In this report, HEAD POLITICS, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM writes on the anticipated decision on whether Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki will be gunning for the top seat (presidency) in 2019 amidst growing calls from high quarters that he should to throw in the towel.
That this month will go down as the most anxiety filled in the politics of Kwara state and by extension Nigeria as we approach the 2019 presidential election is not in doubt and the reason is not farfetched.
Senate President and chairman of the National Assembly, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki in November last year had sort of agitated the minds of many of his supporters and politicians across the country who had waited anxiously for him to open the lid regarding his presidential ambition.
According to Saraki, while responding to the issue in an interview with daughter of Esama of Benin and sister to former Governor of Edo state, Osasu Igbinedion, on the ‘Osasu Show on the sidelines of the unveiling of Bolaji Abdullahi’s book, ‘On a Platter of Gold: How Jonathan Won and Lost Nigeria’, said those waiting for him to bell the cat need not wait for too long and promised to make his intention public this February.
In his words: “You are like the tenth person who had asked me (this question), so there is a queue. I promised the first person that when it is time to talk about 2019, I would answer the questions.
“Anytime next year from February, you can ask us about what my intentions are in 2019 or whether I want to come back to the senate. You want to talk about development and how we are going to get the country going, yes. We have a long time to talk about 2019”, he submitted.
Will Saraki heed the call?
But will Saraki join the likes of perennial contestant, Atiku Abubakar with whom he shares part of his name? The answer to the puzzle appears hanging on the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari who despite glaring aside speeches that point to the affirmative, has not come out officially on his ambition for second term.
Saraki, who spoke at a forum last year through his Chief of Staff, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, while featuring on Alheri Radio, Kaduna, revealed the only condition that can stop him from contesting the 2019 Presidential election, adding that if President Muhammadu Buhari decides to re-contest, then he (Saraki) will have no choice than to back out.
“There is no way Senator Bukola Saraki will contest for president in 2019 as long as President Buhari will contest. This I know very well because I work with him and I should know that. But if President Buhari says he will not re-contest the position that is a different case. The Senate President will not contest against President Buhari because he sees and respected him as a father. The same thing happened in 2011 and 2015, if you remember. Saraki declined to contest against him; instead, he joined others to work for the success of the President in the 2015 elections.” Ahmed said.
Institutional and Religious Support
But since then, the political circumstances now and then have changed the narratives amidst growing calls from the religious circles and national assembly corridors for Saraki to take over the presidency and stabilise the polity.
The gesture was first observed and rejected by Saraki last year when fellow senators attempted to declare him the acting president in the absence of President Buhari and his vice, Yemi Osinbajo.
The Senate, upon resumption from its three weeks break in July last year had received a communication from Professor Yemi Osinbajo, then Acting President, seeking the confirmation of Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila, as the Director General of National Lottery Regulatory Commission.
But the lawmakers, however, subjected the letter to deliberations, owing to the fact that the Acting President, had earlier reportedly said the Senate had no power to confirm nominees.
Senator Eyinanya Abaribe (Abia South), had raised a motion that the country had no President or Acting President at that moment, adding that neither President Muhammadu Buhari nor Professor Yemi Osinbajo was in the country, as at the time. This was greeted with a counter point, coming through order 53 rule 4 of the Senate standing rules, by Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central).
Marafa, who cited relevant sections of the Nigerian constitution, said, “if the President is not around, the Vice President should act, and if the Vice President is not around, the Senate President, who is the number 3 citizen should become acting President”. But Saraki however, didn’t allow any seconder or more comments, even when Senators were agitating to support the motion and quickly ruled Senator Marafa “out of order.”
Since then, there had been other subsequent calls from Senators Ben Murray Bruce (Bayelsa) with the latest addition coming from the religious circles.
First was by the popular blind cleric, Prophet Moses Muyideen Kasali, the General Overseer of the Mountain of Mercy (Ori-Oke Alaseyori) who predicted that political witch-hunt of Bukola Saraki and trump up charges against him may end up taking him to greater heights in Nigerian politics.
During the seventh anniversary of his church special fasting and prayer programme scheduled to mark his birthday at the church’s headquarters in Ojedeji community, Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan, Oyo State, the Prophet prophesied that Saraki would rise to become president of the country.
“There is an influential man in this country whose name is Bukola Saraki, he was Kwara State governor for eight years. After that, he became our Senate President. Allegations of corruption were levelled against him and many were talking about him in all the media. The noise was so loud. Someone, a pastor, once exclaimed beside me, saying: “Saraki is finished” but I said if the wind currently raging against him cannot overwhelm him. I declared that they are only publicising the man to the whole world. At a time, many of his loyalists deserted him. But I learnt a lesson from Saraki. When his so-called loyalists left him, he didn’t give up. He is a Muslim. He didn’t lose hope at all. He reckoned that though, he may fall, it is still possible for him to rise again. He is still the Senate President now. But they have brought another charge against him now and I begin to reason: maybe this is how they would push him to his glory to become Nigeria President. Some people may begin to mock him. Many fake pastors have turned things upside down”.
While the predictions were still on the tongues of many politicians, another South West prophet, this time from Lagos and founder and spiritual head of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Babatunde Elijah Ayodele, in company of other clerics like founder of the Divine Seed of God Chapel Ministries, Prophet Wale Olagunju, argued that President Muhammadu Buhari should forget elongating his stay in office beyond 2019,
They insisted that it would be detrimental to the wellbeing of the nation, just as it was emphasised that the current Senate President, Bukola Saraki, should be allow to steer the affairs of the country if Nigeria would do well.
“God is interested in Nigeria but He is no longer working with the present administration which is led by President Muhammadu Buhari. I have neither met nor spoken with the present Senate President, Bukola Saraki, but God wants to use him to revamp this nation in 2019. I have said this over and over again. I will say it here again. Buhari should step down for Bukola Saraki in 2019. Our economy has seen its worst. As a nation, many things have gone wrong and we need to ensure that we work with the Almighty God to reposition our country”, he added.
Anticipation/permutation continues
As the anticipation and anxiety continued about the possible decision of the Senate President, some political pundits have started putting two and two together as regards permutations for Saraki’s decision in the final analysis. It however remains to be seen whether these permutations will alter anything.
To be sure, Saraki will be fifty-seven (57) years old by 2019 by God’s grace and another four years of Buhari if he decides to run will put that number at sixty-one (61). With all the calculations on ground, a southern president and possibly of an Igbo extraction is likely to complete another eight (8) years for the region, which means Saraki would have attained sixty-nine (69) by then. Will the populace be ready to entrust its fortunes in the hands of men said to be nearing their retirement age, especially in this era of the not-too-young-to-run concept blowing through democracies across the globe. The agitation continues.
