Pa Dr. Olusola Saraki: Warts & all • Yes! I’m Fulani from Mali • Why I never served military govt
By FEMI ADEOTI

Monday, August 17, 2009
Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, elderstatesman and chairman, Northern Union (NU), has spoken as never before. He practically opened up for close to two-and-a-half hours when he met with a group of selected journalists at his Abuja home recently.

Saraki


http://odili.net/news/source/2009/aug/17/514.html

He answered every question as much as he could, and clarified some “knotty” issues. He talked about his “real” origin, past military governments, why ex-civilian governors of Kwara State always rebuffed him after installation, NU, collapse of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term agenda, etc.

Excerpts:

Who is Saraki?

As you know, I am Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki. By profession, I am a medical practitioner but by accident, I found myself in politics and I don’t regret it in the sense that I am satisfied that I am doing what I like. I am happy with it even though the road has been very rugged and rough. But if you are honest and sincere, and this is what has happened to me, you will feel fulfilled. I have been very honest in politics and in life. I have been very sincere and very considerate and so I feel fulfilled and very satisfied.

I found myself in politics by accident because I am essentially a medical practitioner and I trained in one of the best medical schools. I was at the Saint George Medical College, University of London. When I was a student in London, I was a very active member of Nigerian Students Union. That was before Nigeria’s independence during the colonial days. I used to attend Nigerian Students’ meetings and I used to write a lot of articles such as those “Letters to the Editors” in the West African News Magazine which was popular at that time.

When I qualified as a medical doctor in 1962, I came back to Nigeria. I would have gone to Kaduna to practise medicine but I never did because I was angered by the refusal of the then Northern Regional Government to grant me scholarship to study medicine. The refusal was on the grounds that my parents could afford to train me and, so I too refused to go and work for the Northern government. I worked in Lagos at the General Hospital instead.

Later on, I joined the Peak Hospital from where I resigned my appointment in order to contest election into the Federal House of Representatives in 1964 as an independent candidate. Of course, I lost the election. The reason was that the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) was a very strong party which would not accept me as the official candidate. The leader of the party and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, announced that all the old members should be returned at the polls because the NPC believed that it was being threatened by the Action Group (AG). They believed that the devil they knew was better than the one they never met.

That decision was taken barely two weeks before the elections.

My people insisted that I must contest even if as an independent candidate because I was very popular with the people at that time. But we forgot the strength of the government and the party officials at that time. Two weeks before the elections, it was announced that nobody should vote for an independent candidate and that the Sardauna had a big mirror in his Kaduna office with which he could monitor anyone flouting the order. They voted for the official candidate and that was how I lost the election. But I was never daunted because I believed in what I was doing. I went back to my practice in Lagos and I was doing well in my medical practice until the return to party-politics in 1978/79.

Real identity

[b]My mother is from Iseyin in Oyo State, while my father is from Ilorin in Kwara State. My great-great grandfather originated from Mali and I am talking about some 150 to 200 years ago. And they are Fulani and that is where we got our Fulani connection from. My great grandfather settled in Ilorin preaching the religion of Islam. A section of Ilorin came from Gwandu and they were religious, but my people came there as practising Muslims from Mali with their own Quran. In fact, the Emir and I used to joke that we had our own Quran and that nobody gave us Quran. My great-grandfather brought our own Quran to Ilorin from Mali to Agbaji where we settled. The Agbaji quarters is about 200 to 300 years old. Over the years, religious piety and devotion have led the prohibition of drumming (in whatever circumstance) in the area.

But because of our connection with the Southern people, a lot of Yoruba are always in Ilorin and so we speak the same language.

If you look at the Ilorin people, the real Ilorin people like Saraki for example, the culture and their ways share affinity with those of the far Northern Nigeria. That accounts for the difference you observe between us and, particularly, people of the South-West, despite the existence, now, of Yoruba as a common language. I leave people to say whatever they like about me. Some people even say I am from Ogun State and some even say I am from Togo but I know where I am from. Even, not long ago, I had a letter inviting me to join in the formation of a Mali-Fulani Organization and that I should be its chairman.

What about your ancestral lineage? People have accused you of bearing Alhaji Abubakar Saraki when you needed votes from the North, Chief Olusola Saraki when you needed votes from the South-West and in the South-East and South-South, you answered Dr. Sola Saraki. How do you reconcile these differences?
[/b]
People are just reading political meanings to my actions. My Islamic name is Abubakar. When were growing up in Lagos in those days, unless you were a Christian or bore a native indigenous name, you couldn’t get a school. If I wanted to be admitted to a school, I had to drop Abubakar in favour of Sola as virtually all the schools belonged to Christian organizations. It is not correct that I was changing names to garner votes. Politicians invent those kinds of stories against their opponents. You, yourself, should know who you are.