‘‘Incalculable misery within the polity and sheer callousness of the ruling elite has pricked the conscience of the nation, nay conscience of the citizens of Nigeria. The implication of this fact is that well-meaning Nigerians must imbibe true national conscience (not personal conscience) that will ultimately savage the country from the present rot, decay and insanity’’ – Quoted in Nowinta’s book, 2009: WHERE WE ARE (page 165).
Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta
Since the artificial birth of Nigeria in 1960, no sitting President of the Nation’s Senate or any principal officer of the national assembly has been docked to answer to allegations of corruption or false declaration of assets within any segment of the Nigerian Judiciary.
Not even when the likes of late Evans Ewenrem (former Senate President); Salisu Buhari (former Speaker of the House of Representatives); Adolphus Wabara (ex-President of the Senate) etc., were confronted with cases of falsification of age/ academic documentation, corruption, certificate forgery or abuse of office did they appear before a court of proper jurisdiction in person.
But on Tuesday September 22 2015 the jinx surrounding official rascality and reckless impunity among principal officers of the nation’s National Assembly was smashed to pieces as Senator Bukola Saraki, President of the Nigerian Senate was docked by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
In spite of the fact that Senator Saraki tried frantically as usual to buy or prevent his appearance before Justice Danladi Umar with some of the wealth he has illegally acquired by rushing to an Abuja High Court presided over by one Justice Ahmed Ramat Muhammed, the new Sheriff in town – President Muhammadu Buhari insisted that it was no longer business as usual.
The talk in some quarters that the current judicial trial of Senator Saraki is politically motivated by those who hated his guts is absolutely rubbish.
A look at Saraki’s financial empire since the Code of Conduct Tribunal beamed its searchlight on him shows clearly that he is one of the most stupendously rich politicians today in Nigeria.
Saraki’s amazing and endless lists of properties within and outside the shores of Nigeria were the principal reason his kinsmen decided to humiliate him during the Sallah prayers in Ilorin.
By throwing stones and sachet of pure water at Saraki the people of Kwara state were only registering their anger on a man who contributed in large measure to their collective misery of today.
This is so because Saraki was Governor for eight years before he personally hand-picked the current sitting Governor-Abdulfatah Ahmed, who is struggling to steady the fortunes of the State from where Saraki hopelessly left it.
We must not forget easily that Saraki’s father, late Dr. Olusola Saraki was one of the Second Republic political godfathers who operated like fifteen century Monarch in the politics of Kwara State. He actually facilitated the speedy political emergence of his first son
So Senator Saraki is a spoilt child who sees nothing wrong in amassing several chains of properties to the detriment of the poverty-stricken people of Kwara State and shamelessly lying about such wealth on oath.
Unfortunately for Saraki, he is no longer living in the era of ‘thief, thief and anything goes’ where his father operated like a Royal Highness.
The greatest mistake he has made unknowingly was attempting not only to be the number three man in Nigeria at this time of ‘change’ and dreaming to be the number one citizen come 2019. He certainly did not know that Nigerian voters no longer have a space for his likes.
It is unreasonable for anyone to point accusing fingers at somebody like the national Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as responsible for the present ordeal of Senator Saraki.
In 2007 when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu gloriously vacated the Government House Alausa after standing eye ball to eye ball against General Olusegun Obasanjo’s do or die politics, forces from Aso Rock swooped on him using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Tinubu proved his sterner stuff when he eventually came out triumphant and clean. Today Saraki should prove to the whole world that he is clean and should stop blaming anybody for his present ordeal. Before he does that the Unity Forum in the Senate should effect his ouster as Senate President.
This Saraki affair has exposed the fact that nobody can prevent a new wave of consciousness sweeping across the length and breadth of the country. It is a consciousness among the masses of Nigeria that they deserve better deal.
This glaring fact was demonstrated through the ballot box on March 28th 2015 during the Presidential Election. Thank God the neglected majority have awakened to their new worth.
The Sarakis of this world should wake up to the fact that we are dog tired of political bandits masquerading as leaders.
Nowinta wrote Where We Are: A call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
