2023: Saraki presents self for PDP screeningÂ

Senator Bukola Saraki, a presidential hopeful under the auspices of the Peoples Democratic Party, has presented himself for screening to contest in 2023.

The PDP screening committee is headed by Senator David Mark, who incidentally was Saraki’s predecessor as president of the Nigerian Senate.

Saraki was also governor of Kwara state for eight years (2003-2011).

His emergence as senate president in 2015, against the party’s choice, threw up controversies that dogged his tenure.

He was also seen to be in opposition to his party and its government. Saraki would later leave the APC for the PDP.

Back in Kwara, Saraki’s political structure, which he inherited from his highly influential father, late Sen. Olusola Saraki, diminished in 2019.

The APC and its candidates, major among whom was Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasak, roundly defeated those backed by Saraki.

The O’to ge movement (it’s enough) snatched Kwara politics from the grips of the Sarakis after several decades of dominance.

Since declaring for the presidency, Senator Saraki has held several consultations with party leaders and delegates. He has floated the idea of a northern consensus candidate, which would later end in controversy.

The Northern Elders Forum, a group which Sen. Saraki was a member till his death, declared him and another presidential aspirant, Governor Bala Mohammed as northern consensus candidates.

The development was sharply rejected by Governor Aminu Tambuwal, who initially was part of the trio pushing the consensus option.

Until his foray into politics, Senator Bukola Saraki was a banker, overseeing his father’s Societe Generale Bank.

The bank went under with billions in depositors’ funds trapped

By Adeola Ademosu.