Renowned poet, Prof. Niyi Osundare, has decried the process leading to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate.

Osundare said in a poem titled “Blues for the New Senate King,” that Saraki not only betrayed his party, the All Progressives Congress, but also betrayed Nigerians who were eager for change.

The poem was published by an online medium, Sahara Reporters, on Monday.

The poet said Saraki only thinks of himself and that was why he was willing to give the Deputy Senate Presidency to the Peoples Democratic Party in order to achieve his aim.

The social critic said Saraki’s behaviour should not be surprising since he comes from a political family.

The poem read, “Behold, the people ask: Who will save us from our prostitutes in power? He wanted so desperately to be king of the Senate. He left the path of honour behind. Haba!

“He stabbed noble faith and trust in the back and put the traitor’s knife on the bonds that bind. Power-intoxicated, blinded by ambition, he only cares for three big people: ‘I, me and myself’.

“A renegade old book with phoney letters; vacuous, thumb-stained on history’s shelf. His feet never know the way to the house of honour. Integrity is visibly missing in his diction of deceit.

“He sold us cheap in the commerce of the backroom caucus. Coming back later with a false receipt. Cocky without conscience, rude without restraint, he traded away a victory won with our sweat and blood.

“A discredited enemy behind his tarnished banner; he trampled the people’s hope in the shameful mud. The fruit never falls far from its tree; true scion of a cold and crooked clan. Broken banks, broken dreams, and broken lives, he’s a fitting heir to a dubious pedigree.”

Osundare described Nigerian politicians as unscrupulous individuals who smell like corpses. He said it would be difficult to expect loyalty from such people when they were always defecting.

He said as long as Nigerians remain unconcerned about politics, leaders would continue to take the people for granted.

In the second stanza of the poem, Osundare criticised politicians in general, saying they lacked shame.

He said, “PDP in the morning, Labour at noon, APC at night; wind-vane politicians with multiple tongues. They plod through life like shameless masquerades. Their trails are littered by a litany of wrongs. Our rulers stink like festering corpses.

“Their crimes choke the startled world. Honourless, ruthless, with hearts of stone in league, all times, with treacherous forces; prostitute dealers, perfidious scoundrels. They sell us short in every market.

“Devoid of scruple, averse to sense, they blight the ballot and steal our votes.

“They cast us adrift on the swindled oceans with tattered sails and leaking boat. And we the people are the absent factor bought, sold, disdainfully discarded.”

Calls to the line of Saraki’s media aide, Yusufu Olaniyonu, did not connect. Also, a text message sent to his line by our correspondent to seek his reaction was not replied.