Saraki @ 62: As different as it is the same

By Yusuph Olaniyonu

In the past ten years, he has been like a paradox. The more I think nothing has changed about Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki who turned 62 today, the more I also see his new sides. This is a man who after he left public office, has continued to serve his country, political party, community, faith, creator, and humanity at different levels such that he remains busy and his attention sought across many fronts.

His itinerary remains filled to the brim such that many associates have to be assigned the responsibility of representing him on important occasions. This is part of what has remained the same with him even when his position has changed. Like when he was in office as Governor, chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Senator, and President of the Senate, his relevance has remained undiminished. Up till today, he would arrive at public functions and become the centre of attraction.

Even when he is not under pressure to deliver on promises to the electorate, he has continued to immerse himself in public policy analysis, discussing national issues with friends, associates, and aides.

As it was before 2019, he still spends long hours at his desk in the office located in his residence, attending to issues, persons, businesses, and family. While he has slowed down on attending political gatherings in recent times, he keeps in touch with political associates at the national level. He enjoys discussing current national, partisan, and international issues with people who come around to see him, such that the regular lunch on his brown dining table has oftentimes turned out to be sessions for the exchange of ideas and providing insights.

He is still, no doubt, the man who cares about understanding public policies and developing solutions to national challenges. Since I started relating with him, he has come across as a man who believes in tasking himself or his aides about the need to constantly develop solutions to challenges in governance. He believes that every thorny and intractable national problem lingers because those who are in charge have not been persistent, consistent, and deliberate in seeking deep-rooted, radical solutions.

A very humorous man, his jokes are sometimes like those of the typical British. They are meant to draw out certain information from you and sometimes to give you a hint about the information that you do not ordinarily want to share, but which is already available to him. If you know him very well, when these jokes are put forward as a question, you should be reluctant to answer so that you do not end up falling into his trap.

Those who know the stuff with which he is made believe that the country has under-utilized his ability to take on difficult assignments and refuse to give in until the knotty issues are cracked. It is for this reason that after over one decade of tackling the formulation of a comprehensive and effective law to govern the nation’s petroleum industry, it was the 8th Senate under Saraki that gave the country the insight into how to forge forward and how to deconstruct the ossified and behemoth challenge. Though the Buhari regime frustrated the passage of the law piecemeal as achieved by the 8th National Assembly, that breakthrough gave insight into the succeeding session of the National Assembly on how to consolidate the various bills and get them passed as one law. The nation experienced a similar situation with the Police Reform Act, Company and Allied Matters, CAMA, (Amendment) Act, and the Electoral Act (Amendment) 2022.

Dr. Saraki remains a rallying force among past and serving senators on some key issues. In the PDP, he remains a national leader. Throughout last year, he came under serious pressure from leaders of the party across the country to become national chairman. He staved off all entreaties in this direction by insisting he did not need to hold any office to help put the party in good stead to successfully challenge the ruling APC.

In his community back home in Kwara State, he remains the foremost donor to all good causes. He sponsors scholarship programmes for university students, provides social amenities for the benefit of the masses, funds health services to the needy, feeds the Muslim faithful during Ramadan, provides financial and material succour to people during fasting and festive periods, distributes fertilizer and herbicides to farmers during planting season, and generally providing help to people. He has continued to make so many interventions in the lives of many ordinary Nigerians directly or through his Abubakar Bukola Saraki Foundation.

Yours truly has been a beneficiary of the generosity of this philanthropist. He paid for my surgery in Egypt when affliction struck me. The fast rate at which he responded to the distress call made to him on my behalf was amazing. I know he had done the same thing for many people who have not had the opportunity or platform to mention the gestures publicly.

He is perhaps one person who is out of the office and still has the grade-A relevance that made it look like nothing has changed between when he was holding powerful posts and now that he is just an influential citizen. This assertion was given expression by how the entire national elite, the international community, and the less privileged people came together to mourn with his family when his mother, Chief (Mrs) Florence Morenike Saraki died last June.

From President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, federal and state legislators, governors, ministers, members of the diplomatic community, royal fathers, religious leaders, heads of government agencies, the leadership of various associations of people living with disability, artisans, and many youths, partisan and non-partisan organisations, they all came together in support of the celebration of life and funeral ceremonies in honour of Mama Saraki.

Also, one of the things that has changed about him is that in his 62 years on earth, it is the first time he would have a birthday without his mother, Chief (Mrs) Florence Morenike Saraki being around to pray for him. The man whose siblings believe has a magic wand that works on all issues with their mother is now a complete orphan.

He is also a man who has learned to spend more time glorifying the name of his maker for His many favours on him. Just a few months ago, he produced the third generation of United Kingdom-trained medical doctors in his family as his daughter, Teniola, qualified as a medical doctor. Teniola follows the footsteps of her late grandfather, Oloye Olusola Saraki, and her dad, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who are also medical doctors.

While it is too early to read the mind of the Waziri of Ilorin, Turaki Raya Kazan Nupe, and Dan Iyan Kaura Namoda (Kebbi State), one may just safely believe he would, for now, be watching events before deciding how to navigate his way forward. I wish him a happy birthday and many happy returns.

Olaniyonu, a journalist and lawyer, writes from Abuja