Where is Gbemisola Saraki?

Senator Gbemisola Rukayyat Saraki, fondly called GRS by her admirers and associates, needs no much introduction in Nigeria’s political space. She is the first daughter of the late political icon, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, Second Republic Senate Leader, who passed away in November 2012.

Gbemi, as she is popularly called, obtained a Bsc in Economics from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. After completing her mandatory national service at the Nigeria Bank for Commerce and Industry, Lagos, she joined the now-rested Societe Generale Bank, which was owned by her family, as head of money markets and later as head of domiciliary accounts. Between 1994 and 1999, she worked as the Executive Director of Ashmount Insurance Brokers, Lagos.

In 1999, Gbemi formally began her political journey when she contested and won a seat in the House of Representatives to represent Ilorin West/Asa Federal Constituency, under the platform of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP). After serving her 4-year tenure in 2003, she went a step further to contest for the Kwara Central senatorial seat and won. This time around, it was under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

She served in the Senate for eight years, from 2003 to 2011, before her brother, the current Senate President and immediate past governor of the state, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, took over from her to represent Kwara Central at the Senate.

Prior to the demise of Oloye, as her late father was popularly called, a supposed hurricane hit his political dynasty, following Gbemisola’s governorship aspiration. Her father staked his neck for the project and floated the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) to actualize Gbemi’s ambition following Bukola’s vehement opposition to his sister succeeding him.

Her elder brother reportedly opposed her ambition on the ground of morality even though some analysts also queried the morality behind his succeeding Gbemi as a Senator representing the Central Senatorial district, the most populated zone in the state.

The in-fighting, whether real or simulated, has now become history following the outcome of the election. Gbemi’s ACPN was thrashed by the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed. She was not only defeated, it was also a crushing of the behemoth as the late Saraki, who was widely loved and accepted in his heydays, could not muster significant strength to actualize the victory of his candidate/daughter.

Not long after the epic 2011 battle, there was a rapprochement as Bukola reconciled with his father but his relationship with Gbemi was largely described as not too cordial and this dragged on to the pre-2015 elections occurrences – the formation of alliance which birthed the All Progressives Congress (APC).

When Kwara, then a PDP state, collapsed its political structure to the newly formed APC with four other states in the country and fractions of other opposition parties, Gbemi was among the PDP stalwarts regarded as rebels who stayed put in the party. She was apparently the odd ‘man’ out among the leftover PDP chieftains working with the then President Goodluck Jonathan.

But it was not long until it dawned on all and sundry that the PDP was not an abode for Gbemi Saraki, especially as the party was then populated by those with strong repudiation for anything Saraki and would utilize every opportunity to snap at him.

The culmination of the suspicion and distrust, which defined Gbemi’s association with the old PDP members in Kwara State was her eventual defection to the APC, a day to the election. In fact, prior to the conduct of PDP’s primary which produced Senator Simeon Sule Ajibola as governorship candidate, the party’s chieftains had virtually impressed it on Gbemi to forget the ticket. This was how she was blocked from clinching the ministerial position after the sack of Malam Bolaji Abdullahi.

So it was not unexpected that Gbemi would join her brother in the APC after series of reconciliation efforts masterminded by prominent stakeholders in the emirate, including the Emir of llorin. Notwithstanding the drama, many people still doubt the much publicized scuffle between Bukola and Gbemi. To them it is a mere smokescreen. The veracity of this claim remains in the realm of conjecture.

Sources close to both the Senate President and Gbemi told Daily Trust that she has not been seen close to her elder brother since his ascendancy to the Number 3 seat in the country.

“You know their relationship is not that good. As far as I know, since the man became Senate President, we’ve not seen her anywhere in his house or office. So, it may be that the much-talked about reconciliation was just a show for the public to say that all is well,” one of the sources said.

The APC won in landslide in Kwara in 2015 with the support of Gbemi and also took over at the centre with President Muhammadu Buhari in the saddle. Many watchers of the events in Kwara were kept guessing about what form of reward would be conceded to Gbemi who unassailably commands some support base within the state and is loved and admired by many.

But she was eventually appointed the Chairman of Governing Council of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State. Considering her exposure in politics and the posts she had held in the past, not many people would agree that the appointment befits her politically. But it was a stepping stone to relevance in her hobnobbing with the APC where her brother firmly holds sway in Kwara.

Not until recently, when Gbemi attempted to correct some ills in Otuoke where she has been faced with stiff resistance and even threat for daring to challenge some policies, the charming GRS has maintained some eerie low profile in the polity leaving pundits guessing about her likely moves in 2019.

Sources around her told Daily Trust on Sunday that she remains a committed member of APC but they are silent about her future in the party and 2019. Will she contest for governorship in 2019? Will she go back to the Senate, which is very unlikely?

Not a few Nigerians now wonder why such a politician, who generated so much buzz not just in Kwara but also nationally, has gone underground, with virtually nothing being heard from her politically. Or could it be that her current position at the Otouke varsity is hindering her from participating fully politically?

In the case of Gbemi, she has maintained an unusually low profile, though she recently made some fliers to sensitize the electorate in the state to obtain their permanent voting cards (PVCs), she has kept many guessing about her future political aspiration.

An insider in Kwara APC who did not want to be named said, “We don’t know what is her plan in 2019, but I can confirm to you that she remains a strong APC member and she is in good terms with her brother and our leader, Senator Bukola Saraki.

“In Kwara there is no other party except APC and we have a system of choosing our governorship candidate and at the appropriate time the system will prop up the successor of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed whose tenure ends on May 29, 2019.”

Daily Trust’s attempts to speak with Gbemisola directly on why she has been silent in the political scene and her next line of action ahead of the 2019 political battle were unsuccessful as her mobile phone has been switched off for the past two days. Also, a text message sent to her mobile phone was not delivered.

But sources close to her family said she would definitely come out at the right time to participate in the political scene once again.