It makes no news that the tempo of politicking in Nigeria is at a crescendo at the moment as politicians and political gladiators are busy forming alliances and counter-alliances in order to gain political advantage at the polls come February 2014. A time like this is definitely apposite to idealise on political players, both living and dead, who had played in the turf of the nation’s turbulent polity, with a view to inspiring the present and upcoming players. One of the personages that fit into this writer’s conjecture is the late Abubakar Olusola Saraki, the iconic politician and grandmaster who literally held the key to the door of Kwara politics for close to four decades, before his demise about two years ago. Even though the astute politician is no more, his influence still reverberates across the state’s political divide and stands as a strong factor in the unfolding political process.
But many watchers and pundits have continued to ask the question: what actually was responsible for the undying influence of the medical doctor-turned-politician? This writer attempts to take an incisive glimpse at the person of the Turaki of Ilorin as well as his modus operandi that made him stand out distinctly out of the pack.
Many years ago, precisely as a pupil in one of the then public primary schools in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, this writer had grown to realise one personality who commanded the respect of most citizens of the state, notably those that were domiciled in Ilorin. That man was Olusola Saraki whose sobriquet, Oloye, actually mollified his real name in many quarters. In those years, this writer would damn the dire consequences of shunning domestic chores to catch a glimpse of Oloye, who usually passed through his area en-route his expansive GRA home. The electrifying chants of Oloye usually rent the air, giving a lucid impression that an “avatar” had just arrived town. It remains an understatement that the people, especially the downtrodden, admired Oloye, not only as a leader, but because of his “deep pockets”. Oloye’s generosity and readiness to assist those in distress was legendary. In the words of a native, “All your problems expire the day you providentially set your eyes on the political leader.”
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Naturally, like wildfire, Oloye’s fame went places in Kwara and even in other major parts of the middle belt of the country, becoming an infallibly strong platform upon which he built his political empire which lasted for close to four decades. The thoughts of many sceptics that the popularity of the political icon would soon vaporise were short-lived as Oloye bestrode the political landscape of Kwara like a colossus.
It is worthy of recollection how Oloye wielded his indomitable political will in installing governors for the state and, in the same token, plotted their inglorious removal. It is most auspicious that in the 1979 general elections, Oloye single-handedly sold the candidature of late Adamu Attah to electorates, despite the former’s remote nativity and antecedents. Attah, from the Ebirra minority ethnic group in the old Kwara State, won the election convincingly under the platform of the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He defeated strong opponents like late Samuel Olawoyin of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
However, Attah’s manifestation of the natural human crave to “keep the teeth on the sweet pie longer than necessary” later became his Achilles’ Heels. He had desired and pursued a second term in office, a step regarded as an attempt to rock the well-orchestrated political calculus of Oloye. Against all political manoeuvring, Oloye, being a Machiavellian, utilised the platform of the opposition UPN to launch his resistance to the aberrant ambition of Attah who re-contested under the banner of the NPN. Oloye found a suitable disciple in the then young and ebullient Cornelius Adebayo, who was used to put a painful end to Attah’s perceived “inordinate ambition” in the 1983 election. Unfortunately, the military interregnum championed by the Buhari-Idiagbon regime cut short that regime barely three months into its course. Notably, while the military regime lasted, Oloye maintained his political machinery intact, unlike what many of his ilk usually fail to do, buoying popularity amongst the people.
Again, at the inception of the Third Republic in 1991, Oloye railroaded Shaba Lafiagi, a Nupe man, to the consciousness of Kwarans. In spite of Lafiagi’s obscure pedigree, Oloye saw to it that he clinched the governorship ticket in what was described as a “landslide victory” at the gubernatorial polls, before the Abacha junta rudely interrupted that regime.
Tope Adaramola
