By Chidi Obineche
It came with a screeching din, accompanied by a resounding bang of definiteness. Many had discerned that it would careen into an all- clear without scars or lacerations. But the mammoth plebeians and even patricians that often dot the congealed public space had long seen him clutched, thrown out of his lofty seat and perhaps out of the hallowed chambers. Bukola Saraki, Nigeria’s 8th Senate president of the 4th republic is not your run of the mill politician. In 18 years of active politicking he has built the phoenix image and the life flow of the beetle. He is like wheels that never stop. He does not live the same day over and over again and call it life. For close to two years, he rocked uncomfortably on his seat, faced his travails with rugged equanimity but with a flourish of optimism. He swam in the solidarity of his colleagues to the eternal discomfort of his traducers. He evinced courage in the face of near extinction of his ambition, resonating always in Chetan Kumbhar’s “ Winners don’t lose even when they lose.” He is today the defeated winner. He ululated in Benjamin Suulola’s words that “ Winners don’t think defeat.
They think victory”. The triumph at the Code of Conduct Tribunal last Wednesday puts a seal, at least for now on the most daunting challenge to his seat. But he is not a newcomer to dire straits. Even his emergence as Senate president came with hoofs and drama. He subdued and consolidated. His many struggles in his political odyssey may have buoyed up his spirit and strength. He almost never loses. Winning takes talent and the glory is poise under stress. Look back to his days as governor. He rancorously ran the opposition out. He planted his foot soldiers in a well wrought dynasty. With eyes squarely primed at the center, he cavorted with the late president Musa Yar’Adua and sang the sweet song of a cabal. In Goodluck Jonathan he found a lush field to groom his panthers. And the journey continues. His politics find apt expression in Friendrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s “ life is an instinct for growth, for survival, for the accumulation of forces, for power.” It’s like women’s lives where constantly, humour, sadness and survival instincts are encountered. Saraki rides with the arsenals in Rider Haggard’s best seller “She stoops to conquer” by never daring the denizens of power with success as his only revenge. As they say in common leadership parlance, nobody is stronger, weaker than someone who came back. There is not much you can do to such a person because he has seen it all and paid the price over and over again. He demonstrates in totality that in a mad world, only the mad are sane or better put, if you live among the wolves, you have to act like a wolf. Saraki may have been dirtied in this battle, he may have sucked in a great deal of pain, but his victory is nothing more than recovery.
Olubukola Abubakar Saraki was born on December 19, 1962 to the acclaimed strongman of kwara politics, Oloye , Dr Olusola Saraki, a onetime Senate leader in the Second Republic, and Florence Morenike. He attended Kings College, Lagos, from 1973 to 1978 and Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, London from1979 to 1981 for his Higher School Certificate. He then studied at the London Hospital Medical College of the University of London from 1982 to 1987 where he obtained the MBBS (London) He was the governor of Kwara state from 2003 to 2011. He was the chairman of the influential Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF. Earlier in 2000, he was a Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Budget. He was first elected to the Senate in 2011 representing Kwara Central Senatorial District and was reelected in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC. He became the Senate president on June 9, 2015.