In less than fifty days, the title of Senate President attached to Bukola Saraki’s name will be removed abruptly, leaving us to wonder what will be the next step for him.
As the PDP petition at the Presidential Election Tribunal continues to drag on and may take years for a verdict to be reached, Saraki’s next political step have been a source of side talks among analysts cum politicians considering the fact that he has stopped practice as a Medical Doctor for over thirty years, twenty of which he has spent as a public servant and politician.
Saraki, who has since left his medical practice in 1989, headed the Société Générale Bank (Nig) Ltd as its director for 10 years before the bank collapsed, only for his political career to begin when he was appointed as the Special Assistant to the President on Budget by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He held the position for three years before he went to contest for the governor of Kwara State under the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) launching him into mainstream politics.
Saraki, who is two term governor of Kwara state left the position in 2011 and contested for the Kwara Central Senatorial Seat, under same party, and won the election, thereby beginning his career as a legislator.
The Kwara kingmaker’s political career got massive boost when he led the pack of some stalwarts of the PDP during the crisis within the party in the build up to the 2015 general election, defected to the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC).
The senator was among the 10 senators within the Nigerian Senate that cross-carpeted to the APC and contested for re-election for his Senatorial seat under the party, which he won with a landslide victory.
Saraki’s political career got international recognition when he championed a plot twist in the National Assembly, after the inauguration of the eight Assembly to emerge unopposed as the President of the Nigerian Senate.
He became a force to reckon with in Nigeria’s political space having secured a post as the Number 3 man in Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The senator made sure that his power status was noticed by the executive council as one of the critics of the Buhari administration since he assumed office and also became a powerhouse for PDP after he decamped back to the party in July 2018.
Saraki quest for more political power made him dole out the Grow Nigeria slogan, to contest for the 2019 Presidential Primaries of the PDP against Atiku Abubakar, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, Former Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state, among others but emerged as the second-runner up in the election before he was appointed as the Director General of the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation.
Meanwhile, after the loss, he went back to contest for his Kwara Central Seat but his third-term bid was halted in the February 23 National Assembly election when Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe of APC was declared the Senator-elect for the senatorial district.
In 2011, the elder Saraki replaced his younger sister, Senator Gbemi Saraki, who also served as a two term senator in the same district, making one to wonder, if the Saraki dynasty will ever be able to break the two-time jinx plaguing its family members.
The self-acclaimed Godfather of Kwara politics suffered another huge loss, as all his protégé within the state also lost re-election bid to their respective posts in the 2019 general election, so nobody to lord over for now.
Saraki’s next career choice becomes more thin and limited in Nigeria politics for the next four years, if Abubakar fails to win his election petitions against Buhari at the tribunal.
This is not Europe or USA where you can leave public service and move to the private sector, even with Saraki’s twenty years accomplishment as a Nigerian politician, he may not be able to get such offer within the country.
Speculations maintain that he will remain in Abuja to manage the affairs of the PDP as it takes up renewed role as opposition party against APC.
But one thing remains certain in all of these, Bukola Saraki will not go into extinction anytime soon, he could even be gearing up and preparing to become the PDP’s flagbearer for the 2023 Presidency.
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