By Wahab Oba
This is my song to celebrate the leader. Many will roll out drums to celebrate the leader who means different things to different people. Those who don’t know him may say other things about him, but those of us who have whined and dined with him, Know Dr Saraki as an extraordinarily intelligent man, the only Senate President who stood before Nigeria’s President Muhammad Buhari to introduce all members of the 8th Senate by their names and constituents without a guide.
It is sixty years today since Olusola and Florence Saraki witnessed the arrival of their first bundle of joy into the family. And how so heartwarming to note that sixty years after that arrival on the 19th December 1961, the bundle of joy has continued to be so, not only now to the immediate family but to humanity across the world.
They named him Bukola; in other words, his arrival was an addition to the family’s wealth. Again, what joy to note that this man, now gradually joining the rank of elders, has proved the name in all ramifications. He has added to the family: more fame, wealth, and honour. His is not the story of akotileta, the wayward son who wastes the family’s fortune in carefree spending. Bukola Saraki, whose birthday is today and he’s being celebrated across the globe, inherited a strong political dynasty, and to his credit has nurtured that inheritance to the global accolade.
His father, the late Olusola Saraki was a man of fame; famous for his generosity, famous for his simplicity and famous for his political sagacity which made him a bridge builder across party, ethnic, religious and social lines. Bukola has not only continued this tradition but equally upped the ante. No one can deny his political sagacity. No one does not understand his strength as a strategist. No one would underrate his leadership astuteness.
From within Nigeria, and outside the shores of the nation, this scion of the Saraki dynasty has built bridges of national and global friendship that are helpful to his constituents and the political cause. When he became governor of Kwara state in 2003, the first industry that came to that state was from his friend, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. Others also followed. His imprint on the sands of Kwara governance cannot be erased. His father raised many men in his lifetime. The son has continued and raised men and women who have succeeded in the tradition of value additions common to Ile Loke, the assembly point for the political dynasty.
At the national level, Saraki is a darling of the youths, for whom he led legislative processes and affirmation for the Not Too Young to Rule movement.
His father was the Leader of the Senate in the second republic. It was a unified decision of several party members in that legislative assembly of the time. In the eighth Senate, Bukola became the Senate President by popular vote. Again, despite desperate and wicked persecution by the ruling party, he led that assembly with a greater majority queuing behind him across party lines all through the four years. The 8th Assembly remains one of the most productive, and most public-sensitive in the annals of Nigerian legislative houses.
Like all men, and like the common saying that there is no crown for anyone not willing to taste the cross, Saraki has been crucified on the cross of Nigeria’s political firmament and like the Phoenix, has emerged stronger and better. Because of his zero tolerance for sloppiness, some have pinned his character to such a despicable attribute of arrogance. But in the course of putting a write-up on Saraki together, I heard the testimony of a young man who works in the Government House during Saraki’s reign as Governor. The young man was said to have sent a private mail to the governor complaining about a damaged transformer in his area. The governor responded to the mail and promised action. That week they got the transformer. The young man also got special recognition from the leader. Unfortunately, such stories are rarely in the public domain.
But for Saraki, this kind of accusation has become a price to pay for venturing into the murky waters of Nigerian politics. For him, it is certainly one huge price to pay and not meant for the Lilly-livered.
Today, in his homeland of Kwara, his party has bounced back from an orchestrated defeat in 2019 to become the toast of the populace and a perennial threat to the incompetent incumbent administration it has accumulated a debt profile that almost equals the debt accumulated by all former governors of the state.
While at the national level, Saraki has remained a unifying factor for the PDP which has become a big headache for the ruling APC, his achievements in the state have remained the benchmark for its development. The Aviation College, Kwara State University, Malete, Harmony Diagnostic Centre, the first overhead bridge, a revolution in the agricultural sector, and various road projects have been indisputably reasons why he is now referred to as the architect of modern Kwara.
As Saraki celebrates his birthday today, my song for the leader is Chief Ebenezer Obey’s lyric: “igba meta ni igba eda laye, kale san mi jowuro lo Baba”. May your tomorrow be brighter than your today.
*Oba, former chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Lagos State Council, writes from Ilorin.
