Holding the aces, 2019 and beyond

Senate President Bukola Saraki has become such a big issue in our national politics as hardly a week passes without Saraki’s name coming up in every political discourse in Nigeria, controversy or not.  It has been three years since the inauguration of the 8th Senate. This has been a period which has been marked by […]

Senate President Bukola Saraki has become such a big issue in our national politics as hardly a week passes without Saraki’s name coming up in every political discourse in Nigeria, controversy or not.

 It has been three years since the inauguration of the 8th Senate. This has been a period which has been marked by rising unemployment, oil price declines, economic instability and rising insecurity.

At inception the 8th Senate adopted the Senate Legislative agenda focusing on three broad areas: Improving Livelihoods, Improving Governance and Improving Business.

In the area of improving business the Senate has focused its legislative reforms on reducing regulatory burdens for and easing access to capital for Micro, Small and Medium  Enterprises MSMEs.

And notwithstanding his very busy schedule as Senate President, Senator Saraki has a way of keeping in touch with grassroots and solving issues back at home. One would have expected that the demands of his office would have cut the former Kwara Governor away from the people at the grassroots. 

From all indications at his Kwara Central Senatorial district and the state at large, ‘Omo Baba Oloye’ is doing all that is expected of him not to lose touch with the base that entrusted so much confidence in him and gave him opportunity to represent them. 

Saraki keeps touch with base, opening door for all to walk in with their requests, with a constituency office in Ilorin that manages thorny issues brought forward by constituents and some identified by the office itself. Leading the pack of these issues is financial issue, followed closely by employment seeking youths, those who cannot pay medical and school fees, infrastructural development among others. It may look simple, but it’s not, considering the task of jostling between the requirements of the office of the number three citizen with meeting the needs of his constituents.

Medicaid, social services, education support, empowerment and employment, requests for infrastructural development among others, make up the hundreds of requests for helps being handled daily at Saraki’s constituency office in Ilorin.

Whether PDP APC, or SDP, the requests and demands of constituents don’t come in the toga of a political party, it doesn’t matter which political party the constituents belong to or whoever they voted in the election that brought in Saraki as a Senator, what matters most is adding value to the lives of constituents and that Saraki has been doing without being partisan. 

One after the other, needs are met, although it may take time, constituents who hitherto walked into the office with myriads of needs have had course to testify with elated joy of how their desires from the Senate President were met without going through political leaders as its the case in other places.

In January 2017 Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki launched a contest to promote made in Nigeria products, the initiative is laudable and novel and worthy of emulation by the leaders the nation.

Since the advent of this 8th Assembly ably led by Senate President Bukola Saraki, it has been one innovation or the other to make legislative work easier for all the participants, be it Senators or the citizens they are there to represent.

The Senate, in my own view and shared by many, has done a very fantastic job with the number of bills they have initiated and passed, when you see a serious Senate you will definitely know, this Senate is very serious with her legislative duties despite the challenges facing it from politicians in the country.

Another wonderful bill this Senate has dusted up is the 35% affirmative action to allow women participate in politics at both federal and states level, this bill will reduce the stress and cut throat competitions women have to face before getting into elective or appointive offices.

With reduction in age bracket for participation in political offices, more brilliant Nigerian youths will begin to show interest to join politics instead of handing them just social media jobs and other non-dignifying roles within our politics.

Saraki’s Senate has removed the wide gap between the good people of Nigeria and the Senate, the Senate is becoming more open and transparent day by day because of the technological advancement being adopted and implemented in the course of their legislative duties which has removed the barriers if not totally.

Saraki has been accused of every imaginable crime, he has been visited with immense political venom whose cure could only be found, and was found, in the long and tortuous road to the Supreme Court.

Though Saraki was discharged and acquitted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on all 18-count charge, of false assets declaration, Saraki as expected, has been tried, convicted and sentenced in the court of public opinion. There are those who still believe he is guilty as charged. 

Nature they say abhors vacuum. This Senate is obviously about Saraki. Everything that is being done is to strengthen his capacity and advance his quest to give a listening ear to a large section of the populace to go for the Nigerian Presidency.

Even in the face of extreme provocation and unnecessary persecution, Saraki’s maturity and exhibition of political equanimity, is one that is rare in our clime.

If the Senate can continue in this manner, sustain and improve on the laid down development in the Senate, Nigeria will be better off in few years to come.

Nigerians are really divided in this political era, and undoubtedly, history, posterity and of course the not too distant future hold a better place for Senator Saraki for his several efforts at sustaining Nigeria’s nascent democratic and its several democratic institutions.

Senate President has set the pace and there is no going back. Saraki is bound to fight on many fronts to sustain and wield the enormous powers at his disposal. Saraki is certainly blessed and gifted with political ingenuity and initiatives which many politicians are tapping from, he surely shouldn’t be underrated as he possessing political depth which can be of immense electoral value to Nigeria.

He must seize the opportunity and make it count for posterity. He must set the tone for a new agenda, eschew any selfish agenda and ride on the grace God has placed on him to snatch the country back from tyranny and despotism. History beckons!

Nwabia, a medical practitioner, wrote from this piece Lagos.