Born into an aristocratic family, Bukola Saraki rose to fame under the auspices of the ebullient political mastery of late Olusola Saraki, his father and political coloniser of Kwara state during his life time.
Though the memories of the real Saraki can be disjointedly evaluated, but in the measure of evil and good, he maintained equilibrium until he was displaced by his villain son.
In average Nigerian’s usual display of ingratiate, during harmonisation on the political front, instead of admitting absence of true progressive ideologies in our political parties, the misunderstood concept “no permanent friend or enemy in politics” has been the source of wrong political orientation among misguided political players.
Between 2000 and 2002, Dr Bukola Saraki was special assistant to then President Olusegun Obasanjo on budget affairs, a position facilitated for him by then Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
It was from that position that he was assisted by Atiku Abubakar through “federal might” to displace the true voices of good people of Kwara state that gave their mandate to late Muhammadu Lawal at the 2003 governorship election.
A lot of deceit has been peddled by the followers of Saraki who painted the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the Governor of Kwara state in 2003 as the true reflection of the wishes of the electorate.
The farce has remained that Olusola Saraki acted a script to bring his son to power, but it was an era when Atiku Abubakar supervised the forceful hijacking of mandate from opposition parties to the favour of PDP in 2003 – Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara and Kogi states were the victims.
Inheriting the political dynasty after forcing his father into an emergency political retirement in 2011, the people of Kwara state have continued to suffer series of deprivation under the strange grip of Senator Bukola Saraki whose has a penchant for disrespect of correctional figures and detest for dissenting voices; he has always acted like a lord supreme above any politician in Nigeria.
When a man fails to lean to the African adage that, “it’s someone’s worth you may not understand, but you must know your worth”, he ascribes his political attainments to his intelligence and mastery of the act of political manoeuvering.
Knowing your worth is a guide to measure a fulfilling desire, when you covet what’s beyond your reach, you are prone to misadventure, which explains the deserving failure of Senator Bukola Saraki in his dubiously packaged #GrowNigeria campaign, which crashed at the just concluded PDP presidential primaries, where the chief political demagogue and manipulator defeated him.
His real motive for returning to his vomit after wrecking havoc on the ruling APC was displayed in his #GrowNigeria campaign.
He served as Governor of Kwara State on the platform of PDP and today he is the national leader of the party, after his failed bid to hijack the leadership of APC that gave him a political lifeline in 2015.
Had he not joined the moving train of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2015, he would have been in the class of former governors Aliyu Babangida of Niger state and Sule Lamido of Jigawa state currently in political oblivion.
Instead of admitting his luck since his borrowed name has been working for him, he has been gallivanting around claiming intelligence and political sophistication, what a crass mentality.
If not lack of conscience, rather than taking advantage of the insensitivity of commoners, how can a man, whose state is among the poorly developed in terms of infrastructure and economic servitude, exhibit such guts to cajole unsuspecting members of the public with fake campaign sloganeering.
I wonder what it would have been, if he has not been paid in his coin of usual betrayal, coming distant third in a contest he bragged of winning; it indicates that he is a mere tool in PDP.
How can one analyse a loss at party primaries by a national leader of the party in a contest where only party members were delegates, what a fantastic recompense.
To take advantage over his contenders, he lobbied to lead PDP Campaign Council in the recent Osun governorship election and promised to shelve his presidential ambition if PDP lost in the Osun election.
Behold, PDP lost and the man with borrowed garment of honour reneged on his openly professed promise; he contested and lost woefully, despite all the bragging.
After allegedly spending minimum of $1000 per delegate, all he could score was 317 votes out of 3,700 votes, what an unintelligent venture.
The most painful aspect of the inglorious reign of Bukola Saraki is his comparison with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by his bootlicking supporters who are always disturbing the media space with the warped logic of charisma.
Since his exit as Governor of Lagos state in 2007, Asiwaju has produced two worthy successors envied nationwide, he has not chased personal aggrandisement and dedicated twelve good years to opposition politics before leading the opposition figures and party to national prominence in 2015.
How can the duo be compared on the same pedestal? In his quest for political office in 2002, he was named Abubakar, his earlier posters for the governorship race back then had the name “Mutalib” printed boldly on them, which was quickly changed to “Abubakar” the biological name of his father.
Many termed this to spirituality to possess the prowess of his father.
Right or wrong, he has been very ruthless in his use of power and far more than his father in under developing Kwara state.
With the name, he has been victorious at all elections until now that he has dropped from fame to shame, maybe those spiritualists of 2002 can reverse his star back to bear “Mutalib” for him to return to a humble Bukola Saraki he was before acquiring the name “Abubakar”.
In a discourse years back, someone mentioned that it was Atiku Abubakar that inspired the father to toe the line of name change, but never knew he shouldn’t have contested with the Abubakar which former President Obasanjo described as a man that believed in soothsayers.
How I wish this is some sought of fabrication or fallacy, but alas, the shame ahead of Bukola Saraki might be too difficult for him to bear, if he continues with his political arrogance.
Comrade Agboola, President, Greener Nigeria Movement
