Crowning glory for Oloye
By Sani Zorro
Friday, April 21, 2006

Whenever the family biographer applies himself to the task, he is sure to stumble on a huge body of data and information - the kind he did not originally bargain for. A biographer will simply be overwhelmed by the footprints of the Oloye, which dot the Nigerian landscape like wireless telecommunication masts.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, ‘Oloye’ is the common denominator with which he is known among his followers, especially in present day Kwara, Kogi and parts of Niger states. Oloye refers to ‘the holder of a traditional title’. But in the case of Dr. Abubakar Sola Saraki – the best known bearer of this title - he had since lost his name at birth to this immensely popular alias among his fanatical supporters and well wishers.

Today, therefore, he is the only traditional chief eulogised and popularly known as such, as if all other Oloyes are fake. Not even the ‘Wazirin Ilorin’ (traditional prime minister of Ilorin is as hugely popular as the Oloye. Or, ‘The Leader’ as Dr. Saraki has come to be known in Nigeria’s political lingo since his colourful reign as Senate Majority Leader during the Second Republic.

Indeed, the Fulani/Yoruba in Kwara state must have pleasantly discovered by now that the concept of Oloye as it affects Dr. Sola Saraki has now been expanded to encompass all the achievements and the greatness he has attained in the fields of business and politics, which in the last forty years, have combined to overshadow his first calling as a physician.

And so like the ordinary title of Sardauna at the beginning, Dr. Saraki has since conferred a pedigree on the concept of Oloye, such that its future bearers would inherit a value-added stool on to which its original owner had brought stupendous goodwill and image that looms larger than life. For, in the case of Dr. Saraki, his name is daily on the lips of people who are yet to encounter him than those he sees everyday.

When penultimate Saturday, therefore, the Federal University of Technology (FUTA), Minna, conferred on him the award of Doctor of Technology (Honorari causa), it was a crowning glory for the 72-year-old statesman, who, like a colossus, has bestrode our political landscape in a gripping manner, such that I doubt if his legendary name would take no less than another 72 years to fade from our country’s memory.

Although my knowledge of him is rather limited, I have good reasons for saying that Dr. Saraki is indeed an official biographer’s delight, any day. Watching him at court in his ‘palace’ in Ilorin is itself an effortless education. As a first time visitor, you cannot help your jaws from dropping in endless amazement. For, the ceaseless activities around his house to which himself is a prisoner, are breath-taking and spectacular.

Someone with a sense of comparative history has already helped to capture the essential Saraki philosophy on a billboard, just outside his Ilorin home. Flowing from the popular Moncada defence trial of the Cuban Leader, Dr. Fidel Castro (later entitled: ‘History Will Absolve Me’, by his biographer), half the giant billboard screams with the message: ‘History Will Vindicate Me’ with an interfacing portrait of the Oloye.

The message that hits you from this billboard does not only tell you of his staying power in the politics of his native Kwara, but much more: why he can uproot Governors with ease, why it is impossible to uproot him and why as a kingmaker (not a Godfather), a nomination form from him into any post in Kwara state can be traded on the floor of the Lagos Stock Exchange!

Born to a kolanuts merchant, he was bankrolled by the senior Saraki and patriarch of the family to finish his secondary and university education in England between 1951and 1962. And even though he had met with a visiting Sardauna Ahmadu Bello along with fellow Northern Nigerian students in England, he failed to secure a Northern Nigerian scholarship for the excusable reason that his father was rich!

And so, Dr. Saraki became one of the few in the world to suffer discrimination on account of his wealthy pedigree, and not poverty as is usually the case. He returned to Nigeria to work at both General and Creek hospitals in Lagos, after qualifying as a physician.

What then propels the Oloye into national significance, yet allows him to double conveniently as a Northern leader? Why is he more at home with the North, in the field of politics, but with fellow Lagosians, in business? Dr. Saraki is surely a product of his unique experience.
He treasures his Fulani ancestry with uncompromising pride and affection although he would seem to have lost the Fulani language itself, to the dominant Yoruba of Ilorin. Incidentally, the Fulani’s point of entry into Nigeria was from our Northern fringes before they travelled southwards.

In his circumstance therefore, Dr. Saraki cannot dump his past. And even if he were to pretend otherwise, there is no way he can shake off his lanky physique, change the warm but shy, and handsome countenance permanently etched on his face. Or the deep attachment he has to the holy Qur’an – all of them remarkable features unique to the Fulani in West Africa.

Yet, I have never observed that he could have contempt for his Yoruba identity from the maternal side. With his late mother from Iseyin in today’s Oyo state, he symbolises that intangible, but solid investment in Nigeria’s unity. He is one leader, who, on account of his circumstance and wealth of experience is not given to, and cannot afford to discriminate on either religious or tribal platforms.

Nobody would go in, or out of Dr. Saraki’s study in Lagos without wondering whether he was not in a Second-generation university library. If the academics at FUTO would pay frequent visits to this Library therefore, there is no doubt that they would uplift the academic standards of their university to even greater heights.

But perhaps Dr. Saraki’s inexhaustible story and footprints in politics, philanthropy and leadership are what his biographer would find amazingly overwhelming. Although he has rejected those aspects of Kayode Soyinka’s unauthorised book about him as they affected his funding of the defunct NPN (National Party of Nigeria), in the Second Republic, the book would nonetheless launch you into the mindset of this enigma and modern-day Midas.
In Ilorin, market women believe that a start-up capital from his blessed hands will lead to a boom in their businesses. In the field of electoral politics, Dr. Saraki’s invincibility has not been demystified as he has thrice installed governors in Kwara, and removed an equal number of them almost effortlessly.

His sympathy and high regard for his female supporters is both profound and emotional. One day, he pointed to an elderly but unlettered woman and told this writer, how he would have supported her to become Governor if it were to be possible.

Hers was a moving story of principle, loyalty and solidarity which the Leader never gets tired of sharing with visitors.

His philosophy of ‘politics devoid of violence’ is indeed at the heart of his differences with fellow politicians in the old south-west. May be because of his orientation to handle life with the greatest care as a physician, Dr. Saraki cannot just stand violence. That is why he did not find it difficult to walk away smiling from the convention of the All Peoples Party (now ANPP), in Kaduna, in 1999, after his presidential ambition was short-changed even without recourse to due process.

Certainly, if he had given in to the anger and agitation of his supporters at the over charged venue of that event, only God would know how many lives would have been lost.
The story of Saraki’s attachment to his people is deep and began with philanthropic activities in Ilorin in the 1960’s, when he treated patients free, stuffed government hospitals with medicines and drilled boreholes for the poor. His perseverance and untiring spirit to share from his wealth and knowledge over the decades is the secret of his longevity in the hearts and minds of his people.

In the class of late Dr. Aminu Kano, Michael Oparah and others of his stature, Dr. Saraki is probably the only living Nigerian politician with such popular appeal.

It is this unparalleled commitment to the cause of humanity that the entire academic community of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, and by implication the people of Niger state and Nigeria as a whole, recognised and rewarded by staking their integrity on behalf of Dr. Saraki.

What a crowning glory for the Oloye!