Saraki’s Senate Presidency: Now that God's will is done

Inspite of our perceived differences, political or otherwise, Ilorin is one large indivisible family. Tuesday, the 9th of June, 2015, confirmed this fact.

At around 12:30pm or thereabout, news filtered in that our own affable, remarkable and lovable Dr. Bukola Saraki has won election, unopposed of course, as the President of the Senate. As I made my way out of my house to observe the mood in town, I could not help but notice the excitement on every face, young and old. From the Okada rider who conveyed me to the ATM point, to the man next to me at the bank, down to known members of PDP in Kwara State, everyone was exchanging congratulatory greetings. For once, the victory of Dr. Saraki yanked off our divisive toga, and suddenly we are united as Ilorin sons and daughters. Suddenly, we began to celebrate a shared victory as we perceived it. And instead of saying Dr. Saraki won election as Senate President, many were saying that KWARA is now occupying the number 3 position in the country. So sweet!

Of course the victory we now savour , like everything good, did not come easy. Dr. Bukola Saraki, always a fearless fighter, went into the contest with the sole aim of propagating the glory of Ilorin emirate and Kwara as a whole. Even when his party began to arm-twist him to give up his legitimate pursuit, Dr. Saraki thought of the larger interest of his State and his people, who have never attained that lofty height politically, and trudged on. At a point, Dr. Saraki was obviously at a crossroad- confronted with the need to choose between obeying the wish(?) of his party or hearkening to the yearning of his people for a respectable position within Nigeria' s political equation. For a man who love his people, the decision was easy for the leader- he chose to give himself to Nigerians on behalf of Ilorin emirate and Kwara State. In our name, Dr. Bukola Saraki now serves Nigeria, and because of him, Kwara is now occupying a feasible and impressive place in Nigeria's political map.

While leader was fighting and struggling to make Kwara count in the new emerging political equation, Kwara people were smart to understand that the struggle was not about the position of Bukola Saraki in the leadership hierarchy of Nigeria, but about the position of Kwara State within the governance structure of Nigeria. While detractors were busy debating whether the people of Kwara are Hausa or Yoruba, Dr. Bukola was seeking relevance for us based on competence and real faith, as against those divisive and sentimental criteria. Because of Dr. Saraki, every Ilorin and indeed Kwara man can now boast of having something that sets him apart from the crowd other than his name or what others think of him.

For me, I think Ilorin and Kwara people generally appreciate the tenacity of Dr. Bukola Saraki to give us a voice and a position. This understanding must have been responsible for the unanimous backing given to the leader during the quest for the exalted position of the Senate President. While the godfather was playing god and thinking that nothing can come to be without him ordering it, Kwara people held unto only the weapon of the undefeatable God and supplicated to him, fasting and praying. Now, with all their pretense and overbloated image of a demigod, God's will has prevailed. Our own dearest leader, Dr. Bukola Saraki, is the new Senate President of Nigeria!

When they began their plot against Dr. Saraki, all they saw was the quiet man seeking to be President of the Senate. What they did not see however were the many faces of our Sheiks and Ulamahs in Ilorin, with whose faith Dr. Bukola Saraki has now won this contest that ended without the opponent even mustering enough courage to appear in the 'fighting' arena. Without much sweat, Allah gave Dr. Saraki victory without allowing him to go into battle. Yet, the victory is not a lazy one, for even if the real contest had taken place, God's will would still have prevailed as long as 57 is a greater number compare to 51.

With the victory of Dr. Saraki, Ilorin emirate has again depicted their most potent instrument against any oppresor or betrayer - REAL FAITH in Allah, the Almighty. Of course there is no way the self-acclaimed demigod would have challenged someone who has God firmly on his side, instead he merely made attempts to distract attention from important issues and scurrilously attack a personality whose life already provide meaning for millions of people.

Now that, ins pite of the treachery of the godfather and his men-fridays, God's will has prevailed; it is important to emphasize that Dr. Saraki, unlike what some claim, is a disciplined and loyal party man whose only desire is for his party, the APC, to be a signpost for strong egalitarianism and autonomy. Unequal and obviously biased treatment of party members was the reason Dr. Saraki left his former party, the PDP. So why should anyone think Saraki, the no-nonsense man, would endure that sort of rubbish from anyone? If by standing firm against those things that many, including those who now berate him, consider anathema to democracy and popular participation; Saraki is now considered "indisciplined and disloyal", so be it. We in Kwara can conveniently live wih these new names, especially when we remember that sometime in the year of our Lord(2013), this same set of people who now call Dr. Saraki names praised him to high heavens for standing and speaking against the same ills in his former party.

For the sake of emphasis, what Dr. Saraki stood against was not his party (the APC) or even the leadership hierarchy and/or its suremacy. Dr. Saraki, as a man of order and discipline, does not abhor hierarchy, either in the party or anywhere else. But rather than just show blind love for anything that resembles hierarchy, what Dr. Saraki love and crave is a "reverse" hierarchy- that system where political power is distributed among many people and despotic individuals are thwarted by large groups of people. Saraki, being a leader with wide experience, knows the danger inherent in creating a tyrannical political system and submitting to it—especially if rapacious leaders are not checked by the power of the many. This is the danger Dr. Saraki forsaw and which he tried to safe APC from. Thank God he succeeded.

Now that God's will is done and Dr. Saraki is Senate President, Ilorin and Kwara as a whole must not relent on its oars. We must never forsake that which gave us victory in the first instance- unity and real faith in God. Like many said during the victory jubilations, Dr. Saraki is only serving Nigeria and Nigerians as Senate President on behalf of Kwara State and her people. The real Senate President is that Ilorin man or woman who fasted and prayed towards the realisation of this new mandate. The real Senate President is that Kwara man or woman who supplicated to God to grant Dr. Saraki this new office on behalf of Kwara State. But the work is not done. We must as a collective continue to support Dr. Saraki with prayers to stay long on that slippery seat. We must continue to pray for the success of Dr. Saraki so that when this period is revisited in the future, even those who antagonise our leader (Dr. Saraki) today will look back and feel sorry for joining the procession of the nay-sayers.

*Abdullahi is on twitter @mofolohunsho

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