Every nation has some families whose names reverberate for good measure among the populace. Members of these families command attention and respect wherever they go, even outside the shores of their country. These families are revered and are even given red carpet treatments by their host nations when they step outside their borders. The obeisance they’re paid when in the public space becomes an expression of love for these families. In some cases, members of the public would have to be restrained---oftentimes forcefully---to prevent the infliction of injuries to themselves in their overwhelming eagerness triggered by uncontrollable emotions to touch or say one or two words of appreciation to these special families. The people with whom they share the same geographical space often talk glowingly about them as if they are their next-door neighbours even when they have never met, and in all likelihood may never meet any of the family members. The people see their country’s evolution and advancement as intricately intertwined with them.
Therefore, anything that issues out of any of the members is adjudged to be of extreme significance and worthy of note. The higher pedestal that these families are placed may be due to their immense wealth---made through the old-fashioned way of hard work---which they may have in turn used to uplift their nation and her people. Or they may have blazed the trail with unprecedented technological innovations or political exploits that had become so fundamental to the advancement of their society that overtime, has made these families so iconic to the extent that their society’s history would be worthless if they’re not mentioned.
Just as there are families that had affected, and continue to affect their society in profoundly positive ways, there are also families that bring bad memories to their citizens in the nation in which they’re domiciled. Their negative exploits in the past, and even in the present continues to cause collective stress and agitation to the populace when they show up in the public space or mentioned. In some cases, the people would be vehement in their condemnation of these families and wished they never existed because they brought shame and reproach to their country even outside its border.
Nigeria’s Saraki family ranks among the country’s prominent names that require no introduction to Nigerians even with their diverse socio-economic and ethnic stations. One may never know the depth of the notoriety of the Saraki family, but there’s little doubt among Nigerians now that the Saraki family is a certified crime family from which its scion, Bukola Saraki, whose job as the Senate President is third in line to the presidency was issued. Aside the legacy of his late father Dr. Olusola Saraki, which can hardly be deemed enviable in the body politic of any civilized country, Bukola Saraki has taken the family’s name to the highest heights of opprobrium (which may well be the only trajectory that the members are comfortable with and through which their family’s name can be advanced) when he admittedly laid that ambush against his colleagues that resulted in his being made the Senate President of the Republic. An average Nigerian now knows the Saraki family too well that s/he can correctly predict what a Saraki would likely do under any given circumstance. With what has so far been revealed about this family, any primary school pupil can write an interesting composition about the characters and attributes of a Saraki of which the natural predisposition to kleptomania would most definitely be the main theme.
I saw Bukola Saraki close up, and for the very first time at the APC Presidential Primary on December 11, 2014, when he walked in that measured steps into the VIP lounge of the Teslim Balogun Stadium which was the venue of the event. For a scion of one of the most notoriously prominent family (whose family name is well represented in that intricate web of high wire international financial malfeasance that has left the entire world bewildered) to walk into a small hall in which I was privileged to be present, all I could think of was the family’s fantastically disingenuous enslavement strategy that subjugates an entire state (Kwara) with its people, its institutions, its emirs and their cattle that---just as his father before him---Bukola Saraki decides who lives and who dies. I could not help but be mentally fixated on how in the 21st century the Sarakis can own an entire state---literally---as he walked towards his seat.
As if all these thoughts about this family, triggered by the presence of its scion in the same hall with me were not perplexing enough, Bukola Saraki did two things in that VIP lounge that left me scratching my head all the more for answers. Inside this small space were some of the nation’s most powerful men and a few women. While these people were gathered in small clusters in their ordinariness that was completely devoid of their usual frowning aides and gun-toting security operatives eating, enjoying small and mundane conversations and cracking jokes with one another, Bukola Saraki simply walked past everyone to take a bench close to the lavatory which was unattached to all other benches because of its location. My immediate reflexive interpretation of this act was either that Saraki wanted a “personal space” for himself that only the ‘initiated’ into his ‘world’ would have the effrontery to seat with him or that Saraki probably saw himself as just too divine to be seen in the company of some children of a lesser God that he would rather seat alone, or both. These thoughts were soon given some credence when the then Speaker of the House of Representatives---now Governor of Sokoto State---Aminu Tambuwal walked in. Although he shook hands with Bukola Saraki on his way to the lavatory but the then Speaker sat in the ‘commoners’ area and not with Saraki to devour his plate of food like a hungry lion.
The other thing that struck me about this man who has proven to Nigerians that he’s larger than life with how the Senate suspended its legislative deliberations for him to attend to his criminal case was that no sooner than Bukola Saraki sat down that a young man---probably in his late twenties or early thirties---walked in with a covered mid-size basket and immediately unfolded a small tablecloth and brought out two carefully wrapped snacks, a flask and a tea set before him. I was probably too deep in my observation of Bukola Saraki that I didn’t quite know when I asked a friend with whom I sat if that was how Saraki goes around the country with his own food and a cook/server. “Why not go and ask him,” my friend said in Yoruba with his usual jocular disposition that has become his trademark. “Well, you probably have seen him a zillion times in your political career to write a book about this guy,” I retorted.
That question became necessary in view of the fact that the foods were not only sumptuous but on the ground floor behind the lounge was a makeshift kitchen which suggested that a top Lagos caterer was at hand to make just about anything that any of these personalities may request. “But why did Saraki bring his own snacks?” I inquired within myself.
Was he not aware that food was going to be available for the dignitaries that had come to such a rigorous exercise that lasted for two days? Could the food not have been good enough for this “golden boy”? Could Saraki have vowed never to be caught dead eating the same foods with people he might have considered to be ‘commoners?’ These were thoughts I rummaged through.
The more I tried to find a self-satisfying explanation the more I was confused because it was the food I saw Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC national chairman who was also a governor when Saraki was still in the medical school eating after which he calmly sat for a while in deep thought. It was this same food that Segun Oni, also a former governor had for lunch. It was the meal that probably boosted the energy of the former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulure for her fingers to stay glued to her phone. It was this same meal that Saraki probably thought may not be good enough for him that Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, also a former governor both in the military regime and in the present democratic dispensation was served and gladly ate. It was this array of different delicacies that Governor Ibikunle Amosun swallowed, not to talk of then Speaker Aminu Tambuwal who loaded his plate as if he might never get another opportunity. It was the same foods that Senator Oluremi Tinubu and Abike Dabiri-Erewa not only ate but were very happy to serve other dignitaries. What about Demola Seriki and Babatunde Raji Fashola who took small bites from the plates of others? If the foods could be good enough for these other personalities, I wondered why they may not be good for Bukola Saraki. It was a perplexing scenario to watch.
Much had been said, and much more will still be articulated by Nigerians that the only path left for Saraki is to resign his position as the Senate President after his indictment by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false asset declaration. Nigerians have never been this unanimous in their condemnation of Saraki’s compulsive criminal behaviour.
Bukola Saraki, on the other hand, has made it unequivocally clear that he wasn’t going to relinquish his senate presidency seat. What Saraki has effectively communicated to the nation is that the huge moral burden and reproach that his indictment has wrought not only on the legislature but the entire country are none of his business but for Nigerians to lose sleep over. He cannot resign as it is “unNigerian” for public office holders under indictment even in the face of damning and overwhelming evidence to resign either their appointive or elective offices. His resignation would be considered sacrilegious among the country’s hopelessly corrupt political elites and frowned upon with dare consequences even for Saraki himself. Nigerians can set themselves ablaze if they want and it wouldn’t make any difference as far Saraki and his bakers---among them patrons of the country’s power centres---are concerned.
While their colleagues in public offices around the world would readily resign their offices in the face of any slight appearance of impropriety, it’s simply unthinkable for Nigerian public officials to do likewise not only because they correctly perceive that the Nigerian public is too weak, too compromised and too fragmented to mount any serious opposition against their nefarious activities, but also because of this warped collective mindset that reminds them of what they went through to attain their exalted positions. When challenged, memories of those painstaking forgeries, the material possessions they staked, and their indulgence in some spiritual sacrifices that involved humans that may have even included their loved ones comes into the fore which triggers their unconscionable desperation into a “do or die” fighting mode. So, it would be unthinkable to relinquish their positions because of some financial malfeasance which was the reason they took no prisoners in their quest to realise their ambitions in the first instance.
Saraki had told us how he staked an ambush in the parking lot of the National Assembly in the wee hours of the morning inside a small and unmarked vehicle unbefitting of his status. Nigerians are now well familiar with how the senate rule book was forged in his favour to emerge as the Senate President. Sen. Abiodun Olujimi (PDP Ekiti) had also made a verbal submission that the attainment of any political office (probably except Buhari’s electoral victory) in the land had nothing to do with the number of votes garnered but who spent the most money. Olujimi had told some voters in her senatorial district who expressed their displeasure for her support of Saraki to get lost because she paid everyone ‘payable’ to get to the senate. How then should we honestly expect them to throw in the towel because of some allegations they believe were motivated by some jealous losers no matter the weight of evidence against them.
It’s important for Nigerians to come to terms with the fact that Bukola Saraki is an embodiment of that powerful criminal political cartel that the laws of the land revolve around. We can say nobody is above the law all we want. But Saraki had demonstrated, and continues to demonstrate that he is above the law in several respects in his audacity to have abused every court processes while the whole country simply looked on in amazement, not to talk of some 90-oddball lawyers who sheepishly followed him into a courtroom whose deliberation could not have been more than two hours at any given day. This was no doubt indicative of Saraki’s political power. It’s a grim reality, aided by the judiciary that the laws of the land defer to him. The Senate President most probably would have been home free by now if not for the citizen activism on the social media that has largely been spearheaded by SaharaReporters where his clandestine legal manoeuvres were effectively punctured. Even in the face of very glaring and overwhelming evidence against this hopelessly corrupt personality, the Nigerian court may still find Saraki innocent of all charges. So, it’s definitely not over until it’s over for Saraki.
Buhari’s assumption of the country’s highest political office has been so profound that probably one of the unintended consequences of his emergence is the fact that there was never a time that the mostly corrupt political class has been this rattled in every material sense in the country’s history. Members of the top echelon of this class can no longer sleep comfortably nor travel with their trademark swagger because they never know who will squeak on them after being picked up by the anti-graft agency. Just as a huge percentage of Nigerians are no longer undecided as to whom they should entrust with their future---having seen who their real enemies are---there’s also no pretence from both the legislature and the judiciary that they will rather not be bothered by Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts regardless of the empty platitudes that they’re on the president’s side.
This is the more reason why there must be a clear winner in this war on corruption in which Saraki must of necessity be the first major casualty if Buhari’s efforts must have meaning among Nigerians. Fact is that most of the hopelessly corrupt but very powerful individuals who are uninterested in Buhari and his corruption war are covertly behind Saraki. The Senate President also knows that the country’s judiciary lacks the integrity to side with the Nigerian president in this all-important drive to tame the corruption monster. To acquit Bukola Saraki on some frivolous legal technicality will be akin to wounding a snake that should have been killed in the first instance as it would become angry and ferocious, ready and willing to destroy everything on its path. The Buhari administration is already effectively incapacitated with the present National Assembly leadership. Leaving Saraki on the senate presidency seat cannot augur well for Buhari and his change agendas that are now being resisted almost on all fronts. Nigerians should expect an attempt at the president’s impeachment with Saraki at the helm of the National Assembly if only to demoralise him. Saraki’s political demise will not only symbolise the decapitation of the political tendency he represents, but the removal of a major stumbling block that has been deliberately put in place to whittle the president’s programmes and agendas for Nigeria whereby his accomplishments would be seen by the Nigerian masses to have been insignificant at the end of his 4-year term.
Femi Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at [email protected]