Bukola Saraki's Neighbors Sad Over What Is Going On In His House

                       While success has many friends, failure is always a ‘Lonely Londoner’  to echo Samuel Selvon in his novel so titled. But the sincerity of the friendship, which success attracts, is often laced with suspicion and doubts.
  It seems the story of Nigeria’s current Senate President and scion of the Saraki political dynasty, Dr. Bukola Saraki, currently serves a good illustration for this aphorism.


Since his emergence as the Senate President, his house at No.48, on the popular Lake Chad Crescent, in high-brow Maitama District, has become a scene for political pilgrimages and a haven for those seek greener pastures.

It is now a beehive of activities (with scores of politicians going in and coming out). The house can be compared to a tourist centre because of the array of people from across ethnic, religious and international boundaries. Even his friends across the globe are said to be visiting.

Ironically, only a few of the unwanted guests are allowed to see him, while many others have their missions unaccomplished. But what is their mission? Investigations reveal that many of them go there to lobby for favour of different kinds, especially now that power has changed hands.

Interestingly, residents of Lake Chad Crescent are complaining because of the unusual gridlocks that have now become their lot. To get to Saraki’s house, a visitor must have to park his or her vehicle at a very long distance, preferably at the beginning of the crescent, and embark on a long trek. Apart from the heavy vehicular traffic in the highbrow area, hawkers and other food vendors also take advantage of the situation to display their items by the roadside. The residents argue that the situation would have been avoided if Saraki had moved to his official quarters.

When our correspondent visited the house on Wednesday, an angry landlord and resident of the area, Mr. Bello Mustapha, was overheard complaining about the development. The man came to park in his compound only to discover that another vehicle had obstructed him. In anger, he parked his vehicle right behind the intruders and walked away.

“Let me see how the owner of this car will leave this place. Maybe he is going to carry the car on his head,” he muttered.

Another resident, Seyi Adebayo, told our correspondent that while the situation had become very embarrassing for some, business now booms for food vendors and other hawkers.

He said, 

“Right from the day Saraki became the Senate President, Lake Chad Crescent has turned to another Mecca with human and vehicular traffic reaching an epic height. But Saraki should not be blamed because it is the fault of the society where we find ourselves. He now has more friends than when he was Kwara State governor.”
Before now, Saraki’s house did not record much human traffic. Our correspondent learnt that the situation has been compounded by the fact that he has been running the National Assembly from his home since the N27.1bn official homes for its principal officers are still under construction.

Expectedly, the situation around Saraki’s house has been generating ripples among the intelligentsia and leading bureaucrats in Nigeria. A United States-based civil rights activist, Mr. Smart Ajaja, described the development as a nuisance. According to him, the fact that Saraki’s house has become a nuisance to his neighbours and home to a horde of professional favour-seeking sycophants and hypocrites of Nigerian democracy is a demonstration of the objectionable levels of material and mental poverty in Nigeria.