Date: 2021-08-16

Former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has never hidden his ambition to be president of Nigeria and his eyes remain on the ball. In this report, Segun James looks at the politics of a man, who has suddenly become an issue in the match towards 2023

Two years after Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki left office as the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is still an issue in the nation’s body polity, more so as he assumed a prominent place in the leadership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Since leaving office, he has not only been a rallying point for the party, he has also spent his time reconciling the fractured party and getting it ready for the 2023 general election.

Synergy may not be an ideal word in politics, yet, accepted political management theory holds that, there are a few ways for a party to boost its value, most especially among states controlled by it. This has been the work of Saraki in the last few months.

However, there's a reason for Saraki’s efforts. Kit is not just because he has his eyes on the presidency in 2023, but really, what's an ambition without a viable platform? In addition, he believes the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has performed badly in the last six years, hence the need to go for a competent and capable hand that can lead the nation out of the doldrums.

He is neither from the core north nor from the south. He comes from the middle belt, a part of the country that has also been agitating that the presidency should be zoned to them. He believes he would be a unifier in a nation that is torn between ethnic and religious divides. He has been going round the country, promising, albeit on behalf of the party, to make a country suffering collapse of confidence to stand tall again.

Until Saraki was being harassed by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for alleged financial crimes committed as governor of Kwara State from 2007 to 2015, that it became known to many that he might have been marked for decimation.

Although the EFCC has denied arresting him over allegations of fraud and money laundering, but his invitation was evidently suspect. EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said contrary to reports, the former governor of Kwara simply honoured the invitation of the commission, stressing that he was not arrested.

"It is true he was invited, and he responded but there are no details at the moment," said Uwujaren

Saraki was said to have been arrested in Abuja shortly after attending a wedding ceremony of the daughter of one of his loyalists and the Third Republic Kwara State governor, Senator Shaaba Lafiagi.

A statement by his Media Office, signed by Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, also confirmed that Saraki was invited to clarify issues that the commission raised with him, but was never arrested.

"Following the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on the Fundamental Human Rights case filed by Saraki during the period of the former Chairman of the EFCC, which precluded the commission from investigating him until the matter is dispensed with, the commission at the last hearing on July 14, 2021, pleaded with the judge that the order was preventing them from doing their job.

"Following this complaint, Saraki, as a responsible citizen, on his own volition approached the commission that at the earliest convenient date, he was willing to visit the commission's office and clarify all issues they might want to raise with him.

"He, therefore, visited the commission’s office this afternoon and answered some questions. He is back home. He was not arrested. Saraki also assured the commission that he has nothing to hide and will always make himself available to clear all issues that may require his attention."

If there was one thing that the former President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump has, it is to intuitively see the future opposition. It was this that made him ask the Ukrainian government to investigate and discredit a yet to be nominated Joe Biden as the candidate of the opposition Democratic Party.

It was this intuition that also made him say, even before the 2020 election that, "I will not concede if I lose as it would be deemed corrupt." Both scenarios became true. Today, in Nigeria, a similar scenario is playing out. The attempt to discredit potential opposition candidates by the ruling APC is the name of the game.

Saraki is no stranger to controversy. The former president of the senate was one of the five governors that crossed the Rubicon by defecting from the PDP to the newly formed congregation of political parties, the APC in 2013, a move that led to the loss of power by the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan to APC's Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

Not long after that, he had another reason to return to his PDP. The move, this time, did not achieve the dramatic effect of the first.

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. This appears to be the situation in the Nigerian polity. Yes, politics has begun in earnest and the race for 2023 is hotting up; and Saraki is one of the people on the front line.

Over the past decades, Saraki has been a recurring decimal in the political scene of Nigeria. Either as governor of Kwara State or President of the Senate, he had consciously stayed politically relevant since 1999, building bridges across the different divides.

For Saraki, taking the road less travelled has often led to better results, even though very controversial. But one that is often overlooked: crisscrossing from the PDP to the APC and back is no big deal.

Scion of the enigmatic Ilorin political leader, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Bukola took his first tottering steps in politics at the coming of the 4th Republic and within a few years, stepped out of his father’s shadows and established himself as a leader and force to be reckoned with.

However, the surprising thing about Saraki’s invitation by the EFCC for alleged corruption charges committed while in office as governor was not the allegation, but the timing.

Saraki is today one of the leading contenders for the presidential ticket of the opposition PDP, even though none has openly declared for the nation’s number seat. Given his antecedent as a political strategist, the belief in some quarters is that the invitation was a warning sign of things to come.

The story of Saraki is the tale of a man that has been able to defy the odds at every turn. Until the "Otoge" movement in Kwara, which uprooted his stranglehold on the state's politics, Saraki, like his father, had been able to negotiate himself into the national consciousness and reckoning.

But the Otògé movement, which changed the dynamics in the state politics, uprooted Saraki and his loyalists from the state’s political system, has turned out positive. Barely two years later, Saraki is not just back into the reckoning, he is the in-thing, a situation that is giving the state governor sleepless nights.

A few years ago, PDP’s political hegemony in Nigeria was unassailable, but today, all of that is history. No thanks to Saraki and others, who left the party. But now that he is back to the fold, could he repeat the magic of 2013? That remains one of the salient questions as the race towards 2023 inches closer.

In politics, culture splits wildly. Politics encourages one another to cross-carpet along the political divide without regard to ideological difference.

The going forth and back by Saraki and a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has been a source of concern for some of the electorate, who have keyed into their ideologies. But, surely, there is a similarity between the PDP and the APC, which in fact, is the reason for the seeming confusion over the ideal choice among the voting Nigerians. It is the lack of ideology between both parties.

Every crisis is a challenge and an opportunity. Yesterday’s solutions are often unsuitable for today’s victory. Since Saraki’s reconciliation committee started working, the PDP seemed tohave gotten its groove back. The party is not only on its way back from the edge of extinction but from all indications, it may end up giving the APC a run for its money and vanished goodwill.

With Nigerians fed up with the almost eight years of the APC and President Buhari, there is certainly hope for the opposition party; and Saraki seems to be one of the "great white hopes" that could drive the process. But will he and the PDP succeed?