The dog that will get lost, perhaps forever, will not hear the whistle of the hunter.
Bukola Saraki, Nigeria’s self-styled Senate President, is running against strong winds of public discontent and disgust with his unbridled lust for power.
Rather than eat the humble pie and respect his party, the All Progressives Congress, and the President, Muhammadu Buhari, Saraki is set in his ways of treachery and arm-twisting. He thinks money answereth all things. But now, he has added blackmail to his many tools. Simply put, he has sent out the message which all unbiased political observers long expected: that he will frustrate any nominee from the Buhari/Tinubu camp during the Senate screening. We wish Saraki all the best.
However, Saraki needs be reminded that Nigerians will see through his bags of tricks and will hold him responsible to stalling and stalking the Buhari government and for sabotaging the agenda of change, for which Buhari was elected.
How much is one man’s ambition worth? Is it worth the destruction of a government? Is it worth the corruption of the system? Is it worth holding the President and the party to ransom? Saraki is on a journey of no return. His days are numbered in the seat he so undeservedly occupies.
The story of Saraki’s rebellion and his crushing ambition to become Senate President is well known. What is not well known yet is where it will lead to and where it will end. Saraki is not alone on this journey. As the script plays out, we know Saraki’s destination. Nigerians already have formed their opinion about Saraki as an usurper. How he intends to hold the government of Buhari to ransom is incomprehensible and clearly underhanded. How a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is responsible for his present problem with the President is unclear. The nominees for key positions are nominees of the government picked to serve Nigerians. Every attempt to frustrate them must be regarded as unpatriotic and a sabotage of the Nigerian nation.
The process that produced Saraki was fraudulent. Saraki now behaves as if Nigeria owes him. He is on an Olympian height. He is riding the tiger and we know what happens to those who do that. The Nigerian people will rise against him for impeding the government they worked, sweated and died to elect.
The unfolding political drama has exposed Saraki as a power monger. He wants power at all costs. But beyond the throne of bayonets he now sits are the well-founded allegations of corruption that have been hanging over his head for years. He must be made to answer because he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. No amount of media slander or public relations can save Saraki from the tide that will blow his way. In the Saraki political kingdom, only the loyal stand a chance.
Saraki is his own problem. Not Tinubu. Not Buhari. He brought it upon himself. Hence, only he should bear his cross. Not the Buhari-loving Nigerians. Not the carefully-selected nominees Buhari wants in his government.
Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap.
*Igbalode writes from Lagos.
