Nigeria:
The two most prominent children of the late elder statesman,
Senator Olusola Saraki: Senators Bukola Saraki and sister, Senator Gbemisola
Ruqqayat Saraki are fighting from different angles for lead position in the
affairs of their father's political patrimony. Could they both lose out
These are not the best of times for Senator Gbemisola
Ruqqayat Saraki, GRS as she is fondly called by her admirers. GRS is still
unrelenting in the grudge war with Brother Bukola over the latter's leading
role in stopping her gubernatorial pursuit in 2011. Besides fighting Bukola,
she is now engaged with her male counterparts in the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP for supremacy in the opposition party.
Despite her political acumen, her name is becoming a
rallying point for all those who claim that it is time to see the back of the
Sarakis in Kwara State.
It was no surprise that when she was slated for ministerial
appointment that almost all senior PDP officials put aside their many
differences to oppose the proposal. But that did not deter Gbemi who
successfully installed her people as chairman, secretary and woman leader of
the state chapter of the PDP.
Gbemi was to discover to her chagrin that the chairman,
Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo who was once her loyalist would be taken from her grip by
her rivals in the PDP.
The opposition against her nonetheless, Gbemi is unrelenting
and has upped the ante by her decision to contest for the gubernatorial ticket
of the PDP.
She is for now the only female aspirant even in both
political parties, and is contending with other prominent political gladiators
for the PDP ticket. Among those in contention for the PDP ticket are the Alhaji
Jani Ibrahim, an astute industrialist who though is having his first shot but
is showing impressive capacity, Muhammed Dele Belgore SAN who was the candidate
of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in the last gubernatorial
election and Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola who also participated in the last
primaries but was made to step down for Governor. Ahmed.
Also in the race is Senator Simeon Ajibola who is in his
third term in the Senate and Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, Deacon John
Dara, Comrade Ben Duntoye and Abdulrazaq Abdulraham.
While Gbemi struggles the stress from her rivals in the PDP,
her brother, Bukola is also challenged by the determination of the PDP
hierarchy in Abuja to grab the political levers of the state from him. Bukola
is especially targeted on account of his leading role in fragmenting the PDP
before his exit to the APC. It is thus like a grudge match between him and the
president.
Bukola is also of interest to Abuja because of the
discomfiture he gave the administration in being the first person to expose the
multi trillion naira subsidy scam in the downstream petroleum sector.
After several months of deep cogitation, Bukola brought the
anxieties of Governor Ahmed to an end with an endorsement for a second term.
Speaking after an all night meeting with major stakeholders
three weeks ago, Saraki said: "It's not rumour, it's true that I endorsed
him for second term of another four years.
From my own view, I believe he has performed very well, he
has been able to bring physical developments to the state despite paucity of
funds, and he has been able to consolidate on the legacies I left behind,"
the immediate former governor said before adding the clincher on Ahmed,
"He has (also) been completely loyal"
"When we moved from PDP to APC, he gave all the cooperation
we needed". He continued, "my endorsement of Governor Ahmed for a
second term was not accidental. He worked for it, he merited it because he has
performed creditably well".
Bukola's endorsement of Ahmed was despite the permutations
that were on Bolaji Abdullahi who sacrificed his position as a minister because
of his loyalty to Bukola and the long persistent shadow of the speaker of the
House of Assembly, Abdulrazaq Atunwa. Both men are expected to remain loyal and
would not rock the boat by contesting the primaries with Governor Ahmed.
Their submission to the will of Bukola nonetheless, the
former governor is still expected to have a difficult time trying to retain his
political hegemony given her own sister's desperate attempt to even scores from
the other side. A man's enemies are members of his own household.
By
DEMOLA AKINYEMI
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