At 53, a bridge-builder is still constructing

The venue was one of the Banquet Halls in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Date was November 25 and the event was the dinner held by President Muhammadu Buhari for Senators, the first since the National Assembly was inaugurated last June. Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki had just surprised everyone, including the host, President […]

The venue was one of the Banquet Halls in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Date was November 25 and the event was the dinner held by President Muhammadu Buhari for Senators, the first since the National Assembly was inaugurated last June. Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki had just surprised everyone, including the host, President Muhammadu Buhari. Without looking at any paper, he introduced all his colleagues, about a hundred of them, by name and constituency, not missing any. He got a standing ovation from his colleagues, in addition to a presidential handshake. The fellow sitting next to me remarked: “This man is brilliant.” I did not know when I proudly told him that “You don’t read medicine and graduate from the University of London, if you are not cerebral.”
I do not know anybody who went to school at the time I did in the 80s who will not agree with me that only the most extremely brilliant ones made it to the College of Medicine and graduated to become medical doctors. Many who make comments about Dr. Saraki today simply talk about him as a politician, perhaps one with a privileged background. It is true that Saraki as a politician has a unique place in Nigerian political history. He is the only Senator today whose father was elected Senator twice (the old man was even the Senate Leader between 1979 and 1983) and his immediate-younger sister had also served as Senator for two terms while he himself is on his second term as a Senator. Three Senators from a nuclear family! That is a rarity in a Nigeria still bogged down by zoning formula instead of competence.
From the quality and caliber of his staff, the time devoted to National Assembly tasks as Senate President, the initiatives that have emerged in the six months that he has been Senate President and Chairman of National Assembly and the global networking that he has done on behalf of the Nigerian state and the institution that he leads, it is clear that he had prepared for the job that he has now. He is always saying to us, his aides, that it is easy to be in an office and just be bogged down by the routines without making any significant difference until the tenure will expire. Only a man who cares about his own place in history reasons like that.
Definitely, he is determined to be one of the most successful Senate Presidents ever and this guides most of his activities on the job. Of course, he is also the youngest and one of the few who can be called home-grown Senate President. He assumed office and has been sustained solely by the sheer force of support from his colleague-senators.
On Mondays, since there is no plenary sitting of the Senate, he schedules courtesy calls and stakeholder engagement appointments as well as other crucial meetings for that first working day of the week. Two of the meetings are worthy of mention here. The first is the senior staff meeting in which he meets his key aides to plan the time table for the week. Here, his schedule – legislative, social and political – are pre-arranged. Here too, the shape of the issues, agenda, proposed bills, motions and other plan for the Senate in the new week will first be deliberated upon and reviewed. The outcome of this meeting helps to set the tone for the second crucial meeting later in the residence. That is with the Senate leadership. The first meeting also allowed the man to review and shape the plan of each of the units in his office for the week.
The senior staff meeting, for example, is such a serious session in which the Economic Adviser addresses the meeting on key economic issues for the week. The Legal Adviser is called upon to give the position of the law on raging issues and yours truly speak on issues trending in the media and what narrative is prevalent. The second meeting enables the ten-man Senate leadership to agree on a time table for the week and the strategy for achieving smooth and productive sessions. What these meetings have done is to carry the leadership along in the happenings on the floor. It also properly structures the schedule and parliamentary programme of the institution.
ABS, as he is fondly called by his close friends, is one of the few politicians who will attract an extremely huge, passionate and supportive crowd without any prior plan or mobilization at any time of the day. Also, like the late Wazirin Ilorin, Saraki who is Turakin Ilorin, is an energetic, enigmatic campaigner who goes from hamlet to hamlet, village to village and ward to ward during electioneering campaigns. A fruit, they say, does not fall too far from the tree that produced it. He is also a pan Nigerian operator. Saraki is at home with all Nigerians and in all parts of the country. No wonder he has a good relationship with all his other 108 colleagues. Check out his staff list, it is as diversified as Nigeria is.
Some critics have refused to admit that one of the reasons they ceaselessly fight, undermine and plot against him is because of their fear that he has a consistent history of making a success out of any assignment given to him. There is no doubt that with a Legislative Agenda, a proposed e-parliament, a legislative chamber that continues to engage stakeholders in various sectors, a law making body that may record the passage of the highest number of the most relevant laws that will help revive the economy, a Senate whose leadership continues to complement the executive in pleading Nigeria’s case in relevant national and international fora and a Senate whose motions have led to the resolution of issues that are of interest to the ordinary people, Saraki will continue to remain popular with both supporters and adversaries.
That is why as he celebrates his 53rd anniversary today, I pray to God to give him the wisdom, energy, resources and platform to continue to build bridges of unity, development, prosperity, peace and understanding across Nigeria, in particular, and the entire world. Happy birthday to the 13th President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Olaniyonu is Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity.