Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, ex- Senate leader has passed after a long drawn out battle with cancer is his Cameroon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, residence. He was pronounced dead at 6a.m on Wednesday.The late Saraki will be flown to Ilorin for burial, in accordance with Islamic rites.
He was until his death,Waziri of the Ilorin Emirate, a consummate politician and Senator of the Nigerian Second Republic from 1979-1983.
Chief Saraki was born on the 17th of May, 1933 at Ilorin, Kwara State, but his state of origin had become a source of controversy while he was alive. Some claim his father migrated from Ogun state.
Some sources also claim his mother was from Iseyin in Oyo State and his father was from Ilorin, adding that his paternal ancestors were Fulanis who came from Mali about 150 to 200 years earlier.
He was educated at Eko Boys High School and later attended the University of London, and St George’s Hospital Medical School, London. He worked as a medical officer at the General Hospital, Lagos and the Creek Hospital, Lagos.
He first entered politics when he ran in the 1964 parliamentary election for Ilorin as an independent candidate, but failed to win. After the election, he returned to his medical practice in Lagos, only returning to party-politics in 1978/79.
In 1977, Olusola Saraki was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly that produced the 1979 constitution. In 1979, he was elected a Senator of the Second Republic, and became Senate Leader. In 1983, Saraki was re-elected into the Senate on the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) platform.
In 1998, Olusola Saraki became a National Leader and member of the Board of Trustees of the All People’s Party (APP), contributing to the APP success in Kwara and Kogi States. He assisted Mohammed Alabi Lawal in becoming Governor of Kwara State.
In 2001, he was head of a team from the Arewa Consultative Forum, a Northern cultural and political group, sent to meet and discuss common goals with Northern state governors and other leaders.
Later Saraki switched allegiance to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and in the 2003 elections supported his son, Bukola Saraki, as candidate for governor of Kwara state in the April 2003 elections, and his daughter Gbemisola Saraki as Senator for Kwara State Central in April 2003. They both won.
In March 2003, the Societe Generale Bank (SGBN) of which Saraki was chairman was investigated by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for alleged money laundering. Later, SGBN was investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under Nuhu Ribadu, and its license was temporarily suspended.
He later had problems with Bukola who rejected the plan to make his sister succeed him as governor and as a result, he formed another political party, but Gbemi lost the election to Bukola`s preferred candidate of the PDP. They however, later made up when the former governor begged his father for forgiveness.
