Op-ed | Opposition general without troops

By Ibraheem Abdullateef

If one were to hear former Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki verbalising his statement of solidarity with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) following the defection of Delta Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, former vice-presidential candidate Ifeanyi Okowa, and all the party structure in the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC), you could mistake it for a battle cry of a general. I can guess this is what he himself thought, and wanted people to believe, of himself. Only that, of a truth, he is a general without troops.

The supposed national opposition leader doesn’t lead a single councillor in Kwara let alone a state assembly member. Like a cassava root without even the leaves to cover the stem, he casts a true picture of the PDP today: rejected, deserted, and left in the wilderness reminiscing in past glory.

Matter of factly, he also spoke rather badly in his press statement. I guess he forgot himself momentarily or was rather being himself. Instead of speaking to soothe old wounds and appeal for understanding, Saraki rather chose to give the middle fingers to those he should be seeking to convince to stay with his party. He thought he was better and wiser than anyone, watching arms akimbo, while a party he answers as its national leader depletes daily under his watch. And now, he says more people should even go that he will reposition the empty house. I know a few would sniger at that but I believe him. After all, we are all from Kwara.

Don’t laugh. Just look at Kwara PDP. Saraki is an expert at repositioning empires and parties from stardom to sawdust; mastery to misery; and prosperity to obscurity. Apart superintending the wholesale loss of elections in two consecutive cycles, the state chapter has lost virtually all the politicians of value in its rank. There is also no single politician apart from one frankly failing and flailing former surrogate rumoured may be joining the sinking ship. The same way no one is coming in at the national level, yet, it loses men everyday. But, hey, calm down, you asked for repositioning.

By the time national leader is done, I bet Nigerians will marvel. Kwarans will not be surprised, anyways. But the PDP will no longer be. And then, he will port to the APC too.

Did he not abandon the party in 2014 for personal political vovage? Those who know him have started saying they can see his back. They also cover their noses at the sticky, stinky hypocrisy he uses to criticise the Delta calvary and those who have chosen to join the Renewed Hope team with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Apart from media hype, where else is Saraki truly being exceptional? Initially being pushed by his followers, we have asked of account of stewardship in comparison with the strides of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to no avail. He doesn’t come close either as a Governor or NGF chair.

Kwarans have not been able to count the gains of his NGFship and the state is also just realising it got the short end of the stick for his senate presidency.

As my teacher had curtly submitted, less is more for the national leader.

One can understand the funny ways the Kwara PDP chairman Rt. Hon. Babatunde Mohammed dirges at the death of a party he was called to be his undertaker. He says the banana is ripening, when it is spoilt. He was summoned from retirement to do just that. Or who else can see any strongness, unity, or focus in a party people only say its name only with hands covering the lips?

But I doubt talk is desirable in the mouth of a general who lost his home, lost his troops, and is merely left with a voice no one listens to other than in his sitting room.

Abdullateef is Senior Special Assistant on Communication to Kwara Governor