Source: The Guardian
QUITE often, Kwara State governor, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, 48, is described as “the governor born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” He is, after all, the privileged first son of Chief Olusola Saraki, the, wealthy Godfather of Kwara politics. But not even his worst enemies would deny that Bukola Saraki might have been favoured by pedigree, he has earned respect and honours by rising above his favoured background and applying himself to any assignment by dint of hard work. Today in Abuja, he will receive the national honour of Commander of the Order of the (CON), the fourth highest of such honours and Saraki will be the first incumbent governor to be so honoured.
On the way to this honour, Saraki has been the high achieving governor of Kwara State and chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, a position he has held since 2007, after he won a second term as governor. In the last three years, the Forum has become more coordinated and united in articulating positions, a powerful lobby that often gets criticised but cannot be denied its plaudits as an instrument that has helped solve some national problems. Many thanks, it is said, to Saraki’s leadership abilities. Back in Kwara, where in 2003 Saraki became the fifth governor of the state, the citizenry till today praise his leadership and vision that have placed the state in the list of the most developed states even when it is the 34th in revenue collection from the federation purse.
At a meeting in Abuja with Bill Gates and members of the NGF
A former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly and a member of the Kwara State Elders Forum, Yissa Benjaim Ezekiel, said “only a blind man will visit Kwara today and fail to see the monumental development in the state. I never knew that the man was as good as we are seeing him now.”
After his swearing in, Saraki’s first task was to clean up Ilorin, the state capital. And long before Babatunde Fashola (SAN) made impressions with the greening of Lagos State, Saraki had done same in Kwara. The Ministry of Environment employed citizens to sweep the ancient town daily. It is the practice in all the councils in Kwara and this has earned the state the status ‘one of the cleanest capitals.’
He has developed strategies to enhance the socio political and economic developments in the state, encapsulated in the Kwara State Economic Empowerment Strategy (KWASEED). In education, strategies were worked out to improve the performance of Kwara pupils in national exams like NECO, WAEC and University Matriculation Exams (UME).
Ilorin at dusk
New overpass constructed at the centre of Ilorin
There is a remarkable development of infrastructure in health sector, roads, provision of potable water, rural electrification, sports, etc. In sports, he established a Football Academy, which affords talented Nigerians the opportunity of a formal education and development of the skills of football.
All the states in Nigeria cannot boast of uninterrupted power supply, but Kwara has done better than most with its Independent Power Project leading to a supply of 17 hours of electricity in many councils.
He constructed 350 housing units in a record time of two years, rehabilitated major dams to boost the waterworks. Computerisation of the civil service also had a pride of place in the Saraki government scheme of things.
One big project on road construction is the Baruteen/Kosubosu road, a federal road being constructed by the state at a cost of N30 billion. The road links the state with the neighbouring Benin Republic.
Ganmo power substation (exterior)
But it is perhaps in agriculture that Saraki has shamed his earlier critics, who had described his dream for the sector as unattainable. When Zimbawean president, Robert Gabriel Mugabe started nationalising white-owned farms, there was an exodus of whites out of the country. Saraki invited the white farmers to start commercial agriculture in Kwara and as a result, the first farm in Nigeria with 2000 hectares of cultivated land was established.
Talking about his forage in the sector, he had stated in a speech then: “As the largest employer of our people, agriculture remains the life-blood of our nation and the best guarantee of achieving sustainable economic development.
“I have a firm belief that improving the capacity of Nigerians to achieve development must be driven through a well-articulated strategy of developing Nigeria’s capacity in agriculture. Our dream of the new Nigerian farmer must be driven by a vision of a new Nigerian agriculture.
“When I became the governor in 2003, my first major concern was how to arrest the widespread poverty that I saw all around me. The first thing for me was to explore existing opportunities and how these opportunities could be employed to achieve quick results. I did not hesitate in accepting that the best entry-point we have for tackling poverty is through agriculture…”
He noted that there is need for a “radical approach and policy for agriculture if we must use agriculture to drive our poverty reduction efforts and create wealth.”
Harvest time at Shonga farms
Jersey cattle at the Shonga dairy farm
Inspecting poultry processing plant at Shonga
He had big dreams in the agricultural sector and he pursued them. He had said: “I have a dream of the new Nigerian farmer. And I believe that with all the initiatives and interventions I have outlined, that dream will someday soon become a reality.
“I dream of a day when farming would no longer be regarded as mere means of survival but as a business in its own right with all the potentials and possibilities that come with any other business.
“I dream of a day when graduates of accounting or banking and finance would prefer to own and run their own farms rather than seek banking jobs…
“I dream of a day when bankers would be milling around farms seeking business and competing for farmers’ bank accounts.
“I dream of a Nigerian tomato farmer who would not be satisfied with his job until he is able to process and package tomato puree and deliver it directly to the supermarkets.
“I dream of a day when the children of the rich will take to farming and the children of the poor will not seek to escape from the farm.” In Kwara today that dream appears to be taking on a full life.
Presenting certificate to a graduant of the Malete Youth Farm
A cross-section of graduants from the Malete Youth Farm
Born on December 19, 1962, he attended King’s College, Lagos (1973-1978) and Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, London (1979-1981) for his High School Certificate. He studied medicine at the London Hospital Medical College of the University of London (1982 - 1987), and obtained his M.B.B.S. He worked as a Medical Officer at Rush Green Hospital, Essex (1988-1989).
He was an Executive Director of Societe Generale Bank (Nig) Ltd from 1990-2000. He was later Special Assistant to the President on Budget in 2000.
His plans to venture into Business and Politics started in 1992 when he attended the London D. G. Gardner Advance Credit Analysis course; in 1993, he was at the London American Express Executive Management Programme and in 1997, he was at the Washington Course on Private & Public Sector Working Together. In 1998, he was in Malaysia for the Value & Vision: Socio-cultural Values and Implement for Economic Development Course. He crowned it later in the same year with a course on “Nigeria in the Global situation” at the Lagos Business School.
His impact on governance is testimony to his exposure.
Saraki’s leadership traits are not unnoticed even among his colleagues, where he is regarded as first among equals. When the debate over the successor to the late President Musa Yar’Adua reigned, it was not by coincidence that Saraki’s name featured among the names from the North. A former presidential aspirant during the aborted transition programme of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and a pioneer member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ibrahim Dan Musa once told an interviewer that: “We are rooting for a complete civilian president in the person of Dr. Bukola Saraki. He is a young boy; he has the political network. He has the political base, he has been the Chairman of Governor's Forum for the past three years and he has been tested, meeting with them. He has been able to co-ordinate them effectively and efficiently. He has all qualifications. He is coming from a private sector background, and you can see how he has transformed Ilorin metropolis because he set a target for himself and he is working towards it. Then, combining it with experience of being a governor of a state.”
Despite the insinuations that Saraki is not regarded as a core northerner, being half South Westerner and half northerner, he held the Governor’s Forum together to sort out the difficulties that arose from the long absence of Yar’Adua and the emergence of the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as President. An attribute, which even his critics recognise as his humility endeared him to some of his fellow governors, who felt that he was not taking undue advantage of his position as chairman of the Forum to chase an ambition.
And for the North to finish Yar’Adua’s term, Saraki, who is regarded as not carrying any baggage is seen as a marketable commodity from the North Central. Indeed a powerful lobby has since begun for the North to put its best forward whenever the Presidency is to back to the North and Saraki is believed to be the candidate a united front may back.
Even as the debate rages on who would be President in 2011, not a few people believe more will be heard of Saraki.
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