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A new political era seems to have emerged in Kwara State with
the decimation of the political machinery of Olusola Saraki, the hitherto
strong man of the state’s politics by the victory of the People’s Democratic
Party in Tuesday’s governorship election.

Besides that, the political rivalry between the leader of the
Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and his son, Bukola Saraki, who is the
state governor, seems to have been resolved – naturally.

Following the older Saraki’s endorsement of his daughter,
Gbemisola Saraki, currently a senator, to aspire to be the state’s PDP
governorship candidate, a gulf emerged between the duo of the father and
daughter, on the one hand, and the governor on the other, with their loyalists
across the state divided on both sides.

Mr Saraki, popularly referred to as ‘Oloye’ by his loyalists, is
well known for determining the political fate of Kwarans since the creation of
the state in 1967. It was gathered that no governor has ever governed the state
without his consent, ranging from the military administrators to the
democratically elected governors.

Although the governor made efforts to reach an understanding
with his father, he was not successful, as his father was determined to make
his daughter the next governor of the state. When that became difficult, he
defected to the ACPN, along with his daughter, to achieve his aim.

Unfortunately for the political icon, end has finally come to
his political struggle as he conceded victory to his son in the just concluded
governorship election in the state.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate, Mohammed Dele Belgore,
had also threatened the authority of Mr Saraki by standing out to unseat the
ruling party as well as defeat the kingmaker. Following the collapse of an
attempted alliance between the ACN and the ACPN, Mr Saraki’s hope of remaining
the father of governors in the state was cut short.

End of an era

Mr Saraki, a Second Republic Senate leader and Waziri of Ilorin,
was born on the 17th of May, 1933, in Ilorin, Kwara State. His mother was from
Iseyin in Oyo State and his father from Ilorin. His paternal ancestors were
Fulanis who came from Mali about 150 to 200 years earlier.

He was educated at Eko Boys High School. He attended the
University of London, and St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London. He
worked as a medical officer at the General Hospital, Lagos, and the Creek
Hospital, Lagos.

In 1977, Mr Saraki was elected a member of the Constituent
Assembly that produced the 1979 constitution. In 1979, he was elected a Senator
of the Second Republic, and later became Senate leader. In 1983, he was re-elected
into the Senate under the platform of the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

He then sponsored Adamu Attah, who emerged as the governor
between 1979 and 1983. Mr Attah’s inability to meet up with some laid down
rules and his attempt to seek re-election in 1983 led to crises between him and
his godfather, Mr Saraki.

Mr Saraki eventually declared his support for the then Unity
Party of Nigeria (UPN) candidate, Cornelius Adebayo, on the eve of the election
and this led to the downfall of the NPN in the race.

In 1998, Mr Saraki became a national leader and member of the
board of trustees of the All People’s Party (APP), contributing to the party’s
success in Kwara and Kogi States. He assisted Mohammed Alabi Lawal in becoming
governor of Kwara State.

Following a disagreement between him and Mr Lawal, Mr Saraki
switched allegiance to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and in the 2003
elections supported his son, Bukola Saraki, as candidate for governor of Kwara
State, and his daughter as senator for Kwara State Central.

With his son’s two-term tenure coming to an end in May, 2011,
and in a bid to continue calling the shots in the state’s politics, he threw
his weight behind his daughter’s quest to take over from her brother as
governor of Kwara.

But this has finally proved impossible, a situation analysts say may have
ended the political dominance of the state by Mr Saraki, and indeed rendered
the Saraki political dynasty irrelevant in the scheme of things in the state.