#OToGe: Oloriegbe, The Medical Doctor Who Drowned Saraki’s Political Career

When he vowed that he was going to bury Senator Bukola Saraki senatorial ambition, many waved off the idea as he had tried in times past but failed.

True to what he said Ibrahim Oloriegbe, did exactly that on Sunday when with a landslide victory, he polled 123,808 votes to defeat Saraki who had 68,994 votes, a margin of 54,814, Naija News reports.

Oloriegbe, A graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the APC candidate has been in politics for some time. He was elected a member of the Kwara house of assembly under the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in 1999. He remained the majority leader of the house until he left in 2003

Oloriegbe contested for the Senate under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011, against Saraki, then of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Saraki’s victory was believed to have been influenced by his incumbency power as the governor. He was announced to have polled a total of 78,799 votes to defeat Oloriegbe who polled 53,058 votes.

Oloriegbe emerged the APC candidate for Kwara central senatorial district after he polled a total of 12,816 votes to beat his other two rivals, Yinka Aluko who scored 9,577 votes and Musbau Esinrogunjo who scored 6,382 votes. With his emergence, he went to work with APC leaders in the state including Lai Mohammed, minister of information, to ensure that the party coasts to victory not just in the district but in the state.

WHY HE CHOSE TO RUN AGAINST SARAKI
While speaking at a press conference earlier this year, Oloriegbe gave his reason for running against Saraki as an ill representation of Kwara state at the national assembly.

According to him, “in the past 16 years, our society has been in the grip of people who do not share our common values and heritage. They are dealers whose concerns are at variance with the people’s aspirations. They are leaders with an inordinate appetite for wealth acquisition.

“They are political voyagers and power merchants. They don’t share our Islamic values and culture of leadership. Our communities and indeed, Kwara state have been poorly represented at the federal level; poor representation and advocacy have deprived us of legitimate human, fiscal, economic and developmental entitlements.”

In an interview he granted to Daily Trust, Oloriegbe spoke of how he was denied his mandate after his constituents voted “massively” for him in 2011.

According to him, “In 2011, I was the senatorial candidate of the ACN and people of Ilorin voted for me massively and I won the election; but I was not declared the winner and I went to court to challenge it because during that period, the vote from within the urban area was about 40 percent but only 20 percent were said to have turned out in rural areas which could not be justified with the reality on ground. I have always been a progressive and I have been consistent.”

‘I DON’T HAVE MONEY FOR POLITICS’

Senator-elect Oloriegbe had stated that his goodwill was powerful enough to get him to the senator position, despite the fact that he didn’t have money for politics.

He also said he had left his comfort zone to save the constituents.

His words: “This is discomfort because I worked for an international organization and I was being paid like an expatriate. I don’t have money for politics but what I have is goodwill, and goodwill is more than money. By contesting senatorial as candidate between 2011, 2015 and now, it is based on that goodwill. It is the people that believe in me that has kept me going.”

And truly, his goodwill just took him to the Senate; displacing the nation’s number three citizen.