Between Wale Bolorunduro And Bukola Saraki By Adeboye Adebayo

In Nigerian politics, the name Bukola Saraki is an house hold name while that of Wale Bolorunduro is relatively new.

However both of them have somethings in common, they have both worked at different banks at different time while Bukola Saraki is not a trained banker but a medical doctor, he had worked at boardroom level of his father’s collapsed family founded bank named Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria, SGBN and Wale Bolorunduro while I don’t know about his training as a banker or not he had however worked at the level of directorate at the evergreen Zenith Bank and also he is said to be a good friend to the current CBN governor; Godwin Emefiele who himself was of Zenith Bank before going to the apex bank.

Dr Wale Bolorunduro

Senate President, Bukola Saraki

Bukola Saraki’s father; Late Olusola Saraki was a political leader in Kwara State until his death before Bukola stepped into his shoes as the leader of Kwara politics and his father’s gesture earned him a position of governor in Kwara State for complete eight years after the mismanagement and eventual collapse of the family bank and other businesses with nothing to show for it except agony, poverty and disappointments in the life of the people but for him, within the eight years, he acquired more wealth, affluence, political strength and he was a powerful Chairman of the powerful Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum; NGF then and now a second termer at the Senate and the most powerful Senate President so far in the history.

Wale Bolorunduro came to the political limelight during the first term administration of our dear Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the Governor, State of Osun, when he was appointed as the Commissioner of Finance, a lot of people raised a lot of issues over his financial management acumen and/as the reasons why he did not make it to the cabinet the second time but that is not the story for today, the point here today is that Aregbesola brought him to the political limelight in the State of Osun and now he is currently a senatorial aspirant according to the reports from Osun East Senatorial District of the State of Osun.

Earlier this month, newspapers’ reports had it that the super rich Senate president Bukola Saraki graciously came to the rescue of some 432 students in Kwara Central and paid their 2018 WAEC fees amounting to a whooping sum of N10.8million naira. The rationale behind the payment as stated by his constituency office was to show that every child is important. How they arrived at the amount as WAEC fees for 432 students is not yet clear to me because the figure showed that 25, 000 naira is paid per child for WAEC fee.

And about the same time, a senatorial aspirant in the State of Osun distributed 300 JAMB scratch cards/forms to 300 students in Ife North Local government of the State. The rationale behind the gesture according to Wale Bolorunduro Foundation is to show the enormous love that Dr. Bolorunduro has for education. No figure was attached with this one in the report that I saw.

One can partly appreciate Wale Bolorunduro for this gesture because report has it that his foundation was financing an extra mural class for the students where he is personally teaching them Mathematics and Physics plus the fact that he has left office and that was the best he could do at the time since he is out office and all of these must be done to win enough sympathy among the people to get him to the office.

Though what he did to alleviate people’s poverty and sufferings while in office as a political office holder is not reported in the news but what he is doing now in terms of “assisting people” is being reported adequately for obvious reasons however what he intends to do when he gets to office is not being reported, may be that is not important, after all our people don’t really care about what people intends to when they get to office but what we can get now before they get to office, abi? Anyway, story for another day.

I don’t appreciate Bukola Saraki at all, though the people of Kwara Central may appreciate him for who they are but for me as a young politician who believes in the constructive empowerments of the people and the total emancipation of human race will NEVER appreciate a politician who has acquired ocean of water and using tea cup to give water to the people once in a while.

Because it shows how people of his class are capitalising on the high poverty level of the people and taking the advantage of it to score cheap political goals.

Going by what is available to Saraki in cash and he truly believes that every child is important as claimed by his constituency office, every school children in Kwara State should acquire qualitative primary and secondary education for free.

One expects Bukola Saraki and his likes to use the huge cash available to them to establish viable business for people to earn quality daily bread.

One expects Bukola Saraki and his likes to pool finances together and establish companies that will provide sustainable jobs for the people of Kwara and take them out of the shackles of poverty.

Nigerian youths expects the powerful Saraki’s senate to legislate robustly and constructively on how to create jobs and wealth for them. We expect Saraki’s senate to legislate and monitor CBN in disbursing the Agricultural loans that many of us real need but that had become only accessible on papers and the media.

One expect a two term governor, a former NGF Chairman, a two term Senator and a Senate President for that matter to know how to facilitate scholarships for the people of his constituency and beyond, home and for good education if truly he believes every child is important.

If all of these can be done and achieved by Abubakah Bukola Saraki, he would have been a role model, a leader by example and a lot of people will not need his so called gesture to pay WAEC fees, knowing fully well he will not be there to pay JAMB fees or the eventual tertiary school fees.

But with all of the above in place, people would have been socially stable and financially sustainable to pay the fees of their children and other necessary bills.

From what our own leaders teach us in our own political camp, we were made to learn that politics is only meaningful when it is directed at solving peoples’ problems.

Hence, I call on Bukola Saraki and his likes to stop giving us fish but they should make ponds available for us because we already know how to fish.

*_Adeboye Adebayo is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress; APC, The National Publicity Secretary of Asiwaju Grassroots Foundation; AGF, Leader of youths, a Tinubuist in principle & ideology and a Raufist to the core._*