BUKOLA SARAKI IS NEW OPPOSITION LEADER

BUKOLA SARAKI IS NEW OPPOSITION LEADER

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU.

DR BUKOLA SARAKI IS THE NEW OPPOSITION LEADER IN NIGERIA

It is difficult to tell how Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki ,The President of the Nigerian Senate mastered the art of political rebellion but it would appear that his spat with family members over who was to succeed him as Governor of Kwara State in 2011 among other battles prepared him for the 2015 “dog –fight” with Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Son of the old fox and Medical Doctor turned Politician ,Dr Abubakar Shola Saraki now deceased, the younger Saraki learned the art of politicking from his father who was easily among the twenty most influential Nigerians during his lifetime .

Urbane,smart and very brilliant ,Dr Bukola Saraki is the Turaki of Ilorin thus the Third in line to the Throne of Emirship of Ilorin if called upon,with his late father Waziri of Ilorin.

The family had the distinction of determining who gets what in Kwara Politics right from 1979,if you doubt this then ask Late Alhaji adamu Atta,Senator Cornelius Adebayo, Senator Mohamed Shabba Lafiaji,Read Admiral Mohammed Lawal of the” no- saking- fame”

Dr Bukola Saraki is the Head of third most powerful political block in the old Peoples Democratic Party [P.D.P] behind  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

It was to Dr Bukola Saraki ‘s influence that a certain Alhaji Kawu Baraje had to rely on to climb to the position of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party [P.D.P].

With the approval of his late father ,Dr Bukola Saraki pulled all the stops  including emptying the vaults of a bank as laid booby traps en route to removing Late Admiral Mohammed Lawal from office in 2003.

It is difficult to believe that Tinubu is suffering from Amnesia so soon or has he  forgotten that at a time he was Governor of Lagos state ,he actually was bowing down before Dr Bukola Saraki as the Chairamn of the powerful Nigerian Governors Forum.

Sometimes in 2010,as the race for the 2011 Presidential Elections got hot ,the Northern Block in Nigeria tried to play smart in the P.D.P and a shadow election was held to determine the sole candidate to face Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan .

In a very strong field  consisting of General Ibrahim Babangida,Mallam Adamu Ciroma ,alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Dr Bukola Saraki himself,the latter was second behind the former Vice President  thus announcing to the world that he had grown from just been a daddy’s boy.

When Former President Goodluck Jonathan shot himself in the legs by refusing to allow other aspirants to contest with him at what should have been a Presidential Primaries within the P.D.P,despite been a floor member as at then in the Nigerian Senate,it was to Dr Saraki that all the gOvernors and other gladiators went to as they forged a common front with Former Veepee Abubakar to leave the party en masse prior to joining the All Progressives Congress{A.P.C.].

Accepted Dr Saraki does not have the kind of wealth  available to Tinubu the fact remains that with his inheritance he is not far behind and added to this is the fact that he has a large pool of goodwill built over several decades by his father who was one of the key financiers of the National Party of Nigeria,National Republican Convention,All Nigerian Peoples Party ,political parties under whom the elder Saraki ran for The Presidency though missing the ticket by the whiskers in 1999 to Chief Ogbonnaya Onu who later stepped down for Chief Olu Falae who later lost to Chief Obasanjo in that year’s elections.

So for Tinubu to think that dealing with a man of this pedigree is like the way he will dismiss  or push around the likes of Fashola,Ajumobi,Amosun,Oshiomhole or Ogbeni Aregbeshola  then he probably is living in dream land and will need to seek for medical attention.

Many seems to have forgotten that if all hope is lost for him in the mainstream,he can use the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria[A.C.P.N]founded by his late father as a joker,Tinubu should be careful or his ego trip will destroy A.P.C.

That he got 84 Senators out of a possible 110 rooting for him and thus giving him a vote of confidence  can only mean one thing and that is write him off at your peril.

This is not to say that Paedia Express Multimedia’s Editorial and Policy Board loves Dr Bukola Saraki for lying under oath but who in Nigerian Politics is not a liar anyway?

He is regarded in politics as a fearsome fighter as some even claim he has never lost any political battle add that to his blood ties with the powerful Olateru-olagbegi Dynasty in Owo where his mother hails from then  Tinubu should know that he is playing with fire politically.

As at today in Nigeria there are only few people that Dr Bukola Saraki can bow for and they are the Former Presidents,Heads of States,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ,Northern Emirs ,most of whom were his father’s contemporaries and not to Tinubu.

Tinubu should learn a lesson in humility ,he should befriend Dr Saraki  and join hands with others like him to move Nigeria forward under President Muhammadu Buhari.

To Use a certain ,Alhaji Lai Mohammed to pay up street urchins in Ilorin to stone Dr Saraki even when Tinubu  himself is corruption personified is a joke taken too far as all should be treated equally in true Federalist platform.