KWARA 2015: Are the Sarakis struggling for survival?

The two most prominent children of the late elder
statesman, Senator Olusola Saraki: Senators Bukola Saraki
and sister, Senator Gbemisola Ruqqayat Saraki are fighting
from different angles for lead position in the affairs of their
father’s political patrimony. Could they both lose out?
BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI
These are not the best of times for Senator Gbemisola
Ruqqayat Saraki, GRS as she is fondly called by her
admirers. GRS is still unrelenting in the grudge war with
Brother Bukola over the latter’s leading role in stopping her
gubernatorial pursuit in 2011. Besides fighting Bukola, she
is now engaged with her male
counterparts in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for
supremacy in the opposition party.
Despite her political acumen, her name is becoming a
rallying point for all those who claim that it is time to see
the back of the Sarakis in Kwara State.
It was no surprise that when she was slated for ministerial
appointment that almost all senior PDP officials put aside
their many differences to oppose the proposal. But that did
not deter Gbemi who successfully installed her people as
chairman, secretary and woman leader of the state chapter
of the PDP.
Gbemi was to discover to her chagrin that the chairman,
Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo who was once her loyalist would be
taken from her grip by her rivals in the PDP.
The opposition against her nonetheless, Gbemi is
unrelenting and has upped the ante by her decision to
contest for the gubernatorial ticket of the PDP.
She is for now the only female aspirant even in both
political parties, and is contending with other prominent
political gladiators for the PDP ticket. Among those in
contention for the PDP ticket are the Alhaji Jani Ibrahim, an
astute industrialist who though is having his first shot but
is showing impressive capacity, Muhammed Dele Belgore
SAN who was the candidate of the defunct Action Congress
of Nigeria, ACN in the last gubernatorial election and
Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola who also participated in
the last primaries but was made to step down for Governor.
Ahmed.
Also in the race is Senator Simeon Ajibola who is in his
third term in the Senate and Professor Shuaib Oba
Abdulraheem, Deacon John Dara, Comrade Ben Duntoye
and Abdulrazaq Abdulraham.
While Gbemi struggles the stress from her rivals in the PDP,
her brother, Bukola is also challenged by the determination
of the PDP hierarchy in Abuja to grab the political levers of
the state from him. Bukola is especially targeted on account
of his leading role in fragmenting the PDP before his exit to
the APC. It is thus like a grudge match between him and the
president.
Bukola is also of interest to Abuja because of the
discomfiture he gave the administration in being the first
person to expose the multi trillion naira subsidy scam in the
downstream petroleum sector.
After several months of deep cogitation, Bukola brought the
anxieties of Governor Ahmed to an end with an
endorsement for a second term.
Speaking after an all night meeting with major stakeholders
three weeks ago, Saraki said: “It’s not rumour, it’s true that
I endorsed him for second term of another   four years.
From my own view, I believe he has performed very well, he
has  been able to bring physical developments to the state
despite paucity of funds, and he has been able to
consolidate on the legacies I left behind,” the immediate
former governor said before adding the clincher on Ahmed,
“He has (also) been completely loyal”
“When we moved from PDP to APC, he gave all the
cooperation we needed”. He continued, “my endorsement of
Governor Ahmed for a second term was not accidental. He
worked for it, he merited it because he has performed
creditably well”.
Bukola’s endorsement of Ahmed was despite the
permutations that were on Bolaji Abdullahi who sacrificed
his position as a minister because of his loyalty to Bukola
and the long persistent shadow of the speaker of the House
of Assembly, Abdulrazaq Atunwa. Both men are expected to
remain loyal and would not rock the boat by contesting the
primaries with Governor Ahmed.
Their submission to the will of Bukola nonetheless, the
former governor is still expected to have a difficult time
trying to retain his political hegemony given her own
sister’s desperate attempt to even scores from the other
side. A man’s enemies are members of his own household.