Nigeria is at a crossroads and every eye is on the ruling class for a direction. The executive arm of government is looking up to the National Assembly to have the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for the conduct of the 2019 general elections passed. The National Assembly, on their part are playing the ostrich.
Also, there has been an unprecedent gale of defections across political parties. Some moving from APC to PDP while others are moving from the PDP to APC. So many others are flowing from the APC and PDP to other new political parties. Some have left both parties claiming they are saints and the two major parties infested with demons. Some say they are holier than the Pope himself. But it is all politics as far as Nigerians are concerned.
In all of these, at no other time in our political history has the name of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki been mentioned either for positive or negative things. Lately, he has been mentioned more because of the crisis that seems to have engulfed the national assembly following the way and manner some law makers chose to carry out their defections. They did not go to their wards or local governments or state or even the national headquarters of their parties to defect, they chose the national assembly to carry out their defection ceremonies using the instrumentality of the leadership of the national assembly as led by Dr. Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara.
Some members of the National Assembly of the PDP extraction involved in this controversial defection in active connivance with Saraki and Dogara chose a time close to their holidays to hatch their plot, an action that has pitted them against the rest of the country. You wonder why people would want to play politics with very important institutions of government. Why will some law makers choose to hold the rest of the nation to ransom? What does Saraki want to achieve with such an action?
Sadly enough, shortly after their actions, the PDP had an unholy alliance with the leadership of the Department for State Security as represented by Daura who was promptly sacked by then Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Who would have believed that Saraki and Daura would be working together to hatch some kinds of plots in the National Assembly? Nobody. It was a clear case of an attempt to bring the executive arm of government to disrepute when masked men could block the national assembly and prevent lawmakers not loyal to the PDP and the Senate President from entering the National Assembly complex. They cleverly painted a picture working with Channels television that it was the APC that wanted to oust Bukola Saraki as Senate President. But Nigerians know better today the gimmick of those who were behind the evil plot.
But not too long after the ugly incident Nigerians got to know the inordinate ambition in Dr. Bukola Saraki as he gave an indication to contest for the Presidential ticket of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He told some persons that he is seriously considering contesting with President Muhammadu Buhari during the next Presidential election fixed for February next year.
History is fresh in our minds how Dr. Bukola Saraki ousted his father from the leadership of the political dynasty in Kwara State. He upstaged his father from the PDP he formed and led in Kwara. The old man was forced to leave the party for him and moved to a fresh platform. This increased the man’s hypertension and ultimately led to his death.The lesson from the Saraki dynasty story is that if Bukola can do that to his father, there is nobody he cannot do it to.
Dr. Sartaki is one of the founding fathers of the All Progressives Congress, APC. He moved his political machine to join the party which held out high hopes for the nation and has been delivering on the several promises since the party took over reins of power in 2015. But what did APC people find? Shortly after Bukola was elected as Senator, he sold out immediately to the opposition party, the PDP right from day one. He did not hide his penchant for divisiveness. While the APC was conferring amongst its members to elect officers of the National Assembly, Saraki was forging alliance with the PDP. That was why they ceded the position of the Deputy Senate President to the opposition PDP. The same Saraki was expecting the APC and the executive to cooperate with him and worship him as Senate President.
All through his stay till the recent adjournment, Saraki saw himself as untouchable and above the party on whose platform he stood for election. Even till date, Dr. Bukola still see himself as over and above all those in the PDP he has gone back to join. That is why he believes he can go in there and grab the presidential ticket of the party. Imagine this same man winning the election and emerging as Presidentof the Federal Republic of Nigeria what he will do with power. He would simply be above the law from day one.He will drink with human skull. He would re-write the constitution to feather his nest.
Therefore, as we approach the 2019 elections, Nigerians must be on the watch for some politicians who come to us in sheep clothing, yet they are ravening wolves. We must guard our loins and ensure that Nobody fools anybody. We must be clear-headed on what we want as a nation and do the needful.
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• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.
