With each passing day of the siege on Nigeria’s Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki continues, it is becoming apparent even to the most prejudiced observer that it is entirely politically motivated. As war is the continuation of politics by other means, the war on Bukola Saraki is an escalation of a cowardly and despicable campaign by politicians who feel threatened by his undisputed relevance as a national leader and as a viable replacement for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. They have tried to disguise their intent but with each successive failure, their desperation increases and now they do not even bother to hide their hand. Not only do they want Bukola Saraki’s head, they want his crown too.
By the official declaration of his intention to contest for the office of the President on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which took place on the 30th of August 2018, Bukola Saraki has let it be known that he will not be cowed into submission by mortal men like him who for the sake of their own ambition are seeking to deprive him of the right to pursue his. There seems to be an air of inevitability to his pursuit of the highest office in the land given the outcome of previous efforts to stop him from achieving his goals.
Upon being re-elected to the Senate in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he indicated his interest in becoming Senate President but his party (or perhaps it was the President himself) preferred another senator. Against the odds, Bukola Saraki emerged as Senate President in a political heist that proved his mettle. From that moment, his persecution began and all sorts of tactics were deployed to unseat him. First there was the allegation that he had dual citizenship and was therefore unfit to hold such a sensitive office. That allegation fizzled into nothingness but was soon followed by others including an alleged falsification of senate standing order, embezzlement of funds as Governor of Kwara State, and then the very controversial Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) trial for alleged falsification of asset declaration and other charges totalling 13. Each one of those charges was meant to be obstacles in Saraki’s march to destiny but they couldn’t stop him. The CCB eventually ruled that he had no case to answer and when the Federal Government appealed that verdict all the way to the Supreme Court, the outcome was the same.
Emerging unscathed from those attempts to stop him, attempts which he has stated time and again are politically motivated, it has now been alleged that he has a case to answer regarding the horrific carnage that took place in Offa, Kwara State when armed robbers raided banks, killed over 30 people and carted away huge sums of money in the month of April 2018. The timing of this particular allegation coincided with the emergence of news that the Senate President was set to leave the APC back to the PDP, due in part to the relentless onslaught he had faced from elements within his party believed to be fighting him on behalf of the President. Undeterred, he has indeed gone back to the PDP, announced his presidential ambition and purchased the nomination form from his party to formalize his intention.
As his political opponents increase their calls that he must be removed from being Senate President because of his migration to the PDP, the Senate is on recess and is yet to reconvene. There is a standoff in the works and it appears that the Bukola Saraki juggernaut will not be stopped. If anything, at this stage the masks have come off, the gloves have come off and now everybody can see those who have thrown the kitchen sink and everything else at Senator Bukola Saraki. It was all for his crown, after all. It was all for the crown he envisioned as his and not just because he dared to become the President of the Senate. As he has upped the ante and made his move, we see clearly now that it was all for the crown.