Buhari and Saraki..

By Pius Adesanmi

I have now listened to Bukola Saraki’s new soundcloud audio of an address in Yoruba to his supporters in Ilorin. It is indeed a galling tell-all, a compelling compendium of his grievances and animus against President Buhari.

Predictably, Buharideens are gushing all over Facebook and Twitter. I suppose they see this in their usual one-track way: Saraki is implicating himself. Evidently, they have not thought through the full implications of Saraki’s revelations: they never think through the implications of anything concerning Buhari.

There is nothing Saraki reveals about himself that we don’t already know: cold, calculating, and irredeemably corrupt, with a warped perspectivization of Nigeria as food to be dished out in a gourmandizing system of patronage. His grievance? Buhari is blocking the yam and the knife after receiving the proceeds of jibiti.

The level of self-implication in corruption by Saraki is why Buharideens are gushing. “Of 36 states”, Bukola Saraki boasts on tape, “I funded Buhari’s election in 30, excluding only the Southwest. I gave N200m, N300m, even N400million to some states, personally phoning bank managers for disbursement.”

Pius Adesanmi

This is not Bukola’s father’s money. It is Nigeria’s money that this irresponsible man is claiming to have so wantonly distributed to buy an election for Buhari. Only for things to turn sour after the election: all the juicy appointments he hoped to corner for his cronies in Abuja were denied him by Buhari.

To the Buharideens gushing all over the place, where in this audio clip did Bukola Saraki indicate that your god, Mr. Integrity, Mr. No Corruption, rejected this massive and illicit spending of Nigeria’s funds in his behalf? Remember the saying about the giver & receiver of loot? You are so carried away in your one-track, wishy-washy interpretation of the audio that the obvious implication is lost on you: Saraki is in fact openly saying that Buhari did not honour the ancient code of honour among thieves.

I hate to rain on your parade but Buhari does not come out smelling of roses in these revelations. Like Saraki, he comes out smelling of shit, deep shit. You people must always make Buhari the victim. Consider Adeosun. When she resigned, you whined that she embarrassed Baba by hanging on for too long – making Bubu the victim. The real question was: why did your Baba condone illegality for so long?

Here’s to a future Nigeria where Saraki and Buhari will both answer for the claims in that audio: corruption and campaign finance illegalities.

• Professor Pius Adesanmi is the Director, The Institute of African Studies (IAS) at Carleton University, Canada