing the whistle on the fuel subsidy cabal.

From the political angle, many observers are of the view that Saraki's present ordeal is part of a larger scheming to take him out of circulation or considerably weaken his sphere of influence ahead the 2015 presidential election. Preparatory to the 2011 general election, the former governor had emerged as one of the favourite consensus candidates from the North, the other three being former Military President Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Gusau.

Though none of the four emerged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Saraki enjoyed so much rating that he was then seen in several quarters as the candidate to beat in future election. In fact, he was seen by many as the face of the next generation of northern leaders and it is in this wise that many are linking his current travails to the politics of 2015.

Though 2015 seems far away, and the man is yet to make his intention known about contesting the next presidential election, not quite a few analysts sensed political undertone in the whole process involved in the invitation of Saraki by the SFU over the alleged financial fraud. For the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), the police invitation was certainly connected with the ongoing expose on the rot in oil sector, initiated by Saraki.

While the Secretary General of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Chief Willy Ezugwu, in a media report, described Saraki's ordeal as his hounding by beneficiaries of the sleaze embedded in the subsidy administration, the president of Coalition of Civil Society for Transparency in Governance, Ibrahim Ali, also reportedly described the police invitation as politically-motivated and aimed at silencing the majority of Nigerians who are becoming weary of the cesspool of corruption permeating the polity.

As noted by Commissioner of Police Ogunshakin that the matter would soon be charged to court, it will presumptuous to pre-empt the court or pervert the course of justice. However, many are of the view that the man's integrity and glaring attempt to nip in the bud the pervading corruption and corruptive tendencies across the country must not be sacrificed on the altar of political expendiencies.