The story of a politician is rarely told like a nursery rhyme, but Bukola Saraki’s career repeatedly sounds like one: full of squabbles, reconciliations, and lessons for the next generation. He has been Senate President, opposition strategist, and, perhaps most enduringly, a patient gardener of youthful ambition in Kwara.
In July 2025, Saraki presided over a stormy reconciliation at the PDP headquarters in Abuja. Leaders clashed over the position of national secretary. The 100th National Executive Committee meeting nearly collapsed until Saraki coaxed compromise. By nightfall, Samuel Anyanwu was affirmed, and peace was stitched back into the party’s fabric.
Saraki’s hand in that fragile truce was less about preserving titles and more about modeling a skill usually missing in Nigerian politics: negotiation with grace. For young Kwarans watching from afar, it was a practical tutorial showing that political capital is built through sacrifice, persuasion, and a stubborn belief in unity.
Beyond party politics, Saraki’s public reflections this October carried the cadence of mentorship. As Nigeria marked its 65th Independence, he urged citizens to deepen values of fairness, diligence, and respect. The man spoke of courage and integrity, but his undertone was clear: every generation must play its part in fortifying the national story.
That message resonates in Ilorin, where his foundation has long been a hub for youth empowerment. Scholarships, leadership workshops, and political apprenticeships have created pathways for young people otherwise lost in the noise of unemployment and uncertainty. It is not philanthropy alone, but an intentional seeding of a political culture that outlives him.
So when Saraki speaks of building justice and opportunity for all, Kwara youths hear something closer to home. They hear a call to enter the arena—sometimes chaotic, sometimes thrilling—where Nigeria’s next chapters will be written.
And who knows? Maybe one of them will someday tell the same story, but with a twist: that they once watched a man stitch peace together in a hall of quarrelling elders, and decided politics was worth the risk. Saraki as a practical believer in youth development, ensure that youth occupies strategic party position in the state chapter of the party and also at the local and ward level.
