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Former minister of sports, former member of the House of Representatives, and former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Isah Bio was a close associate of the late strongman of Kwara politics, Senator Olusola Saraki and his son, Senator Bukola Saraki.
In this interview, Bio narrates his point of departure with Bukola Saraki and gives reasons why he wont follow him into the new PDP. Excerpts:
SENATOR Bukola Saraki, is now a leader of the aggrieved members of the new Peoples Democratic Party(nPDP). Are you with him in that boat?
With all intent and purposes I am not with him and I am not going to be with the new PDP. I belong to the PDP and I don’t believe in the struggle or the ideals of the new PDP.
When they came up with the issue of the new PDP, I believed it was ill-timed, ill-conceived and very selfish, in every organization, there are supposed to be grievances and misunderstanding; there are supposed to be some sort of disaffection. But you don’t tear an organization because you are not getting your issues addressed.
There are structured ways of addressing grievances in any organization, including your house.
*Bio
Again, those people that are complaining or aggrieved most of them have presidential ambitions. I know the Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu has a presidential ambition. It is not a secret that Sule Lamido has presidential ambition. It is not a secret that Dr. Bukola Saraki has presidential ambition; neither is it a secret that Rabiu Kwankwaso has presidential ambition and they believe the best way to go about this is to first of all get rid of President Goodluck Jonathan who is the current President and the coast will be clear for them.
You were a close ally of late Olusola Saraki and Governor Bukola Saraki. Did he not take you into confidence on the agitations?
Regrettably, I don’t think Bukola Saraki trusts me as much as Baba Saraki did. I have personal issues which I’m not ready to discuss at this moment because I’ve followed Bukola Saraki and I’ve come to a conclusion that this is a man who does not trust me the way Baba trusted me.
Political infringement
I tried to belong, but invariably, I found out that I wasn’t fitting into his system. So, I stayed back. For instance, way back in 2003, I was in the House of Reps when Baba Saraki said I should leave the House of Reps. He initially promised that I was going to the Senate. But later, he came back and said please can you come back to serve the people because I don’t want the kind of political infringement I had with late Lawal.
That is why people unanimously agreed that Dr. Saraki should bring Bukola on board to be the next Governor so that he wouldn’t have crisis with any other Governor and he said he wanted somebody with experience and whom he trusts to come and handle the House of Assembly and I accepted.
I left the House of Reps and became the Speaker of Kwara Assembly for six years. But the same Baba who told me that if by the grace of God governorship comes to my area, he was grooming me up later said he needed to give me national exposure. That was why he asked me to be Minister. Before the 2011 election, I sat down together with Bukola and I said, can I put in if it is the wish of God to succeed you. He said go ahead. I bought the form. But later, Bukola Saraki denied that he ever asked me to buy the form.
Then I went to meet President Jonathan because I was serving as Minister of Sports under him at that time. I followed President Jonathan to the Christmas Carol of 2010. After the Christmas Carol, I followed him to the house. I said Mr. President, I have discussed with Bukola Saraki and he endorsed that I should buy the governorship form.
So, I’m going flag off my campaign. Goodluck Jonathan praised Bukola and prayed that he is helping out like father to a son and that if he has made up his mind that I will succeed him, it will be very nice and he will feel Kwara is his second home and he will talk to Bukola Saraki.
I left, flagged off my campaign and I asked all Kwarans to elect me as governor. It was the mother of all campaigns, only for Bukola Saraki to call me around 2.00 am on the night of the primaries and said he had decided to zone to Kwara South and give it to Abdufattah Ahmed. I took it in its stride. After all, it’s not everything that one wishes that one would get.
But while I expected Bukola to have called me and said okay, it’s not everything you look for that you get, and sooth the balm of all the injuries he has caused me, he continued to treat me like a cancerous part of the body.
Apart from that, he promised to refund my campaign money. But up till today, he has not and it has been very well known in Kwara State that anybody close to me in Kwara has never been given any appointment, whether as SA or even a Commissioner or Assistant. Even the ward Chairman in my place, anybody close to me, they make sure he is eliminated.
So, I decided that let me stay aloof and watch. So, that is the difference between’s Baba’s leadership and Dr Bukola Saraki. Bukola Saraki’s leadership is the leadership of annihilation; break them and extinct them. If Baba offends you, he will call you and one way or the other sooth you and make you feel that you are important and you go ahead fighting a common cause for the party.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/11/wont-follow-saraki-npdp-bio-former-minister-sports/#sthash.IEWs8yzl.dpuf
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