Welcome home Bukola Saraki

Saraki was abandoned at the boundary between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June after he defied the APC to emerge Senate President.

 
President Muhammadu Buhari shares a laugh with Senate President, Bukola Saraki on October 1, 2015

Senate President, Bukola Saraki has been at a crossroads for the past four months.

Saraki was abandoned at the boundary between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June 2015 after he defied the APC to emerge Senate President.

The move made him an enemy within the ranks of the APC yet he made it clear that he had no intention of returning to the PDP despite the support given to him by his colleagues from the opposition party.

Saraki was therefore forced to wander a political middle ground, a lonely place with few friends and many foes, for four whole months.

During this period,

he was caught in the eye of the storm and surrounded by so much controversy that the only assumption to be made was that someone very powerful was after him.

First of all, rumours arose claiming that he had lied about his nationality in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) form with which he contested for his position in the Senate.

Soon after, it was rumoured that he had been accused of being a petty thief in 1990 while working at the Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria.

These rumours were quickly followed by an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) interrogation of his wife, Toyin and allegations of asset declaration fraud against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

The CCB alleged that Saraki had committed the offence during his tenure as Kwara State Governor, a position which he vacated in 2011, four years ago.

Saraki admitted that he was being tried because some powerful people didn’t want him to be Senate President.

“I wish to reiterate my remarks before the Tribunal, that I have no iota of doubt that I am on trial today because I am the president of the Nigerian Senate, against the wishes of some powerful individuals outside this Chambers,” he said while addressing the Senate on Tuesday, September 29, 2015.

However, it seems that Saraki’s political exile might have finally come to an end.

Saraki has placed himself on the right side of the APC by ensuring the ministerial confirmation of party champion, Rotimi Amaechi despite the PDP’s attempts to prevent it.

The Senate President has become the APC’s prodigal son, cast out initially but eventually welcomed back home with extravagant celebration.

Saraki will today receive the Court of Appeal’s decision on whether the CCB’s case against him can go on or not. It is now left to see if the APC’s “Welcome Home” gift to Saraki will be the miraculous cancelling of the charges against him.

Afterall, politics is a game of loyalty, and he whose loyalties have been tested and proven strong must be invited back into the fold.