TRIBUTE:At 53, The Bridge-Builder is Still Constructing

By Yusuph Olaniyonu.

 

The venue was one of the Banquet Halls in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Date was November 25 and the event was the dinner held by President Muhammadu Buhari for Senators, the first since the National Assembly was inaugurated last June.

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki had just surprised every one, including the host, President Muhammadu Buhari. Without looking at any paper, he introduced all his colleagues, about a hundred of them, by names and constituency. He also did not miss any. He got a standing ovation from his colleagues, in addition to a presidential handshake. The fellow sitting next to me remarked: “this man is brilliant”. I did not know when I proudly told him that “you don’t read medicine and graduate from the University of London, if you are not cerebral”.

I do not know anybody who went to school at the time I did in the 80s who will not agree with me that only the most extremely brilliant ones made it to the College of Medicine and graduated to become a medical doctor. Many who make comments about Dr. Saraki today simply talk about him as a politician, perhaps one with a privileged background. However, analyzing the man in the context of politics and his family does not do justice to the topic.

It is true that Saraki as a politician has a unique place in Nigerian political history. He is the only Senator today whose father was elected Senator twice (the old man was even the Senate Leader between 1979 and 1983) and his immediate younger sister had also served as Senator for two terms while he himself is on his second term as a Senator. Three Senators from a nuclear family! That is a rarity in a Nigeria still bogged down by zoning formula instead of competence.

However, the incumbent President of the Nigerian Senate is a man who has earned his stripes. Those who know him closely can testify that he is a hard worker, very diligent on any assignment he is handling and expects same from those who work with him. A man who gives attention to details. He is also a man who believes in strategizing before handling any task. He often asks: ‘what is your plan for accomplishing this task?. He is not a man who underrates his opponent. He believes in thorough preparation before any engagement.

From the quality and caliber of his staff, the time devoted to National Assembly tasks as Senate President, the initiatives that have emerged in the six months that he has been Senate President and Chairman of National Assembly and the global networking that he has done on behalf of the Nigerian state and the institution that he leads, it is clear that he had prepared for the job that he has now. Also, it is obvious that his colleagues have not made any mistake in their staunch support for him.

He is always saying to us, his aides, that it is easy to be in an office and just be bogged down by the routines without making any significant difference until the tenure will expire. Only a man who cares about his own place in history reasons like that. So, that is why he is vigorously pursuing the idea of the eighth Senate having an Agenda which will be its compass and guides it till 2019. He has also ensured that there is an Adhoc committee on compliance which is to monitor the 65 committees set up by the Senate. This Adhoc committee is to ensure that members of the standing ones deliver on their mandate while also keeping to the rules of the Senate in their engagement with Ministries, Department and Agencies as well as other external bodies or individuals.

Definitely, he is determined to be one of the most successful Senate Presidents ever and this guides most of his activities on the job. First, a journalist who has been covering the Senate in the last 12 years described him as the most hard working and energetic Senate President he has seen. Of course, he is also the youngest and one of the few who can be called home-grown Senate President. He assumed office and has been sustained solely by the sheer force of support from his colleague-senators. The journalist said past Senate Presidents would never come to the National Assembly complex on days that are not meant for plenary sitting. That is Monday and Friday. Like when he was a banker or as Governor of Kwara State, Monday to Friday are work days in the office, except he is out of town, mostly on official duties. Even when out of town, he runs the office from wherever he is as he dishes out assignments to aides and expects them to report to him from time to time.

On Mondays, since there is no plenary sitting of the Senate, he schedules courtesy calls and stakeholder engagement appointments as well as other crucial meetings for that first working day of the week. Two of the meetings are worthy of mention here. The first is the senior staff meeting in which he meets his key aides to plan the time table for the week.

Here, his schedule – legislative, social and political- are pre-arranged. Here too, the shape of the issues, agenda, proposed bills, motions and other plan for the Senate in the new week will first be deliberated upon and reviewed. The outcome of this meeting helps to set the tone for the second crucial meeting later in the residence. That is with the Senate leadership. The first meeting also allowed the man to review and shape the plan of each of the units in his office for the week.

The senior staff meeting, for example, is such a serious session in which the Economic Adviser addresses the meeting on key economic issues for the week. The Legal Adviser is called upon to give the position of the law on raging issues and yours truly speak on issues trending in the media and what narrative is prevalent.

The second meeting enables the ten-man Senate leadership to agree on a time table for the week and the strategy for achieving smooth and productive sessions. In addition to this meeting, the leadership also meet before the commencement of every plenary session to finalize the contents of the order paper.