Loyalty is a key ingredient in power. It is an ingredient that requires believers in a cause, institution or person to stay true to the cause at all times by thinking, talking, walking and working for the realisation and promotion of the cause, institution or person.

It is easy to remain loyal as long as there is absence of friction and clash of interests. However, situations can arise and circumstances can develop that might lead to the testing of one's loyalty at any point in time. When such occasion arises, the position one takes goes a long way in determining whether the person being tested is loyal or not. So, in the test of loyalty, one is usually torn between two extremely burdensome decisions: to remain true to one's principles and beliefs which would eventually advance the cause of the whole or to blindly follow the whole even when one knows that the road being followed could eventually plunge the whole group into perdition.

Loyalty is not to follow blindly, loyalty is to stand out and take decisions that help the whole even when it seems incorrect to others initially. With time one's position would eventually come to be appreciated. It is like that everywhere. Many leaders have been reviled and mortified even by their own people only for them to be canonised later and the cause for which they were denigrated beatified.

It is in light of this that one must commend the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki for the way he handled the recently concluded ministerial screening by the Senate. Despite the diverse powerful interests that piled pressure on him, the Senate President seemed to have applied uncommon wisdom in handling the screening to the admiration of a majority of Nigerians. Surely, it was not an easy task, nor could it have been for anybody, yet, he successfully concluded the exercise admirably.

Having emerged Senate President despite opposition from some leaders of his ruling party, and enjoying the overwhelming support of the opposition PDP senators, Saraki has since been and remained in the eye of the storm. To punish him for his "sin", he was immediately dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for various offences. His trial, no doubt, has been conducted with palpable vindictiveness, vendetta and an atmosphere devoid of judicial sanity. Although the APC continues to deny it, everyone has come to the inevitable conclusion of what everybody knows but only few are bold enough to say it: Saraki is being persecuted for emerging the Senate President. Simple!

One of the arguments against him was that he was not going to be loyal and that having emerged president of the Senate with the full support of opposition PDP Senators; he would work to frustrate the government of president Buhari and be an impediment to the implementation of the party's manifesto.

No one would blame the ruling party for entertaining such fears really. It is their right to do so, but with events of recent days, it is obvious that Saraki would not jettison the programme or manifesto of the party on whose platform he rose to the height he occupies today.