Dr. Olusola Saraki (1933-2012) The last of the Mohicans

[DT]

Wazirin Ilorin Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, who died in Lagos early yesterday at age 79 was the last genuine and honourable godfather in Nigerian politics. As attached to Saraki's name since the beginnings of Second Republic politics in 1978, the appellations "godfather" and "strongman of Kwara politics" were genuine, reverential and awe-inspiring. Yet, the man known to millions of his admirers as Oloye [i.e. Leader] lived long enough to see many copycat "godfathers" who brought the appellation  to such ruin that it is now an insult in Nigerian politics to be called "godfather."

No one in Nigerian politics since 1978 was able to do what Saraki did, carrying Kwara State with him from one political party to another, some of them diametrically opposed. He came to great national reckoning as a chieftain of the National Party of Nigeria [NPN] in the Second Republic. Despite a very strong challenge from Chief Awolowo's UPN, Saraki established such a firm grip on Kwara State that was envied by politicians nationally. NPN captured the governorship and 3 of the state's 5 senators, Saraki being one of them [in the Second Republic, each of the 19 states had 5 senators]. During the Second Republic years, Saraki's reach and power as the Senate Leader was felt nationally. Remember also that NPN which he led had only 36 senators out of 95. In comparison to Saraki, all the Senate Leaders produced by PDP in this Republic have looked like political dwarfs despite the fact that PDP at one time controlled nearly 90% of the Senate.

When Dr. Sola Saraki went over to SDP in the Third Republic, he took Kwara State along. During the Abacha years when he formed CNC, it dominated Kwara State. He took the state to ANPP in 1999 and then to PDP in 2003. Last year however, aged and sickly, he failed to deliver Kwara State to ACPN.

Saraki will be remembered for serially installing governors of his home state [and for serially falling out with all of them, as we shall see]. Since 1979, six people have been civilian governors of Kwara State. Five of them, namely Alhaji Adamu Atta, Mohamed Shaba Lafiaji, Cornelius Adebayo, Admiral Mohamed Lawal and Senator Bukola Saraki owed their rise to the governorship wholly or substantially to the Oloye's political power.

Adamu Atta, for example, struggled against his own brother Alhaji Ado Ibrahim for the NPN's ticket until Saraki threw his weight behind him. In 1991, Alhaji Shaba emerged as governor because Saraki zoned the governorship to Kwara North to pave the way for his own presidential aspiration. He ran for SDP's ticket and was among the 23 aspirants that General Babangida banned in late 1992.

In 1998, Admiral Lawal, a former military governor of Ogun State, lobbied very hard within Saraki's circles to get the ANPP nomination. The story of how Lawal ultimately got the nod was told to us by Saraki himself in Kaduna in 2001. He said just before he departed Ilorin for Abuja in late 1998, he appointed a caucus of seven people headed by the state ANPP chairman Prof Albert Ogunshola and told them to cast votes among the party's many aspirants. While he was in Abuja, Saraki said, Prof Ogunshola phoned to tell him that votes had been cast and Lawal was leading. However, Ogunshola said, himself and one other diehard Oloye loyalist had withheld their votes. He sought Oloye's order as to where they should cast the deciding votes. Saraki said he thought about it and then told Ogunshola, "Since Lawal is leading, Allah wants him to be the governor, so cast the remaining votes for him."

I was not surprised to witness a scene at the lobby of Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja in April 1999. Lawal, who was by then the governor-elect, stood a few meters away while Oloye spoke to some people he had ran into. Saraki wanted to move on so he looked around for Lawal and said, "Governor!" At the top of his voice, Lawal said "Sir!" and raced towards Oloye, his white gown flailing! Within a year they were fighting.

What was the secret of Saraki's overwhelming power in Kwara politics? Political sagacity was evidently one, and I gleaned two other secrets from stories he personally told when, in 2001, I got Arewa Consultative Forum's [ACF] secretary general Barrister Inuwa Abdulkadir to bring Dr. Saraki to the New Nigerian Forum. I was editor of New Nigerian at the time. Philanthropy and money were the other secrets.

Let's begin with philanthropy. Saraki said in the early 1960s when he lived in Lagos, he built a borehole in his Ilorin home. He noticed when he came on weekends that many people were trooping to his house to fetch water. When he noticed that they were coming from a distant village through a bush path, Saraki built a borehole at their village. He said the profuse thanks that he got from those villagers encouraged him to build many more boreholes all over Ilorin Emirate.

There was also money. Saraki told the story of how, in 1978, soon after Adamu Atta clinched NPN's nomination, he went with Atta to Zurich where he withdrew 5 million pounds from his account for the coming campaign. Don't forget, Saraki was also embroiled in some dispute when he arranged for Societe Generale Bank to lend N8m to NPN. NPN somehow failed to repay the money, which led to much legal trouble for Saraki.

Where did he get all that money? He said his private medical practice in Lagos in the 1960s was extremely lucrative because Northerners who headed many Federal agencies there directed a lot of business to his clinic.

That money from Zurich later caused problems. Many people will remember Oloye for his serial quarrel with the governors that he installed. Critics often attribute this to either interference on his part or to quarrels over spoils of office. I asked Saraki this question at his Maitama home in 2006. He shook his head vigorously and denied that he interfered with governors' duties. He however told a story of what led to his quarrel with Adamu Atta. He said at first Atta was very loyal to him and even used to go to Ilorin airport to receive him when he came from Lagos. He said things suddenly changed one day when he asked Atta why he never raised the issue of how to refund the 5 million pounds that they withdrew together for the campaign. From that point, he said, Atta began to withdraw from him.

Many political writers will say the fact that Oloye subsequently quarreled with his own son Governor Bukola Saraki during the 2011 elections vindicated the other governors. I happened to know that Oloye's disagreement with Bukola simmered for sometime before it blew over. A prominent Kebbi State politician told me a story of what happened in late 2003 when a Kebbi delegation attended a ceremony in Ilorin. He said they congratulated Oloye for having gained peace of mind by at last anointing his own son as governor. He said when they said so, Saraki glanced in the direction of Bukola who sat a few meters away, made sure he was not listening, then said, "All those other governors were better for me than this one! All the names I gave him for appointment as commissioners, he discarded them! I cannot speak out because people will say he is fighting even his own son!"

In late 2010, when Governor Bukola Saraki began his campaign for the PDP presidential ticket, he sent his Attorney General Dr. Ali Ahmed to recruit me as director of publicity. I declined the offer on the grounds that I was still walking on crutches following a car crash. In our subsequent discussions with Ahmed and Saraki, I voiced my [presumptuous] opinion that the attempt to demystify Oloye was a mistake because he represents a special quantity in Kwara State, the North and Nigeria that Bukola Saraki cannot possibly fill.

With the benefit of some hindsight, Bukola was possibly right, because the failure to anoint Gbemisola Saraki as governor has probably saved the Sarakis' reputation. Also, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed looks like he is a good man. Shifting the governorship to Kwara South has also helped calm tensions in the state. Still, no one in Kwara State or in Nigeria is going to fill Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki's giant political, community and philanthropic shoes anytime soon. Truly, he was the last of the Mohicans.

Daily Trust