O TO GE : HOW A GODFATHER LOST HIS THRONE - Deji Adewunmi

O TO GE : HOW A GODFATHER LOST HIS THRONE.

You might also want to consider this as a title - THE END OF A DYNASTY?

Finally the 2019 elections have come and gone - votes have been casted, ballots collated and results announced. With the announcement of results comes joy, shout, shock, victors and losers. One of the more interesting contests is the Kwara central senatorial elections that saw the emergence of Dr Yahaya Oloriegbe of APC as the Victor. His victory is worthy of note not because he is anything special from every other victors (perhaps he is) but because he has done the unimaginable - defeating Oloye Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the current president of senate.

I strongly opine that Dr Saraki's unanticipated loss (perhaps it was in certain quarters) is one that should be analyzed and the integral factors that facilitates his defeat discussed so that younger generations can learn from the mistakes made by the Godfather of Kwara politics. I have outlined below the factors that contributed in no small measure to his defeat at the polls.

(1) PERCEPTION : Justice will not be served in this discourse should we pay attention solely to the 2019 elections. The seed of his defeat in 2019 was back in 2011, when he as the then outgoing governor went against his father's choice of his successor. That singular act painted an image of him as a man that is disrespectful and a heir desperate for  the throne.

Two events further soiled the Oloye's garment. One is the manner in which he became the senate president against his party's choice and ultimately making them lose the Deputy Senate President position to their arch enemy. The other is what I refer to as the 'Atiku curse'. Oloye's continuous affiliation with the EX Vice-President, a man that symbolises kleptocracy and the Egypt that Nigerians do not desire return to made Kwarans perceived their erstwhile Godfather as corrupt and unfit for the leadership of the new kind of Nigeria we desire to build.

(2)  DISTRACTION : Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was in fact over-distracted, as he was fighting too many self-created battles simultaneously - a bid to retain his sit as senate president, his undoubted presidential ambition, the continuous court case, his decision to be the sole kingmaker of a elective position in Kwara, continuous loggerhead with the presidency that led to his deflection to PDP, his sudden emergence as her National leader and the unwise decision to be the Director-General of Atiku's presidential campaign, all distracted the Oloye from seeing that there was fire on his roof. This also exposed his weakened defense and before he could realise the sit was already occupied, it was perhaps too late if at all it was redeemable.

(3) HOME : The Name Oloye Olusola Saraki was synonymous in Kwara with the grand mastery of politics because it was believed that its bearer understood that in politics the home must never be divided. Perhaps Saraki (Jr.) not unlike like the prodigal son in Biblical scriptures, was too eager to leave home with his share of the inheritance and failed to learn the basics and essentials from the father of Kwara politics and the pioneer of the Saraki dynasty. Dr. Bukola had eight glorious years of mending the wall and repairing the bridge with his sister, Gbemisola, the elders of Kwara and other extended family members of the Saraki dynasty but clearly he declined. If he had kept the family united, the senate president would by now be celebrating his 3rd term straight return to the senate.

(4) THE PEOPLE : The hallmark of democracy is that the governed can decide by the machinery of election who leads them. The direction they desire governance to take albeit shows that political power is not exclusive to an individual or group of people - this is politics 101. The people clamoured for a change but the godfather could not decipher that the mood has changed. This was a tactical mistake that sealed his fate.
Enough is Enough was the message of the people.

Thank you God bless you and may He contiously bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Adewumi Adedeji
Writes from Lagos, Nigeria
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