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

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).