Bukola Saraki has been outsmarting the APC since 2015. Is he the smartest politician in the land?
In 2015, Kwara born Senator Bukola Saraki drove his car into the national assembly complex parking lot and killed the engine. No one noticed him. They didn't have to.
He wasn’t supposed to be in there. But there he was, calculating, plotting and scheming. He was also there a little too early for anyone's liking.
When the senate doors eventually flung open for the day's business, Saraki jumped out of his car and hurtled in, one mission on his mind.
A few kilometers away, senators elected on the platform of the APC were putting finishing touches to their plot to install Yobe born Ahmed Lawan as Senate President. The APC senators had godfather Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the APC hierarchy in their corner. Surely, they had this in the bag, they thought.
Saraki had 41 PDP senators and a sprinkling of renegade APC senators who had broken ranks with their party’s National Working Committee (NWC). It was all he had, but that would prove more than enough.
The APC senators who had their party’s blessings to choose a senate president, were still locked in their plot when Saraki was announced president of the 8th senate; with new friend Dino Melaye playing hype man all around him.
Mission accomplished.
Trials of a senate president
All hell would break loose in the APC thereafter. To cut a very long story short, Saraki hasn’t been forgiven for double crossing his own political party on June 9, 2015. And he’s been made to pay for it.
The former Governor of Kwara State has been hounded by the nation’s anti-graft agencies and the nation’s Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) for alleged false declaration of assets and money laundering. His name has popped up in the Panama Papers for alleged corruption and he has just been named in the Offa bank robbery of April which led to the deaths of over 30 persons.
Pulling the same stunt in 2018
Saraki has just re-enacted his 2015 stunt in July of 2018.
There was a plot to impeach Saraki as senate president because he’s been openly flirting with the PDP and showing the opposition party plenty of skin. The plan was to strip him of the senate presidency before his defection, sources say.
On the night of Monday, July 23, 2018, signatures were collected to impeach Saraki after he had made it clear in so many words, body language and actions that he’s got one foot out of the APC door. Saraki always knew that trouble was lurking and with the APC, he’s learnt to always remain ahead of the game.
As the police surrounded Saraki’s residence and convoy in the Lake Chad area of Abuja in the early hours of Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the senate president was arriving the national assembly in a rickety cab; all in a bid to scupper his planned impeachment. In other words, he wasn’t even home when the police came knocking. He wasn’t a part of the convoy either.
Minutes later, Saraki was reading out the names of 15 APC senators who were defecting to the PDP.
“And if it was by the plan, I too, would not be here. It was just by the intervention of the almighty God that I was able to get myself here”, Saraki told his colleagues at the commencement of plenary.
It is striking that Saraki didn’t read out his name from the list of defectors. But rest assured he will eventually rejoin the PDP from whence he came. The man is only bidding his time and waiting for the right time. Minutes after he read out the names of 15 defectors, Saraki told Reuters that chances of his leaving the APC are "very, very high".
The game is the game
Saraki has been holding series of late night meetings with PDP politicians. He has openly called out the presidency and his party executives and he’s now gone for broke by presiding over the defection of APC senators.
Saraki’s brand of politics doesn’t win him many friends. His methods can be viewed as detestable from a moral standpoint. However, you don't get very far in politics by playing nice. Saraki is shrewd, manipulative, cunning and ambitious. He’s always been that way.
And he loves a good fight. He came face to face with his late dad, Olusola Saraki, politically and won. He’s sparred with members of his family politically and won. For Saraki, the end often justifies the means. For Saraki, the game is the game. It’s not often pretty, but it works.
Saraki has just outsmarted the APC again and claimed a new scalp. It’s what he loves doing. In the days ahead, he could be sparring with Atiku for the presidential ticket of the PDP and all bets should really be off.
Politicians surely don’t come any smarter than Saraki. His knowledge of the game could become his Achilles heel in the long run, but his political nous is so underrated, it's mind boggling.