THE PRESIDENT’S FATHER

CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.


Watching Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on television reading his declaration to become the next President and Commander In Chief of the Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I asked myself a question. Who shall we call our President; The father or the son?

Bukola Saraki did not convince me that he wrote the speech he read, I want to believe his father, the self styled god father of Kwara Politics wrote the son’s speech. He claimed Nigeria needs a younger generation to take charge of the affairs of our country. Agreed we need the new breed to come and salvage us, but someone should please tell Mr. Governor what we do not need are old breed masqueraded in their children as new breed. Each time I see Bukola Saraki I see Olusola Saraki’s shadow looming around, anytime hear Saraki Jnr. talking it is the voice of Saraki Snr. that is talking to me. How else would one explain a man who made his son governor of a state for 8 years and his daughter a senator from that state. How can I imagine that the godfather now wants his daughter to take over from the son as the governor as he promotes his son to the presidency of our nation? Will it not become the trinity of the father, the son and the daughter? If kwara state can be re-baptized to Saraki state and all people of kwara state made to adopt the surname of Saraki, will Nigeria become the Republic of Saraki too?

I dare say that if Bukola Saraki was the son of a commoner like many of us, he would not have become a governor, it was his father’s rather than his popularity that made him a governor. It is his father who months ago gathered political big wigs in kwara and told them to pray for his son who after two terms as governor was too young to go into retirement. The father has now found another employment opportunity for the son.

Bukola Saraki made mention of what he hopes to accomplish as the President of Nigeria based on his achievements in kwara, none of the politicians is shamed to be promising things we ought to have overcome by now. But must one be a President to serve or create a change? Can’t he as a senator, philanthropist, or as an adviser, still contribute in the development of this country? Can’t we have a Saraki Foundation that will create Jobs or provide scholarships to empower the youth? Can’t we have a Saraki NGO that will address infant and maternal mortalities? What of a Saraki Center that will train skilled and unskilled Nigerians to make them well equipped to face the challenges of a modern world? Why must it be a Saraki Presidency; will there be this urge to serve as the President if that office is divorced from having access to the billions of oil dollars at the president’s disposal to be spent or embezzled at selfish politicians’ whims and caprices?

In other civilized societies, great men who contributed to the development of their land and people were and are not politicians. Bill Gates is making impacts worldwide without a government portfolio. Michael Jackson pumped millions of dollars into Charity without seeking for political office. Oprah Winfrey is doing same without the patronage of public funds or power. Why can’t we take a cue?

I don’t want to be in doubt of who is my President come 2011, whether it is the son or the President’s father? I don’t want our country’s budget to be prepared from Ilorin or laws to be made by a father whose son is privileged to be the President. I don’t want my nation’s armed forces to be confused on who really there Commander in Chief is .I believe that the mystery of the Holy Trinity should end in the spiritual sphere of God the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and not extend to the political of sphere in form of the selfish trinity of the father’s President, the Son and the daughter. It is only in a tortoise economy like ours where growth is so slow or non-existent that people personalize governance and economic resources to this magnitude.





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