The political machinery has been unleashed by the Bukola Saraki secret vanguard following his clearance of the Senate president by the Supreme Court on charges of money laundering, asset declaration and others. This has finally established him as a master dribbler who will always pull surprises when it is least expected. It is believed that he was already aware of what the judgement will be, and he immediately started to prepare the groundwork for it. First, a Lawyer and human rights activist, Kanmi Ajibola, and Sulaiman Adeniyi had approached an Osun Federal High court to ask for the court to compel the National Assembly to begin Buhari impeachment, a plea the court acquiesced to and the presiding judge, Justice Oyetenu, ruled that “that the National Assembly being the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents commence the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari”. While the ripples are yet to settle, the Supreme court ruled that Saraki has no case to answer in the controversial code Of Conduct Tribunal trials, thereby removing the last obstacle that may have been hindering his launching of his ambition. Simultaneously, the All Progressives Congress, APC, got split right down in the middle, forming a new group that called itself the reformed APC, or r-APC. This cleared the last huddle the proposed decampees of APC, the group that previously decamped from PDP in the wake of the 2015 presidential election that produced the swing vote that brought president Buhari to power. They are generally referred to as the nPDP. Constitutionally, they cannot decamp unless there is a split within the party that they are decamping from.
But the impeachment may not hold. It has been alleged in some quarters that Saraki has been a major obstacle in the impeachment move based on two reasons. One: Saraki was one of those who bankrolled the election campaign of Buhari, and may not deem it fit to fight what he installed. But the humiliation her has passed through under the regime was enough to change his mind, but unconfirmed reports indicate that his woes came from the APC National leader, Bola Tinubu, who has not forgiven him the coup that brought him into the Senate Presidency against his own candidate. Another issue is the possibility of a coup if the impeachment holds, since the security apparatus is fully occupied by Buhari loyalists who, apart from a few, are known to be Fulani irredentists.
Bukola has kept sealed lips over his presidential ambition. Though it has been speculated, he gave no indication that he is interested. Rather, he has given the impression he will prefer to come back to the Senate. In fact, in his meeting with Atiku Abubakar in Saudi Arabia, he agreed with Abubakar that he does not have any particular candidate in mind, that any one that clinches the nomination will have his backing-whether it is Rabiu Kwankwaso, Atiku or any other person. But no sooner had the Supreme Court judgement came than he indicated interest in the presidency. This took others by surprise, but he appeared unperturbed. He immediately went on consultation spree, which took him to the strong man of Rivers, Nyesom Wike. He was in Rivers State where he commissioned some projects and had a closed door meeting with Governor Wike.
