By CHIDI OBINECHE

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Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki  in more ways than one is a chip off the old block. His late father, Dr Olusola Saraki, the famed strongman of Kwara politics was also the leader of the Senate in the Second Republic .He is best remembered for the intricate web of politics that fostered a lasting political dynasty from which his son, Bukola and a host of others washed up to call shots. Bukola, like the real son of his father that he is, surely, steadily, and gaudily walks in his footsteps.
They both are like dynamites, strong willed, gutty with a vision of building bridges and cementing networks of godfatherism.As in the days of Olusola, Kwara has remained in his iron clad grip. Both are medical doctors. When in 2003, Bukola emerged as the governor of Kwara State and Gbemi his sister became a senator, the late strongman declared his fulfillment in life and proclaimed his readiness to exit the world. It did not take long before his bowed out peacefully and contented.
This week, at a book launch, Bukola took the storm when he x- rayed the anti corruption battles of the present regime, tearing it apart and making some suggestions to make it more all encompassing and effective. The Senate president who has been in the grove of corruption trials at the Code of Conduct Tribunal literally took the winds off the sails of the mantra. He tore the shards of political bonding and party unison.
His comments sent shock waves on a party and government struggling to swim ashore. His words resonate with the froth of insensitive sense, a condition that shows that when people throw stones at you, you can turn them into milestones. But Bukola is nobody’s stump. He cut through the flesh of his party to emerge as Senate president in 2015 dissembling a pattern and a worked out formulae. And he has stayed put despite the unceasing arrows. From his machinations in the stunted late Musa Yar’Adua regime to his bare –faced effrontery in the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, he evinces a discernible form of survival as the ability to swim in strange water, that life is an instinct for survival, for the accumulation of forces, for power. And a nondescript patois on a wall in a Lagos street declares “Destroy what destroys you.” Therein we get the message of his outburst. In it we locate the reason behind the words of Eloheim and the Council that “even when I am triggered, I can still tell my truth.”
He was born on December 19, 1962 to the late Abubakar Olusola  and Florence Morenike Saraki.  He attended Kings College, Lagos, from 1973 to 1978, and Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, London, from 1979 to 1981 for his High School Certificate. He then studied at the London Hospital Medical College of the University of London from 1982 1987, when he obtained his MBBS (London).  He was the governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011. He was also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF. He is married to Toyin (nee Ojora) and they have four children. Saraki was made the Turaki of Fulani emirate of Ilorin. Turaki means an officer at court in Fulani or Hausa emirate palace.
He was the first serving Nigerian governor to be awarded the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 2010. Other former governors also received the award that day. In 2012, he was appointed into the leadership council of the Global Alliance for Clean Cook stoves, an initiative led by the United Nations Foundation supporting public – private partnerships to create a market for clean cook stoves and fuels. In 2013, he established Globe Nigeria as an affiliate of the Global Legislators Organization for a balanced environment (Globe International) providing a platform for legislators to advance environmental and sustainable development laws in Nigeria. He has spoken and campaigned internationally on issues such as better governance, deforestation, and economic development.