A list of prominent people nominated for national honours last week floated around the media space. From Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, writer of note and presidential aide, Femi Adesina – it was quite a list.
It had a total of 437 persons for various categories of the awards, including Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) etc. However, conspicuously missing from the list was former Senate President, Bukola Abubakar Saraki who was also a former governor of Kwara state.
While no reason has been given for the absence of Saraki’s name from the list, pundits believe that it may not be unconnected to the ‘cat and mouse game’ between him during his time as Senate president and President Muhammadu Buhari during the latter’s first tenure.
TheWill recalls that amid the crisis that plagued the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time, Saraki became Senate President in June 2015, but not without the attendant drama that characterised his emergence and a battle for loyalists to help fulfill his ambition. All through his time in the hallowed chambers, he never had a moment of respite, following his being charged with a false asset declaration by the Code of Conduct Bureau. And thus began the battle to prove his innocence.
It took nearly three years before Saraki got a breather. It took all of 70 lawyers and 50 senators before he secured victory after the Supreme Court threw out the case against him. Also, all through his time as Senate President, he didn’t make the job of Buhari easier; he ensured that he held Buhari up to the highest scrutiny and never ceased to make use of any given opportunity to criticise him for his slack grip on the nation.
Although he got elected as Senate President on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Saraki would later return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was a member before he defected. Unfortunately, all his permutations on achieving political relevance since returning to the fold of PDP haven’t quite worked out. First he lost his bid to seek re-election in the 2019 senatorial election. His dream to become President on the platform of PDP seems to be just that, a dream, as he has failed on two occasions to clinch the party’s ticket – first in 2019 and again in 2022.
About the Author
