Celebrating Bukola Saraki@ 61

Few days ago, former Senate President,Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was 61 years old. As supporters of the former Kwara state governor, we are joining his lovely family to appreciate God Almighty for the grace of leadership bestowed on him to have served Kwara State and Nigeria meritoriously in the capacities he did. Born in 1962 to the legendary political family of the late Abubakar Saraki, the second republic Senate leader, Bukola attended the Kings College, Lagos, and Chelttenham College, London and later trained as a medical doctor at the London Hospital Medical College, London, where he obtained the M.B.B.S degree in 1987.

He practiced medicine in Rush Green Hospital, Essex, from 1988 to 1989 before returning to Nigeria to an illustrious career in business and politics. He was Executive Director and later, Executive Vice Chairman, Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN).

In the year 2000 he was appointed Special Assistant on Budget Matters by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo where he initiated the Fiscal Responsibility Bill and served on the Economic Policy Coordination Committee, and together with others, responsible for the formulation and implementation of several key economic policies for Nigeria.He was elected Governor of Kwara State in 2003, and served for two terms of eight years, transforming the state in many areas such as agriculture, aviation, infrastructure, education, health, During his tenure as Governor, Dr. Saraki transformed many aspects of Kwara State and delivered major reforms for the benefit of its citizens.

His achievements while in office include: His administration recorded a lot of landmark achievements in many sectors including health, education and agriculture, just to mention a few.

HEALTH

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The Saraki administration was the first in Nigeria to introduce home based health record book which guaranteed the access of pregnant women to a comprehensive package of healthcare starting from antenatal care and ensuring continuous care throughout pregnancy, delivery, early infancy and childhood up until the child’s fifth birthday.

The Saraki administration also implemented a statewide polio Programme which culminated in a zero-level prevalence of the Wild Polio Virus (WPV). The state under the administration achieved over 90 percent coverage in routine immunizations, significantly higher than the national average of 80 percent. The extensive coverage in the National Immunisation Programme ( NIP) for routine immunization then made Kwara remained polio-free despite its being surrounded by states that still have cases of WPV. It initiated the Community Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) to make quality healthcare services readily available, accessible, acceptable and to provide health insurance to the informal sector, largely in the rural areas. 39, 676 people initially enrolled and they only pay an annual fee of N300 (less than the current naira equivalent of a dollar) a year. The scheme is a tripartite arrangement with the Dutch Government represented by PharmAccess, Kwara State Government and another private sector healthcare company. It was the first of such partnership with a foreign government in the country. The administration conceived, built and equipped the Kwara Advanced Medical Diagnostic Centre, a state of the art Centre with imaging and laboratory divisions, complete with a 64-slice CT scanner, 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner, ultra-sound, echocardiograms, mammograms and routine X-rays machine based in Ilorin as part of a holistic vision for improving the healthcare delivery system of the state and serving as a referral diagnostic Centre for all the states in North Central Nigeria. The project initiated in 2010 was eventually commissioned in December 2012. In his time as Governor, maternal mortality rate fell from 98 per 1000 to 45 per 1000 while that of infant mortality rate fell from 103/1000 to 53/1000. This was achieved through increased immunization, provision of more health facilities, sensitization of the people, provision of portable water and environmental development.

EDUCATION

The focus of the administration was on qualitative, accessible and affordable education for all the citizens of Kwara State.The Saraki administration employed the enforcement of school attendance, additional recruitment and redistribution, especially among rural and urban schools, to dramatically reduce actual pupil – qualified teacher ratio from 34: 1 in 2006 to 13: 1 in 2009 for primary, from 50: 1 to 19: 1 for junior secondary school and 45: 1 to 16: 1 for senior secondary. In 2008, Kwara Govt started an initiative called Teacher Development Needs Assessment (TDNA) under which 23,000 teachers sat for a competency test in literacy and numeracy to determine the level of retraining they needed. The State Schools Improvement Team (SSIT) was formed to train and support Schools Support Officers (SSO) who in turn began to provide ongoing support and training to teachers. The Saraki administration also invested in procurement of core textbooks which led to a 1: 1 textbook pupil ratio for primary schools in 2009 from the 4: 1 ratio of 2006. The Book Revolving Initiative for Schools (BREINS) introduced in 2005, has also continued to ensure access to textbooks for all junior and senior secondary school students. The Saraki administration established the Kwara State University (KWASU) in 2009 as a response to the growing irrelevance and dwindling capacity of tertiary education in Nigeria. Its mandate was to balance global perspective with community relevance and therefore to demonstrate its capacity to drive progress by producing global citizens for community development.

It introduced innovation in specialist education with the establishment of the International Aviation College (IAC), the first State owned aviation college in NIgeria. The IAC has trained over 100 Nigerian pilots in five years. Most of them are now flying for leading Nigerian aviation companies.

ECONOMY WITH EMPHASIS ON AGRICULTURE

The emphasis of the Saraki administration was to encourage large scale commercial farming as a way of revolutionizing food production. It therefore brought in 13 Zimbabwean farmers among those kicked out of Zimbabwe by then President Robert Mugabe to establish the Shonga Farms, in Kwara State.

This was a symbolic move indicating that why is good for Africa stays in Africa. It was also a bold attempt to introduce large scale commercial farming, the first of its kind in the country and make local farmers borrow new techniques, modern technology and efficient operational system from the relocated farmers which can be replicated across the country. Today, the Poultry section of the Shonga Farms has witnessed tremendous investment and is one of the biggest supplier of poultry products in Nigeria today.

The Saraki government in Kwara initiated an integrated policy aimed at making Kwara State a hub for exporting agriculture produce to other parts of the world. As a move towards realising this goal, it established a cashew processing industry in partnership with a private company. The investment in the cashew processing industry attracted the Olam Cashew Processing factory which was revived with funds from Singapore.

The plant then had over 1,500 workers on its payroll and all of them were provided with free accommodation and a subsidized transport system. Kwara State under Abubakar Bukola Saraki was the first state in Nigeria to conduct a comprehensive farmers’ census. During the census, images of Farms were captured using a Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine Farm capacity and the type of support that each required. As a result, it was established that the 102, 969 Farms are supported by 524,837 family labour and 466,426 hired labour. This brings the total number of people directly involved in farming in Kwara to 1, 094, 232 about 42 percent of the population, which is significantly less than the assumed figure of 70 percent.

GOVERNANCE

It should be noted that the Saraki administration in Kwara initiated many infrastructure development projects aimed at attracting investment into the state. One emphasis of Saraki as Governor of Kwara State was using the state’s meager resources in a way that guarantees the best value for money. a)This made him to establish the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit and the Project Monitoring Unit which was the first in the country. This enabled the state government to record unprecedented project completion rate within the shortest possible time, reduce cost of governance and block leakages in government revenueb) In recognition of the transparency displayed by the administration, Kwara State under Saraki became the first Nigerian State to be assigned a credit rating agency and awarded a national long – term rating of AA by Fitch Ratings.c) The government also obtained a N20 billion development bond which was utilized in funding major infrastructure projects.

CHAIRING THE NIGERIAN GOVERNOR’S FORUM

In his second term as Governor, Saraki was unanimously elected by his colleagues across all the political parties as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) – an association of all the State Governors in Nigeria. In that capacity, he elevated the status of the NGF.His period as Chairman is easily remembered as the golden era of the NGF in the country. Acting together, governors were able to enforce the true spirit of Nigeria’s Federalism by ensuring that Federal policies reflect state interests. NGF also made several critical interventions in the affairs of the nation. The most crucial perhaps, would be in 2010 when the NGF facilitated the adoption of the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ that enabled the National Assembly to pronounce Vice President Jonathan as the Acting President, after the protracted absence of then President Umaru Yar’adua from the country as a result of ill health. This intervention by the NGF saved the country from a major constitutional crisis.DEVELOPING NIGERIA’S STATES THROUGH THE NGFHis time as Chairman of NGF saw the introduction and adoption of Peer Review Mechanisms (PRM) for states as well as knowledge and experience sharing. He also mobilised significant donor collaboration and support from several international development agencies working in the country, across governance, education, and health issues, especially on the issue of polio eradication, on which he worked closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to deliver the Immunisation Leadership Challenge, which was a radical programme designed to reward States that made significant improvements in polio and routine immunization. Bill Gates praised the initiative, stating that: “Nigeria’s leaders are critical to making Nigeria polio-free and their renewed confirmation […] will make an important difference.”Prior to this initiative there was no formal means to directly engage with the states to properly implement polio-eradication programme, and the results can be seen in the fact that Nigeria is close to being certified as a polio-free country. It is to Dr. Saraki’s credit that governors across political parties worked closely together and developed a shared vision under his leadership.

BUILDING & SUPPORTING THE COMPETITIVE SPORTING INDUSTRY

In 2010, he bought and financed Abubakar Bukola Saraki FC, making the team one of only two major teams that are not state-owned in Nigeria’s Premier League. His motivations were to empower young Nigerian footballers and build capacity within Nigerian football.

SENATOR REPRESENTING KWARA CENTRAL (2011-2019)

In his first term as Senator of the Federal Republic, Saraki was appointed the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, while also serving in the Senate Committees on Capital Markets and Finance. Saraki’s leadership of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology set the pace for international legislative cooperation and diplomacy in sharing knowledge on global environmental governance. In 2012, he was appointed into the Leadership council of the Global Alliance for Clean Cook – stoves, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation that aims to use public-private partnerships to create a thriving global market for clean cook-stoves and fuels for over 100 million people by 2020.

His appointment into the Leadership council alongside world leaders like Hillary Clinton, Mary Robinson, Mitchell Bachelet and Kofi Annan, put a spotlight on Nigeria in the global scheme of addressing desertification, deforestation, forest conservation and reduction in black carbon emission.In 2013, Senator Saraki also established GLOBE Nigeria as an affiliate of the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE International); thereby setting the legislative platform for a critical mass of Legislators that would promote and advance environment and sustainable development laws in Nigeria. He currently serves as the pioneer President of GLOBE Nigeria.As Senator, Saraki has campaigned extensively on health, food security, education and the environment. He has also campaigned for the reform of the oil industry, and has argued for the urgent need to strengthen laws relating to the clean-up of oil spills and issues of compensation to communities affected by spills. His National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency Amendment (NOSDRA) Bill sought to ensure that oil companies pay appropriate levels of compensation to communities affected by oil spills. Since 2013, he has also been active on the issue of Lead Poisoning crisis in the mining areas of Zamfara State as well on the initiative for the Great Green Wall to combat desertification and climate change.He is also a member of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves’ Leadership Council, from where he facilitated widespread access to investment and financing opportunities for Nigerian enterprises, and a National Testing Centre to advance the country’s clean cookstoves and fuel sectors.

TACKLING CORRUPTION IN THE OIL INDUSTRY

For all his legislative activities between 2011 and 2015, perhaps what Saraki would be most remembered for was his intervention on the issue of management of spiralling subsidy payments on petrol. In September 2011, he moved a motion calling on the Senate to investigate the Federal Government’s financing of fuel subsidy, which at the time had exceeded the budgeted amount by almost 100 per cent, thereby setting in motion the process that led to exposing one of the most humongous acts of political corruption in Nigerian history. Dr. Saraki uncovered an illegal fuel subsidy expenditure of $10 billion (about N2 trillion), while the National Assembly had budgeted N240bn for fuel subsidy that year. N550b was subsequently recovered from marketers.

THE SENATE PRESIDENCY YEARS (2015 – 2019)EMBARKING ON A FORMIDABLE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

On June 9, 2015, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, was elected president of the 8th Nigerian Senate. He quickly commenced work for the adoption of the Senate Legislative Agenda, which focused on three broad areas: Improving Livelihood, Improving Governance and, Improving Business.Under the Improving Business agenda, he has directed a comprehensive review of the business-related legislations in Nigeria with a view to improving Nigeria’s ease-of-doing-business ranking as well as improving the general operative environment for business in Nigeria.

As President of Senate, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to engineer bi-partisan cooperation and consensus on important issues, which led to the 8th Senate passing 319 Bills (the highest any Senate had passed is 129 bills recorded by the 5th Senate). These include: the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, Public Procurement Act (Amendment) Bill, Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, Police Reform Bill, Police Trust Fund Bill, Nigeria Railways Authority Bill, Company and Allied Matters Act, CAMA (amendment) Bill, Secured Credit Transactions Act, Whistleblowers Protection Bill, Constitution Amendment Bills, Discrimination Against Persons With Disability Bill, Electronic Transaction Bill, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, North East Development Commission (NEDC) Act, Witness Protection Programme Bill, Credit Bureau Reporting Bill, Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institution Bill and Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill, National Financial Intelligence Agency Act, Federal Audit Services Commission Bill, among others.

Over the four years that he was Senate President, the work of the Nigerian Senate under Dr. Saraki’s leadership has been commended by both international and local stakeholders.

For example, the leadership of the Nigerian Police praised the Senate for passing the Police Reform Bill and the Police Trust Fund Bill.

Following the passage of the one percent clause out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the funding of primary healthcare in the 2018 budget, the 8th Senate was commended by notable individuals like Bill Gates; Bono – the founder of the ONE Campaign; and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of World Health Organisations.

Additionally, the 8th Senate’s passage of the UBEC Act (Amendment) Bill was praised by Pakistani child education campaigner and youngest Nobel Laureate, Yousafzai Malala. Furthermore, the passage by the 8th National Assembly, and subsequent assent into law of the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets and Credit Bureau Reporting Act, has been noted as a key component that led to the World Bank rating Nigeria among the top 10 most improved economies in its 2016/17 Doing Business Report.

CHAIRMAN, PDP NATIONAL RECONCILIATION & STRATEGY COMMITTEE (2020 – TO DATE)

Dr. Saraki is the chairman of the PDP National Reconciliation and Strategy Committee (NRSC) which traversed the entire country to unite members of the leading opposition party and refocus the party.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

Saraki holds many traditional titles, including the Waziri of Ilorin, conferred on him by the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Zulu-Gambari in 2018.He was also the first serving Governor to be awarded the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 2010.Other awards he has won include: Governor of the Year by THISDAY Newspapers (2004); Africa Club Award – Harvard Business School (2005); Best Governor in Africa by the Kenneth Kaunda Foundation (2006); Award of Excellence by Nigerian Bar Association (2010); Award of Excellence by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (2010); Award of Excellence in Development of Education and Health Care Delivery in Nigeria by College of Medicine, University of Lagos (2012); Emerging Political Icon of Africa by the African Leadership Magazine (2013), among others.

PERSONAL LIFE

Dr. Saraki is married to Mrs. Toyin Ojora–Saraki, a lawyer and Founder- President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBF Africa), a pan- African maternal health and wellbeing charity. WBF Africa has become one of the most influential and active organisations in the area of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH).Together, Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Toyin Ojora-Saraki have four children and two grand children.