The best piece of good news I heard in 2018 is Senator Saraki leaving APC today. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
No individual has derailed Nigeria’s progress under this government more than Saraki. He joined APC and accepted its manifesto back in 2013, only to stab her in the back by conniving with PDP minions to become Senate President through forgery of the Senate Standing Rules. If it only stopped at that, but he had to reward PDP by having Senator Ekweremadu deputizing him.
Not surprisingly, the Senate remained as corrupt as ever before, and APC’s plans to reform Nigeria died a sudden death. As I write this, three executive bills targeting corruption are still pending at NASS two years after proposal. Of course, it can’t be otherwise. A man who always regards public funds as his private property cannot enact anticorruption laws, especially since he was on trial for corruption himself.
I have friends here who defend Saraki. Ask them why, and some would say he was being victimized. But if Saraki victimized Nigeria by owning foreign bank accounts and keeping some of his assets secret, and then lying to the Code of Conduct Bureau, what is wrong in victimizing him through a legal process? If he victimized APC by returning PDP to power after their woeful defeat, what is wrong with APC returning the favour?
During PDP’s 16 years in power, the Senate President and his deputy were always PDP men. Which was right for our winner-takes-all US-style democracy. So, even if you are apolitical, your feigned sympathy for Saraki only shows who you truly are: a hypocrite. If we wanted PDP deputizing the Senate President, we should have practiced parliamentary democracy where it is normal for minority governments to ally with opposition parties.
Thank God that APC’s worst nightmare – Abubakar Bukola Olusola Saraki – is now over. I’m glad for that. Saraki’s political value to APC is irrelevant. He may carry Kwara State with him, and may even return to the Senate. But that won’t deprive APC of success in 2019. To Adams Oshiomhole who put Saraki in his right place, I say Kudos once again.
Nura Alkali
